I had to pull off the road I was laughing so hard the week before last when Tom talked about his wife getting a personal letter from a salesperson at a familiar store. I’m pretty sure it was Chico’s. Two year ago I mistakenly arrived an hour early for my “Mac for Idiots” class at the Apple store, so dropped in to the Chico’s next door to kill some time. They were having a huge sale and I bought one very small item at such a drastically reduced price I was a little embarrassed. Ever since then I get calls from the store almost weekly telling me they miss me, what’s new in fashion, what’s on sale, urging me to come visit right now. I’ve never been in the store since - still a Mac idiot, but I get to me
futile classes on time!
It reminds me of the aftermath of my first online purchase. A family member asked me as a favor to order a Vic Damone CD for her on Amazon that she planned to give someone else as a gift, and she’d pay me back for it.
Months later, I was still getting regular e-mails from Amazon telling me that, based on my buying history, they had something else they just knew I’d be interested in. And what they had invariably involved Vic Damone.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Vic Damone, but trying to predict someone’s marketing preferences from one purchase is a real recipe for disaster.