Hacker News Reader

Zip codes are just weird to use for anything other than mail in general because they’re set up based off infrastructure.

CGP Grey has a great video on this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1K5oDtVAYzk

View on HN

I've noticed more and more super/hypermarkets started asking for your zip/postal code sometime during self-checkout. I'm guessing they use these as approximations about where people travel from, so they can evaluate if to open more stores closer to popular areas, or something like that. Pretty sure there is more use cases for postal codes too.

They use bulk mail to send out flyers, coupons, and can use zip codes to AB test these.

Postcodes are very useful (but not perfect) proxies for household socioeconomic status, which is useful for marketing and sales analysis.

That data linked with the payment method that the register collects pretty much gives the store exactly who you are and where you live even if you chose not to sign up to the store's loyalty program.

Wait until you find out that this is the same way phones used to work. The number was the row/colum for the operator needed to plug your line into.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com