demographics

Went to Tsutaya (Americans, think Blockbuster) to rent some DVDs, specfically, Clerks. I knew what I wanted to rent, the problem is Tsutaya is organized into sections like "Actors", "Actresses", "Human Drama", "Still Popular", and New Releases". I wanted Clerks. Is that still popular? Who's in it...that guy, Kevin-something, Silent Bob of Jay And fame...so I ask at the counter, but don't notice that I've asked the dude with the "In Training" badge. So eager to be helpful, he doesn't close his register as he searches on the computer for Clarks? Cloaks? Clerks? Finally he finds it, and we go over to the "Comedy/Life" section and...can't find it. I wander about looking at Japanese Yakuza movies, and finally he comes back with the tape. Lovely, how about the DVD? So back to the computer and yes, they have 2 DVDs, neither of which are rented. Problem is, where are they? Listed under Kevin Smith? Nope. Human Comedy? Nope. Young Life/Comedy? Nope...finally we find them under the "Hot Writers/Directors Older Works" section.
So I give him my membership, my third, because I have to sign up for a new one every year. Which means I get a brand new membership ID, and fill out all the information from scratch, again. I wonder, why don't they just keep using my first id number? That way they can build up a nice big, juicy file of my rental habits and profile me to perfection?
As I'm showing Hiroko the DVDs and spouting off about the above two points, she answers them:
1) They don't arrange DVDs and videos in order by title because in Japan often the titles are slightly different or even totally changed, and people tend to say "That one with Kevin Smith, the old one, about the dude working at the convenience store" instead of "Clerks". Besides which, the more time you spend wandering looking for your movie, the more likely you are to go "Oh Kevin Smith was also in..." and end up discovering more movies to rent.
2) Tsutaya might not know my personal total rental history, but they have the trend data for my demographic, and that's who they market to: 30 year old males who rented Clerks and live in Minami Azabu. Amazon needs to know me personally to give me my recommendations, but Tsutaya just needs to know the general trends of my demographic to push specials and move merchandise. Very "Japanese" if I may say so, in that the individual information is less important than the general trends and patterns of the larger group.
Damn, but Hiroko is a smart girl.