Mammon category archive
Punk’d in the Pocketbook 0
You may have heard about the Payless Shoe chain’s “Palessi” prank, in which Payless invented a tony ersatz brand, “Paylessi,” and gulled folks with more money than sense into paying hundreds of dollars for $20 shoes.
At Psychology Today Blogs, Utpal Dholakia draws three lessons from this. Here they are; follow the link for a detailed discussion of the Paylessi prank and of each of these items.
- We should be skeptical of recommendations given by influencers and so-called experts.
- We should treat brands like wrapping paper on a Christmas present, not the present itself.
- When making a purchase decision, we should pay attention to the product features that really matter.
How Far Will Wells Fargo? 0
One more time, pretty damned far.
Goldman’s Sacks, Mnuchin Minutiae Dept. 0
Thom and David Dayen discuss the career of Treasury secretary Mnuchin, aka “The Foreclosure King,” who Dayen describes as “the fox that is guarding the hen house.”
Our New Robocalling Overlords 0
Aside:
Unlike Farron’s guest, I do not wonder how Facebook got persons’ cell phone numbers.
If someone installs the Facebook app on their “smart” phone, it will scarf up everything it finds; it’s in the terms of service that no one ever reads.
“You Are What You Eat” 0
Sadly, it seems to be difficult to know thyself.
How Far Will Wells Fargo? 0
Apparently, pretty damned far.
I used to bank at Wells-Fargo, because they gobbled up the honest bank that gobbled up the honest bank where I had an account. I must admit that I put off changing banks too long, because doing so is an annoying and laborious task, but, really, one can only take so much.
The straw that broke this camel’s back was the story about Wells employees’ creating phony accounts to meet draconian sales quotas. I remember that, when I called up the outfit that handles my pension to change my direct deposit, the fellow on the other end of the call said, “We’ve been getting lots of calls from persons who have changed from Wells-Fargo.”
I filled him in on the news. He was aghast somewhat taken aback at Wells’s conduct.
Aside:
I notice that, in the Sunday New York Times, Wells has been running full-page ads about how they have changed.
Color me skeptical.
Your Private Vehicle Isn’t–Private, That Is 0
My local rag reports that Ford is considering mining customer data for fun and profit. Here’s a bit from the article:
Data mining is a highly lucrative revenue stream.
General Motors recently tracked the habits of 90,000 drivers in Chicago and Los Angeles who agreed to have their car-radio listening habits tracked to assess the potential relationship between what they listen to and what they buy.
Ford CEO Jim Hackett provided a glimpse into what sounds like a potentially massive data mining plan. His remarks were made during a Freakonomics Radio interview for a podcast released Nov. 8.
“We have 100 million people in vehicles today that are sitting in Ford blue-oval vehicles. That’s the case for monetizing opportunity versus an upstart who maybe has, I don’t know, what, they got 120, or 200,000 vehicles in place now. And so just compare the two stacks: Which one would you like to have the data from?” Hackett said, according to the podcast transcript.