2003mar24. My habitual non-corporate grocery store has been asking people for zip codes, to determine where they should put a new store, or something like that. The guy before me in line said “53492” and the cashier said, “oh, is that the East coast?” and the guy said “no, I made it up. I just don’t like data mining.” Then the cashier noticed that the man was using a credit card.
“You know, your address is on that.”But the thing is, the cashier really doesn’t care, and most likely isn’t in a position to change the store’s policy. And really, if he had been making a cash purchase, it wasn’t “data mining” (I’m totally against this, if you haven’t figured it out already) – a zip code by itself can’t be tied to anything, unless you’re paranoid that they’re going to go through the security videotape, figure out who you are, and match your address up with this new-yet-redundant piece of information. He could have just said “yes” to the East coast query and been done with it. Then it was my turn.
“Yeah, that’s true, but I don’t want to supply any additional information, no offense.”
“Oh, none taken.”
“Zip code, please.”I kid.
“9 0 2 1 0 delta Z cranberry sloth 2 residual Ting Ting Jahe.”