On a weekly research visit to a local Wal-Mart store this past week, a small purchase produced a receipt with an interesting addition -- an opinion survey that could be performed online. Generally, these surveys are a waste from most retailers. A customer is required to fill in all kinds of personal information with the slight chance of winning a free stuffed toy while providing the retailer all kinds of marketing information that should be worth way more than a "chance" at winning something insignificant.

But Wal-Mart's was different: a chance to win a $1,000 gift card to one if its stores. Now, I'm quite sure Wal-Mart can be a little more generous that five of these cards for receiving probably millions in customer research value through survey responses, but the concept still resonates with the average Wal-Mart shopper most likely.

I found it interesting that the receipt also printed out these items to be used within the survey: Store number, ID (probably a unique customer number) and a password. The "ID" is what caught my attention. I'm left wondering if Wal-Mart is tracking purchases (down to the nth degree) with what survey results are being tallied. There's some highly valuable data to mine, my friends. After reading the company's privacy policy, I'm left no longer scratching my head.