The Cult of the Cool Mac: Made with 100% USDA real meat!

For a cash purchase of 1 item at Best Buy, I am now the proud owner of a 28-inch long paper-receipt. This ridiculous waste of paper is the consequence of an insidious scheme to sell my (and your) personal information under the guise of a contest and innocent marketing request.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't make a fuss over a long receipt, but multiply it by the billions of dollars of business that they do each year and we're talking about whole forests disappearing because of their marketing schemes.

New flash, people: Best Buy MAKES MONEY from your responses to these surveys. They sell both the survey results and the personal information specific to you to marketers. While their clerks are instructed to tell you that they don't share your personal information with anyone else, it's a documented lie.

Their privacy policy says in bold print that they will not sell your information to "third parties," but then it goes on to disclose that they do, in fact, share your information with many third parties. Even if you are diligent enough to opt out of their program, they will still share your information with "other Best Buy entities and subsidiaries" which each have their own privacy policies that may include selling your information to third parties. The whole thing is a con. And it's all legal. You consent to it from the moment you tell them your phone number at the register or use a credit card to buy anything from them or respond to one of these surveys.

If you aren't already boycotting Best Buy, please take a moment to tell the manager at Best Buy how much you dislike their wasting so much paper for this ugly exploitation. You can also call them at 612-291-1000, send a letter to Best Buy at 7601 Penn Ave S, Richfield, MN 55423 or e-mail them at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .