Zachy's pulls a Facebook

While browsing on Zachy’s website last night, I was dumbfounded to see pop-ups touting other customers’ purchases by name and town.

Can you believe it, after the shit storm in recent months about Facebook revealing user data?

If it’s “John in New York City bought…” it doesn’t give away much, but in one case it was a very unusual first name in a small suburban town. How would you feel if you were, say, Laticia in Hartsdale and your case of Rombauer chardonnay was advertised to the world?

And just imagine how difficult it would make it to corner the market in a wine if a pop-up said something like “Charles in Pasadena just bought eight cases of Ogier Cote Rotie”?

This is mind-blowingly stupid, obnoxious and disrespectful. (I’ve blacked out the names on the screen grabs.)

Those pop-ups are computer generated with fake names and cities in order to create urgency on sales.

Thank goodness you blacked out the names. john in New York is thanking you for not giving him up.

Hmm, isn’t that criminal?

Violates Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Perhaps NYC allows such things.

Go to Woot or other such sites and you’ll see it. You can log in at 3 in the morning and business is booming. I was on an auto parts site one evening and you should have seen all the activity from from the East and Midwest at 2 and 3am their time.

That would make it marginally less stupid, but when the AG, the state liquor authorities or the county consumer affairs people show up, the store would find itself saying, “It’s not a privacy violation, it’s just false advertising.” A wonderful defense!

First time that’s ever happened on the internet.

Derek, formerly at Rochambeau Wines, has been consulting to Zachys.

I doubt this would violate anything as there are no privacy laws for the Internet AT ALL.

this thread is a great example of how people will really believe very very stupid things if they see it online.

It’s fairly testable, you just need to buy something from Zachy’s.

I was on an auto parts site one evening and you should have seen all the activity from from the East and Midwest at 2 and 3am their time.

Hey, you’re outta beer, got that 73 Ranchero out back that needs new headers, and you’re on the internet . . .

Victor, can you please clarify this? Which Derek are you referring to?

They could display real purchases, but use a fake names for privacy purposes. Not deceptive, not creepy!

Real or fake (and I guess it’s the latter), either way it doesn’t sit well with me.

I clearly am going to need a third party to begin buying my wine from zachys.

Maybe I’m missing the nuance that causes this to be an issue. Odds are they aren’t real but even if so, what’s the big deal?. Gives a first name, doesn’t list quantities bought, doesn’t give email address or physical address.

Wine clearly pairs with sheep.

Some changes are coming to Zachy’s retail soon which I believe will lead to improvements for the consumer. Stay tuned.

Victor, asking again, which Derek are you alluding to in your post above?

The fake person in Jay Hack’s famous Rochambeau thread. Apologies if I recalled the wrong name.