Life Without Receipts
Sarah Elizabeth Foster | Monday, January 25, 2010 at 2:00AM Have you been wondering lately, as I have, why we are still getting receipts for everything we purchase? When I go to my corner store for some milk, do I really need a receipt, or to my local bakery for a loaf of bread, another one, then to my cheese shop, one block down, another one? Enough! (Or in Italian, Basta!)
I have the same dread buying things recently as I do trying clothes on in the winter. When I stuff that receipt in my purse, how many weeks will it stay there? When I strip off five layers of winter clothing and tug off my boots, how upset will I be when that dress doesn't look good? Suddenly the opportunity to go home with something I want just doesn't seem worth it.
And another thing, why are they so long? Receipts are way too long! There seems to be a lot of wasted paper involved in many of them.
The sad thing too is that when you say you don't need your receipt, you get to watch the clerk throw it in the trash. This is what leads me to keep my receipts so at least I can recycle them. And asking them not to print one doesn't seem to be an option either, I asked the clerk at CVS if she knew how to not print a receipt and she said no.
The only company that does anything innovative in their shops is Apple, they always ask me if I want my receipt emailed to me and I always smile and say, yes! Oh, and I should mention that ATMs (Cash Points to our UK readers) are now asking if you want a receipt or not, how terribly polite...finally!
But truthfully, I don't think getting emailed receipts is the solution. Most of us don't want to give out our email addresses to all the shops we visit, and we don't want our email inbox filled with these receipts as messages. The IRS accepts scanned receipts, so what if we all carried around a USB key on our key ring and downloaded a PDF receipt each place we went? It wouldn't take more than a couple of seconds and the keys could be free from personal data, so our identity would be safe. And on top of that, it could be optional so that you don't have to download your receipt at all if you don't want to.
Obviously, stores would have to adopt this system and get their equipment fitted to accept the USB keys, but we could put social pressures on them to do this. Everyone wants to appear eco-friendly nowadays, don't they? And if someone still wanted a paper copy, they could get that too.
I'm really interested to know what our readers think about this issue, how do you feel about receipts? Do you think this is going to be the "cloth grocery bag" issue of 2010? Do you have any tips for avoiding those little slips of paper? Or better yet, do you have a solid system for receipts, like a spot in your wallet and a weekly session with your shredder? Let me know.
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Reader Comments (3)
I too am constantly recycling receipts. There must be a better way!!
I, too, find receipts to be a messy pain, but don't know what to do about them. Generally, I recycle them, but then there is that rare occurrence that I actually need to return/exchange something. I like the USB option, or perhaps an iPhone ap? They have that tap pass thing on credit card terminals--maybe we could just tap our smartphone on a similar technology and then store the information?
Very interesting proposition Sarah ... I think almost all of my purses have at least 1 old receipt crumpled up inside. I try to keep them together in a section of my wallet for a few weeks until I'm sure I don't need them and then I recycle. Stores like Anthropologie have a special card (it looks just like a credit card) that keeps track of all your purchases. In the event you need to return something and don't have a receipt you can just give them your card instead. I think they still print out receipts though. This kind of practice could be a precursor to the USB idea or even pave the way for something else.