Joanne is awesome because she has no problem admitting her mail thievery. Nothing serious, but if she gets a couple different sets of coupons, one addressed to her apartment’s former resident, she keeps them rather than give them back.

Her practice has caught Target in a game of targeted marketing favoritism, because the coupons it sent to the guy who lived there before her were far better than her own, and both packets are pictured. She writes:

Here’s a conundrum for you I’m hoping you and the readers can solve. We sometimes get the spam of former tenants in the apartment building in which we live. Sometimes it’s not so bad because I usually get two of every Bed, Bath & Beyond coupon that gets sent to me, plus I get two packets of all the coupons Target sends me.

When I opened my mailbox last week, there were two packs of Target coupons. I opened one of them to flip through the coupons. It was mostly name brand stuff, the majority of which didn’t interest me since I tend to buy store brand items. I put both packs on the dining table and ignored them until the weekend. I picked up both packs on my way out, intending to do some grocery shopping and pick up some cleaning supplies, and I notice that the packets have different coupons in them. One of them promises “over $43 in savings,” and the other one only “$20 in coupons.”

The kicker is that the pack with my name on it is the one with fewer coupons (30 vs. 37 in the other pack), fewer savings ($20), and all the name brand coupons. I rarely shop for name brand stuff, and I’ve only ever bought generic cleaning products, toilet paper, etc. from Target.

The other pack (and the address does have my apartment number on it, so it’s not as if the mail delivery person mistakenly put the pack in my box) has coupons that say stuff like “75 cents off any brand cleaning product” and “50 cents off any brand cereal.” Not only is this guy who lived here before me getting better coupons because you can use them on any brand, even the Target store ones, there are more of them!

What kind of marketing shenanigans is this? One packet has $43 in savings, but you can buy whatever brand you want? Whereas the packet that has just my name on it is only $20 and I have to buy Hefty brand trash bags?

Please help me understand this! I appreciate getting two packs of coupons, though. I just think it’s weird.

I’ve attached photos. Sorry, they’re not the best quality since I took them with my Macbook camera.

I await your response. In the meantime, I’m going to my happy place, called Target.

The tip here is to follow brand-obsessed over-spenders when apartment hunting.

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