Have you, or anyone you know, ever won a prize for taking a survey in a receipt?

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Chefguy

It’s generally just an information gathering device. At the RV dealership I worked at, we used to have customers fill out a “Golden Ticket” for a chance to win a recliner camp chair. It was totally, cynically bullshit, without even a pretense of actually having a drawing for the chair. It was purely for the purpose of getting contact information for potential sales.

That’s the old use of such things - come enter our contest, drop your business card for a free lunch, etc. I still see completely naked examples on business counters - Enter Here to Win a Vacation! sort of things. I suppose it works well enough for the industries that depend on endless fresh leads.

Store surveys work on a different level and to a different end. By and large, they already have your customer information. They’re gathering data for marketing analysis, much of it far more subtle than your 1-5 ranking of how nice the shelves were arranged.

Never participate in such things. Actively oppose them if you have the spine. They are never, ever for the benefit of the consumer, not even the rare one who wins something.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

Oh, and ditto, if not double-ditto, for signing up for “emailed receipts.” Duh.

[Fool_in_the_Rain]

@snowthx

I have not, and have not known anyone to ever win something that way. I have gotten a thank you coupon here or there, however (I do not consider that a “prize”).

My understanding is that these schemes are created to harvest your contact information - name, email, phone #, etc. - so that info can be used to contact you with “special offers”, or sold to someone else for the same purposes. For that reaon, I never play.

I haven’t met anyone, and I agree that this is just feeding the junk mailers/spammers with current info.

I don’t bother with them.

[DummyGladHands]

Hate them a lot. But here’s the thing. If you shop regularly somewhere and have somewhat gotten to know the cashiers etc., they will urge you to do the survey because they get points and bennies and whatever when their customers do so.

Now that just makes me madder about the whole thing. These are people working a pretty crappy job for probably not much money and you chat with them when you’re there and they point out that your pkg. of hamburger has a small hole in it and can they send someone to get you another etc. and you’d like to reward them for a good job and now you feel like a shit because they need 25 people to do their fucking survey or they won’t get that $10 bonus.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@DummyGladHands

Hate them a lot. But here’s the thing. If you shop regularly somewhere and have somewhat gotten to know the cashiers etc., they will urge you to do the survey because they get points and bennies and whatever when their customers do so.

Now that just makes me madder about the whole thing.

Yep, they are using social pressure and the forces of polite behavior to drive their little scam. You can be nice, participate, reward that nice cashier the the great… eyes, and feed their invasive marketing program, or you can be a mean bastard all around, make the pretty girl cry and ignore the survey.

Which is why I suggest tearing it off your receipt and giving it to the store manager; if there’s a cashier rating involved, tell him or her you give that one a 5 or a 10 or whatever but you don’t participate in data-mining.

When they say you can’t do that and little Cindy won’t get her points, tell him/her you give the store a zero for the practice, and them a zero for trying to offload their job on the customers.