Scholar's Choice - Permission Marketing

I am a strong believer in Permission Marketing and the practice of having email recipients opt-in to your distribution lists. So I am always impressed when I find those practices working. I had been receiving emails the whole month of December from Scholar's Choice an educational toy and supply store at least twice a week it seemed like. They let me know of upcoming discounts and special evenings where I could save even more on products such as Playmobil and puzzles. Often I would just delete them as I wasn't interested that week and sometimes it felt like the frequency of the emails was a little strong; although forgivable seeing as it was December and Christmas was right around the corner.

This leads me to today as it is Boxing Day in Canada; the day that all our retail stores offer amazing discounts on their products very much like Black Friday in the United States. I woke up and chatted with my wife a little bit about if we were going to brave the stores and get some deals. I turned to her and said "Let me go see if I got an email from Scholar's Choice yet." Sure enough there it was. They had met my expectations and delivered the relevant information that opted in for.

That right there is an email marketer's dream!!! We want our recipients to value the information we are sending out, for it to have value and meaning in their busy day with something they can act on. Kudos to the Scholar’s Choice marketing team!! The only thing I can think to suggest to them would be to possible segment their lists and messages based on how people shop with their business; online versus brick-and-mortar. If I am known only to shop in-store, then an email about an online deal isn't as relevant to me and the same would be true vise-versa.

What emails do you look forward to recieving and their absence you would notice? 

Could I go vegan?

I find myself suddenly rethinking the meal choices I make for myself and especially for my family. Lately I've been more willing to spend an extra $1 or so at the grocery store to buy meat that is free of antibiotics and hormones, but is it enough?

Last night my wife and I watched a video on the NutritionFact.org website called "Rooting the leading causes of death" and it was pretty eye opening as well as humorous. Here is the link:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/uprooting-the-leading-causes-of-death/

It got us thinking we should consider a plant-based diet. But how easy will it be for someone who has grown up on meat as a part of their diet all their life. Part of the problem is that we have also grown up with the idea or lies that it must be part of a complete diet. It is hard to know what to believe so we want to ere on the side of caution. But first I think we need to completely understand what this decision means.

Obviously we will be eating less meat at home. But what about when we are out and about, how easy will it be to find restaurants. (Especially since myself and youngest daughter are picky eaters as it is.) Another concern is when eating at a family members home, or them eating at our place. Will we constantly have to justify this life choice? And how much do we influence this on the kids. (I am not even sure if 'influence' is the best word to use.)

Needless to say this will be an interesting journey and I can't promise how far we will make it down. But our health and the health of our kids is worth the fight.