Yes, I understand you don't want to give that information out

[Imogene]

This is aimed both at the customers who decline to give me a Zip code when the register prompts me to ask, and to corporate for making me do so:
Having your zip code will NOT allow me to:
Find you
Stalk you
Send you junk mail
Bother you in any way beyond when you're standing right in front of me buying/returning something.
No, I don't have all your information just from you sliding your credit card. See above list for why your paranoia does you no good.
I forget any information given to me usually within five seconds. It's loaded in RAM, and only RAM, and as soon as you walk away from me, the electricity is cut. Unless you make a point to become a regular, through my line, I'm not gonna remember you, much less your Zip code!

I absolutely hate it when I ask, and the only response I get is, 'No.' ... No what? No, I don't have a zip code? No, I don't understand what you just asked me for? No, I don't trust a tall-ass girl like you with that sort of information, cause now you can send me (and roughly a thousand or more other people who reside in the same damn zip code) junk mail?

Holy crap. I'm asking because (according to company line) if we get enough response from a particular zip code, and we don't have a store closer to you, hell, we might just go out of our way to build one closer to you. Convenient, no?

To the bigwigs:
WHY? Why must we cashiers ask for this information so customers can bawl us out. "I don't give out that information." Yes, great. However, I can't get you a receipt until I put in something... Yes, I've been told, we can enter 99999 for those who decline to give this info, but that's still a step out of my time, and that wasted time accumulates, particularly when we're stacked, floor to ceiling with customers, who are getting angrier and angrier, because the lines are too long.
Can we put the zip code input on the credit card machines? If the customer wants to put in their Zip, cool, if not, it shouldn't hold up the receipt.

[bainsidhe]

Heh. I understand perfectly how you feel. My former store used to do the same thing, but it was so they knew where to send advertisements. Our primary local paper didn't carry our ad for every surrounding county, but if we knew a lot of shoppers came from a particular area, we would invest in having our ad included in their newspaper. Sales ads=increased business=increased sales=increased profit. But oh the panicked looks as if I were trying to steal their firstborn.

Now that I've said all that, the Circuit City here asks for ID then enters my name and address into their computer. Why? Because I'm paying by credit card. I don't usually shop there and I didn't say anything when it happened. But if it happens again I will most likely refuse and quote something along the lines of the credit card merchant agreement (sorry Raps, I know how it bothers you). Personally, that is a little too much information and there is no reason a store should have it just because I paid with credit.

[crazylegs]

Post Codes in the UK will (in the majority of cases) identify your address down to the street, so I'm always a little edgy giving out any information about where I live to people who don't really need it. I won't be rude about it but I won't give out the info inless its really needed.

I do however empathise with you seeing as zip codes are so faceless, why get that het up about it?

[Kirachan]

yeah, i worked at a water park, and we had to ask people for zip-codes. once i asked a family, they told me and the husband asked the wife why we would need it. and the wife said "Oh! its so they can see how many times we've come!" yeah... you and everyone else in that area :P. i got lazy and started entering junk because to many people would be like "my what?" "oh my area code!" or they didn't speak English and i didn't want to go through the trouble of trying to explain what a zip code was in gestures when i just figured out how many adults and children they needed. then one day as i clocked in the machine bitched at me for not getting correct zip codes. after that i just put in the zip code for my hometown.

[Neo_Classic]

You'd think Circuit City would have learned their lesson by now. They got in major trouble with one of the four big CC companies for asking customer's their ID. The signature on the back is all the ID you need (so they say).

As for the zip code BS. HD puts them on the registers to find out where to open new stores. It's very annoying to the cashiers. Zip codes are shared by thousands of people. It's not exactly what I would call personal information.

[Gurndigarn]

I'm one of those who says no. But thanks to CS.com, I now say "no" politely. It's not that I think anyone can track me. It's not that I think the CIA will be able to aim their orbital mind-control satellite at me any better. It's because I think it's none of your company's damn business! I have no problem with non-intrusive marketing, at all. You can collect whatever information you can find without bugging me. But I have serious problems with intrusive marketing, and refuse to participate in it at all.

after that i just put in the zip code for my hometown.

Which is one of the reasons why those surveys don't work. Cashiers just put in whatever they feel like when people refuse to answer. Or people lie.

My favorite story about this... I was pulling into a parking garage when I got the eternal zip code question. As I mentioned before, I refuse to answer these questions, but I've learned to do so politely. "Just put something down", I said.

I could tell that the cashier hated asking the question as much as I hated answering it. "OK! I think you'll be from Idaho!"

Idaho is a nice state. Sorta. When my mother-in-law doesn't slow down to 45 MPH on the interstates so that she can enjoy the buttes. But if you're going all out: "Can you make me from Hawaii?"

"Sorry, I don't know any Zips for Hawaii. But I can make you Canadian, would that work?"

"Canadian? Just put down T2J 1X8! That was my in-laws postal code."

"Cool!", he said. And I drove into the parking garage, knowing that I had done my duty and had brightened someone's day.

[chops]

I have a novel solution.

Instead of saying "no," I give them the zip code of where I was born (in Connecticut) instead of the zip code of where I am now.

What I couldn't believe was when the New Hampshire liquor stores were doing that (mainly to see how much traffic they get from out of state) they actually bothered to put in the Connecticut zip that I gave them...after they saw my Vermont ID.

[Kirachan]

Which is one of the reasons why those surveys don't work. Cashiers just put in whatever they feel like when people refuse to answer. Or people lie.

originally i would just put in a one number answer so that it would obviously not be a zip-code and i wouldn't skew the results, but since i got in trouble for it i started putting real zip codes

[simplyanother]

There is also a code for people from Canada and Mexico (11111 and 22222, I think, but I don't remember which goes with which.).

We didn't used to have the never ending zip code survey. I think it started last spring/summer and never went away. We had others, that lasted TWO WEEKS...which was annoying, but bearable.

I had a customer tell me...when I asked for her zip ...something like..."No, because I don't have one! I'm from Oregon".

Yes, apparently, Oregon has no zip codes now. @@.

Any 5 digit string of numbers will do.

[smileyeagle1021]

am i the only person who actually likes giving out my zip... mainly because the stores that ask that are way to hell and gone from me and I would like them to know that people from my area are shopping and hopefully build a store closer (maybe they can take over one of the kmarts nearby after kmart finally drives themselves into the ground).

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

They are mainly used to see what people from which areas are shopping most frequently at the store, but yeah I understand the freakouts.

[rerant]

We have to ask for postal codes at my work and I hate it so much that I've taken to making them up or using my own.
One coworker had a man yell at her that she was accusing him of being a criminal by asking for his postal code, stating the store didn't trust him and was going to monitor him.

[Boozy]

I usually say "No" when asked for my postal code. I'm polite about it. Maybe saying "No" is ornery in itself, but I'm sick of every errand being turned into an ordeal.

"Do you want a points card?"
"Can I interest you in our store credit card?"
"What's your postal code?"

All questions I was asked just yesterday at the hardware store in an attempt to purchase light bulbs.

Enough, I say! I simply want to trade this money for your light bulbs! I have no interest in helping you with your marketing and/or expansion plans. You take money, I take light bulbs.

So yes, its a rather simple thing to give out a postal code, and I don't think its personal information. I just don't like to encourage this nonsense.

[aniwahya]

Heh zip codes np. Places that ask for phone numbers though never get it from me. Reason being that while there may not be a marketing use for it now, chances are info put into the system is kept in a database somewhere and may be used or a different purpose than origionally intended at some point.

It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you =p . Like the gov't trying to pass a bill allowing them to get information on who bought what books from Amazon.com in order to compile a database one specific people according to what they bought. Or how google keeps track of all your searches. Just because it starts harmless, doesn't mean some idiot isn't going to be hired who gets a "great idea" and then proceeds to abuse the info.

Even in light of that though, a zip code is not big deal. Some people just don't stop to think. If they CAN think that is. >.>

[PepperElf]

giving out the zip code never bothered me, especially if i was traveling. it's always fun to give them a zip code (an honest one) that they're not expecting.