Target has been getting to know its clients at a very intimate level- a level so personal that it’s almost an invasion of privacy.  Just outside Minneapolis, a father stormed into a Target angrily waving coupons for baby food, clothes, and cribs that were mailed to his teenage daughter. He was outraged- expressing that his daughter was in high school and that Target was practically encouraging her to get pregnant. The Target manager had no idea why the coupons had been sent and apologized profusely to the father.  

Later, the father submitted an apology to the manager after talking with his daughter.   “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of.  She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”

How did Target know this girl was pregnant before her father did – is it stalking its customers? In a way, yes.  Analyzers at the store can map out a customer’s data regarding products they purchased, and send the customers specialized ads or deals based on this data.

Every customer at Target receives a Guest ID number that holds a credit card number, email, phone number, or address. This allows them to send certain ads specific to certain customers based on what they buy at the store.

Andrew Pole, a statistics consultant at Target reasoned that there are certain products that may signify a woman is pregnant. Using the information pulled from their Guest ID accounts, coupons and ads can then be sent to these women featuring certain products that women would need at certain stages of their pregnancy.

In the young girl’s case, she had bought unscented lotion and vitamin supplements- Pole’s program made the connection that the customer was pregnant and immediately sent her coupons.  Essentially Target could figure out the fact you were pregnant, what specific products you would need, the approximate due date of your child, and in some cases the gender of your child.

‘If we send someone a catalog and say, ‘Congratulations on your first child!’ and they’ve never told us they’re pregnant, that’s going to make some people uncomfortable” says Pole, who wonders if customers would then become suspicious of the level of intimacy Target was taking with its customers.

So instead of grouping all baby products together, Target’s ad coordinator reasoned that if these products were spread out amongst other products, their customers would be less likely to realize Target was acting on intimate knowledge of its customers. So Target now places their ads for baby strollers next to lawn mowers and blenders- products that would not tip off their customers.

They figured out that if Target could capture the interests of customers (such as women of a certain age or any other specific group of people needing certain products at certain stages in their life) at an early stage, then these customers would return to Target in the future because the store is so reliable and just happened to have everything the consumer needed. They hope that if they capture the loyalty of these mothers at an early stage then Target may become the family store.

Before you turn your head in disgust and refuse to shop at Target, know that Target’s approach is not unique. Basically every store has some form of system that catalogs data regarding customers and their product choices. Most stores give their customers frequent buyer cards or rewards cards where the stores claim every time you buy something “points” are gained. However it is not the buyer gaining the points but the store- these cards are simply used to record what products certain consumer buy.

There is no real way to completely avoid being watched by these Big-Brother stores and their analysts. Every store has their own system for cataloging data – some more thorough and complex than others. Ways to avoid these monopolies include paying with cash, using a store card infrequently as possible and never giving phone numbers, email accounts, or addresses to the cashier.