An epistolary romance

Dear Sir or Madam:
You may love to see me smile, but I, however, love to see me eat.
Please send me coupons for free McDonald’s product, so that I may
continue to eat (and smile).
Thank you well in advance,

Tom Locke, eating enthusiast

CVS got this:

Dear Sir or Madam:
I am a health and wellness addict. Please send me a random product
which you think I would enjoy. It doesn’t have to be something big,
just something nice! I like surprises.
Thank you in advance,

Tom Locke, health enthusiast

What would happen if you sent one hundred letters like that to the leading consumer product corporations in the United States?  Read here.  You also could call this post "How to spend $39," "How to measure industrial concentration," "How to find corporate addresses," "Experimental economics, for real," or (how many of you get this one?) "Hoping for a durable goods monopolist."

Here is part (but not all) of the upshot:

Wrigley’s (#6) basically told me to buy my own gum – as well as exactly where to buy it.
I guess they figured since they’re nice enough to keep making it, I should be nice enough to keep
buying it.  And I probably will.  It’s interesting to note that Wrigley’s letter starts out,
"Thank you for visiting Wrigley.com".  I didn’t visit Wrigley.com.  I visited the post office.

Smuckers
(#40) basically just said no. Nothing fancy or elaborate. Just no. And
a cute little Smuckers logo on their letterhead to top it off. Well…
the joke’s on Smuckers. I plan to run that letter through my juicer
and make my own jellies and jams. Boom!

Thanks to Cynical-C blog for the pointer.

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