Who doesn’t love freebies? Much like presents, isn’t it awesome if one day someone gave you something out of the blue that you might like? That sounds good on paper, but when companies such as Amazon are doing it, it can start to feel a bit creepy, especially since this is based on information like your past purchases.In case you didn’t know, Amazon had previously run a program where they would send out free samples to customers based on their past purchases. These are samples that Amazon thinks customers might be interested in buying and uses machine learning to discern what it thinks customers want.
Now, we say that Amazon “had” run a program because it looks like the company has decided to shut it down. We’re not sure why they have decided to end the program, but a statement made to CNBC, a spokesperson was quoted as saying, “Amazon is constantly testing and launching new offerings to innovate on behalf of customers. At this time, we have decided to discontinue the sampling program in 2020.”
In a way, we’re sure that some people are happy that the program is shutting down because it can feel a little creepy. Like we said, freebies are always good, but we’re not sure if we’re too comfortable being sent samples that a computer thinks we might be interested in buying in the future.