I've got to comment on this topic since I worked there as a part-time sales clerk in the 70's and the 90's.
Back in the 70's the name/address thing made some sense, receipts were still hand-written and you could handle the small stuff as cash. They used the info for direct mailing of course, and I guess it was somebody's bright idea for targeting. It became a focal point of performance, since it helped the higher-ups, it was a major job performance metric.
When they put in the computers it got much worse. Every transaction had to be rung up, and putting CASH in the N/A box was good for about maybe two tickets a day. They would threaten to fire you if you didn't keep your name/addy up in the 90% range. You don't know how many people quit over that, and many times you'd just make up a name rather than piss somebody off... but they got wise to that too. I know of no other store that has ever had a corporate policy so obnoxious to their customers. It just made me cringe to sell anything... by the time I worked there in the 90's it was a blessing to get the rare person who wasn't at least a little aggravated about it, and I had several people blow up right in front of me.
I don't think they gave it up until mailing costs went too high, but it has scarred their corporate image forever.
It really should be taught in business school as a "how not to build a loyal customer base" case scenario.