Do people shop at the same time every week? Maybe Sainsbury's know that many of us do. (Certainly they must have an electronic record of my erratic panic-buying.) Whatever... I'm intrigued by their latest scheme to replace plastic bags with little leaflets offering a free weekly text reminder prior to your normal shopping time. I've tried this and it works - at least to the extent that you get a text message imploring you to bring in your old bag (personally, I prefer to shop alone). Obviously the flaw in the hypothesis centres on my opening question: do people shop at the same time? Do they even shop on the same day?
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Playing... erm... Devil's Advocate, I'm tempted to wonder whether this is just a vaguely plausible excuse by which to build up a handy database for mobile marketing. How long will it be before the text messages start to include special offers? Actually - I don't think I'd object... although you'd think they'd want to link up with my Nectar card number, so they know what I do and don't buy. Maybe I'm jumping the gun? Still - it will be an interesting one to watch. In the meantime I've set my reminder so it coincides with when I need to put out the wheelie bin each week, so that could prove very handy.
