You're one of those guys that goes and stomps up and down on the Netflix board at Yahoo too, aren't you? Why go and piss in the neighbor's flowerbed? Let things take their course. You don't have to be an tagonist. Sounds like you have too much time on your hands.
(EDIT) Terrible idea taken out. John, IMO you may be right. The brochure or whatever in each of the 17 stores will have unique sign up codes to get credit to that store and for tracking. Then, there will probably be another code on the web-site itself.