Retail

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Is a 15% Discount Worth the Loss of Your Privacy?

X-10, a seller of electronic gizmos, offers customers a 15% discount if you “like” them on Facebook.

Once you click the “like” button, a pop-up is revealed indicating what X-10 wants in return for giving you a 15% discount:

*MOUSE PRINT:

So, if you click “allow”, you are agreeing to give them your name, username, picture, list of friends, access to all your profile information, along with permission to write on your Facebook wall, send you junk mail, and review your data even when you are not online.

Seems like a pretty serious invasion of privacy for a lousy 15% off. I say, no deal.

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What Were These Advertisers Thinking?

Sometimes you look at a retail ad and just have to shake your head and say “huh” because the claim is ridiculous.

Example 1:

Following up on last week’s story where Dove for Men deodorant claimed to provide 48 hour protection, not to be outdone, Mitchum claims to pack that 48 hour punch into one day!

*MOUSE PRINT:

Example 2:

Sale price advertising is a huge lure for most people because few can resist a great bargain (except for ones like this).

Example 3:

The ultimate bargain is a free offer. Here, Office Depot is promising two free movie tickets for the low, low price of…

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Staples Raises Free Delivery Threshold to $75

NOTE: This is a special edition of Mouse Print* in addition to this week’s regular feature.

All the office superstores have always offered free shipping on orders over $50. Now Staples is breaking ranks and quietly raising that minimum to orders over $75.

*MOUSE PRINT

A spokesperson for the company explained why this happened:

Our primary focus is to serve our small business customers. In the interests of serving our customers with fast delivery and running our business cost effectively, Staples.com changed the minimum order amount for free delivery from $50 to $75 on April 30. We believe this change will have little impact to customers’ overall experience given that the vast majority of our small business customers generally place orders for at least $75.

For what it’s worth, the other two office supply superstores, Office Max and Office Depot, still offer free delivery on orders of $50 or more. The question is, for how long?