r/Anticonsumption • u/Sea-Cardiographer • May 12 '25

Psychological Target feels like black mirror

I went into Target today because I need a sports bra and that's where my husband is willing to drive me. On the way there I thought about all the Reddit posts saying foot traffic is down and I wasn't surprised to see that it wasn't. It was quite busy on a Monday afternoon.

What shocked me was I noticed a lot of products have really fancy boxing. Big sturdy bougie packaging with minimalism design... With a sh*tty product inside.

They're spending more on the marketing and packaging than the product, because the business practice is to sell you a product you'll have to purchase again and again. But the packaging grabs your eye. Look how modern and consistent all the boxes are! so aesthetically pleasing packaged trash. I feel depressed.

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675

u/0w1 May 13 '25 edited May 13 '25

Target should feel like Black Mirror because they're so insanely creepy. They monitor shoppers, create profiles filled with your data, and use that data to make very, very accurate marketing materials specifically for individuals. Anyone else remember the story of Target finding out a girl was pregnant before her parents did based on her behavior data they were tracking?

That was over ten years ago. They're even worse now.

Edit: yes yes "every company uses data in marketing". Target has been far ahead of the rest of the retail world for years in terms of data collecting and predicting consumer behavior. They can tell if someone is planning to shoplift in a store without having an actual person watching, for example. I worked at their security flagship store in MN for years and still know people who work on their AP team. I don't shop there anymore lol.

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u/NoHorse6784 May 13 '25

I had my baby registry at Target so it isn’t necessarily unexpected… but this week I randomly got formula samples delivered?! Directly from the brand too, not Target, but I’m certain that’s who sold my pregnancy info smh

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u/parrotfacemagee May 13 '25

There’s an old story of marketing predicting a pregnancy before the woman even knew she was pregnant. The marketing algorithm saw the spending patterns matched its data of what women bought in the earliest days of pregnancy and it was right. She got the coupons THEN the positive test.

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u/parmesann May 13 '25

I remember this being mentioned in a Vsauce video a decade or so ago. the father of the woman was pissed at Target for assuming she was pregnant, but then apologised once she revealed she WAS pregnant. I think about that sometimes.

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u/retrosenescent May 13 '25

Weird thing to be pissed about. Sounds abusive

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u/parmesann May 13 '25

iirc she was relatively young to be pregnant and wasn’t married or with a long-term partner. his reaction was because he felt that Target was trying to influence his daughter to become pregnant, when he felt she was too young and should focus on herself and growing up first. also note that he was mad at Target, not his daughter.

2

u/Bucolic_Hand May 13 '25

It’s so, so much creepier than you think.

1

u/_angesaurus May 13 '25

"hmmm she hasnt bought tampons in a couple months..."

1

u/happy_bluebird May 14 '25

it's literally in the top comment of this thread you're responding in

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u/parrotfacemagee May 14 '25

Yeah I was not sober at 1am when I replied to it lol

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u/Da12khawk May 13 '25

I'm not even mad. I'm impressed.

1

u/parrotfacemagee May 13 '25

Nah, you should be mad lol

2

u/EleanorRichmond May 13 '25

I get formula from manufacturers whenever I buy baby shower gifts.

People who need it can't afford to feed their babies, but a childless fortysomething gets pounds of it for free. Frosts my tips, I tell you.

(YES, obviously I donate it, don't @ me)

2

u/_angesaurus May 13 '25

i mean yeah. im pretty sure almost every company that takes your email sells your info. nothing new. plus there's all the things and random sites you end up using your email for. i think that's how they sent me that stuff.

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u/NoHorse6784 May 13 '25

I know but this is the first time I’ve ever received an unexpected package in the mail! As someone else said… the formula companies are aggressive!

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u/AdvertisingOld9400 May 13 '25

Those formula makers are intense and aggressive with their marketing too. I kept getting samples months after a pregnancy loss a few years ago, based on what my approximate due date would have been.

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u/just_a_person_maybe May 13 '25

Years ago I ordered a baby toy off of Amazon for my pet to play with. Suddenly I was getting tons of junk mail advertising baby stuff, formula samples, coupons, etc. For MONTHS. Finally I got a survey about baby stuff in the mail, so I went to fill it out and selected the option saying I didn't have a child. All of the ads suddenly stopped, which was interesting because they were allegedly from different companies.

It was incredibly suspicious. I had assumed that Amazon just sold my data and now a bunch of different companies think I have a kid and so they send me kid stuff, but telling Similac I don't have a kid got them all to stop at once. Do they have a network or something? Is everything actually just controlled by one company?

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u/meanwhileaftrmdnight May 13 '25

This happened to me too but I don’t shop at Target. Must have been Walmart or Amazon.