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Postcode outrage
Sunday May 7, 2006
I went to buy Josh some beach shoes today, in preparation for our holiday, and had a little insight into how easily people will give away quite personal information.
The woman at the till was starting each transaction with, what I felt, was quite an intrusive question. That being, “Can I have your postcode please?” Actually, I am not sure the question mark is entirely appropriate, she was doing it in a way that almost made it sound like an essential part of the transaction. And people were just handing it over, without asking why!
Two things to consider. Firstly I live in a field with no neighbours, so you have my postcode and Google maps and you can identify my house. This might not be true of all postcodes where it can identify a number of houses. But still, a postcode and details of a transaction is enough for some quite well targeted marketing I am sure. Secondly we have caffeinated coffee at the moment (I normally drink decaffeinated), so I am feeling a little, shall we say, perky.
I think I must have been the first person ever to have asked why they wanted my postcode before I could pay for an £8 pair of children’s shoes because the answer was clearly not rehearsed. She stammered her way through something about identifying the location of customers, at which point I had to interrupt and ask if it was so that they could send me loads of junk mail at a later date? Though I am not sure the question mark is entirely appropriate. She was quite defensive with her “no!” but offered no further explanation that satisfied my caffeinated mood and I could see she was not loving me longtime.
So, in the end I growled that I would not allow my postcode to be put into their database, thank you very much! Ooooo, I caused quite a stir I did. I could even hear little questioning murmurs in the queue behind me. I should have hung back to see if anyone else asked why.
