Pet Peeve - receipts

The BBQ Pit
1

How many trees do we kill each year in order to create little strips of paper that are largely destined to fill up trashcans or get stuffed into wallets, never to be seen again, at least until we empty the useless contents of our wallets into said trashcan?

God, how I hate receipts. Sure, sometimes they serve a purpose, such as for a product that has a good chance of being returned or exchanged, or for a product that is likely going to be put on an expense account, or even for security purposes in a big store, to protect against shoplifting.

But when I walk into a bodega to buy a pack of gum, I’m not going to return or exchange it, I’m not going to expense the gum, and, as the cashier’s usually the only one there, I’m pretty sure the security guard isn’t going to check my receipt to ensure that I paid for the gum.

I suppose it’s conceivable that I’m going to put that Whopper and Coke on an expense account, but really, what are the odds? How 'bout we save a few thousand trees each year and only give fast food receipts to people who ask for them.

I could just leave the damn thing on the cashier’s counter, but the damage has already been done, and besides, my girlfriend has informed my that that’s “rude.”

The damn things drive me insane. If I had a penny for everytime I thought I was out of money and made a trip to an ATM, only to later find a $20 bill buried between a bunch of receipts in my wallet, I’d, er, I’d have a bunch of nickles (God, how I hate pennies).

Can we just please go to a system of asking customers whether they want a receipt, rather than just handing them out willy-nilly? I’m sure the cashiers could find time to ask, in between their employer-mandated admonitions to smile at us, inquire about our day, query whether we have that store’s credit/discount card, insist that it is in our best interests to acquire such a card, and wheedle personal information about us like our phone number and address (God, I despise nosy cashiers).

If it’s not too much to ask.

Sua

2

My favorite is Target. Now, if you buy anything that just might be a gift, or if the purchase is over a certain amount, the system seems to automatically print a gift receipt. This has happened all year, not just at Christmas, so I know it’s not the time of year.

It doesn’t seem to do any good to tell them I don’t need the gift receipt, as it gets printed anyway. Why don’t they have the cashier ask if a gift receipt is necessary, and print one only when it’s needed? I could also see maybe printing one all the time between, say, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

3

Geez, you must love Circuit City… Have you seen the size of their receipts?? It’s got to be 1 foot long! That is a waste.

4

If that isn’t bad enough, Best Buy feels that the useless receipt has to be placed in a useless envelope. And they get snitty if you tell them you don’t want an envelope.

5

You forgot the situation when you buy some item(s) that is obviously too big to get into your pocket, but, as you also carry a handbag or a rucksack or whatever, it’s obvious that your purchase is going to land there and the cashier asks you “Do you want a paper bag to carry it in?”.

6

Only a foot, Carine? You obviously haven’t been to the Wiz. Their receipts are a foot long per item, and 4 or 5 inches wide to boot. I bought three DVDs and walked out with enough paper to sustain a small bonfire.

7

My favorite are crappy fast food places that have a “If we don’t give you your receipt, the meal is free” policy. One of the places on earth where receipts are least necessary, and they insist on giving them to you. I bet even if you asked them not to, they employees would think it was a scam of some sort and still give you a receipt.

8

You see, but as a cashier you have to ask because you get tired of the lazy, wasteful pieces of shit that will spend 10 minutes screaming at you because you didn’t offer them a bag for their pack of gum. And heaven forbid you then give them one of the small bags.

So, even though I rarely get bags for much of anything beyond the weekly groceries as a consumer, have been trained by the public that I, as a cashier, have to ask everyone, no matter what they are carrying, if they want a bag. You only have to hate it once a shopping trip. I get to hate it eight hours a day, three days a week.

And don’t start me on the people who NEED me to double bag the travel size box of Q-tips they bought. Even though they are already shlepping a back pack, two tote bags, and three bags of produce from the store across the street.

9

You know, I’m always hearing about the grim, sinister future in which we will be meaningless cogs in the system, with every aspect of life completely automated, and we’ll all have to get microchips implanted into our brains that regulate and monitor even the most mundane of tasks … and I tell you, I cannot freakin’ wait, because then the clerk can simply point a “receipt gun” at my forehead, and zap a record of our Doublemint transaction directly into my own personal chip. Lowly, meaningless cog might I be, but darn it, at least I won’t have a wallet overbrimming with receipts, not to mention the receipts that colonize every pocket of every garment I own.

10

Speaking of long receipts, I work at Staples, and the rebate forms (with an extra receipt for each) print out automatically from the registers whenever you buy anything for which a rebate is offered. This way, you see, the customers don’t have to remember to actually pick up the preprinted forms the manufacturers send us, and we don’t have to worry about replacing the forms after some dumbass decides he’s going to rip each and every one of them off, tear them all into bits and leave them strewn across the floor in Aisle 3 (Shipping Supplies and Paper Storage). These forms include the standard Small Print which fills up an inch or two of the preprinted forms, but our receipt printers can’t DO small print, so you end up with at least two feet of tape with the disclaimers printed full-size on it.

It annoys the hell out of me.

And of course every single customer who gets one has to say “Golly, that’s a long receipt! Har har har har har!” That isn’t a joke, it wasn’t funny the first time, and believe me you are NOT the first person to have come up with that dull bit of witticism. It is to “funny and original” as anthracite (not to be confused with Anthracite) is to a 3-carat diamond.

Since I’m a specialist in the Copy Center, I do a lot of ringing-up for people who have just run off two copies on the self-service machines. “That’ll be 13 cents, ma’am. And here’s your receipt.” How many people comp two stinkin’ 6-cent photostats? And it’s not like they can return the paper once it’s been printed on. But there’s nothing I can do about it, because the register has to print out a receipt every single time.

11

Don’t even go here then

12

Blockbuster is a terrible offender, as well. I got FOUR receipts the other day, and not one of them even told me the return date!

13

Rats, Myrr21 took mine.
I was going to say Blockbuster. You get 3 or 4 receipts, one for the payment of the rentals, one that lists the return date, and then 2 more showing your ‘points’ in whatever stupid promotion they’re running. Quite annoying.

At least they do ask if you want a bag, which I never do.
Although I could use a bag just for the frigging receipts.

14

I appreciate always getting a receipt. I use budgeting software to manage my finances and I input every little bit of money I spend. Even 20p on gum. Really. And I do this because I am hopeless at remembering what I’ve spent on what and where my money’s going. This way I’m in complete control of my spending.

So really, all those receipts are useful. For control freaks like me.

Also, do stores in the US not have recycling bins to put your receipts in? All my local ones do. And the receipts I have at home go in the paper recycling bin that the garbage men collect every week.

15

In this case, it might be to reduce the incidence of employee theft. I don’t think they really care about giving you the receipt. They just want to make sure that the cashier properly rang up the order and didn’t pocket the money. The free meal thing is an incentive for you to contact the manager so that they can check whether the cashier was absent-minded or a thief.

16

The roomie and I have been saving our receipts, as we’re trying to split expenses as evenly as possible. Blockbuster is by far the worst offender. I’d say 15% of my receipts were from Blockbuster, and this is from a two inch thick stack of receipts.
Costco has an amazingly long receipt… oh, wait, we just spent a lot of money there… :stuck_out_tongue:

17

Here a lot of places have switched to ye-olde thermal printing for receipts, you know the old fax paper that we all stopped using because it faded so badly so quickly? Stick one of those you really want into your wallet, carry it around for a while and voila, blank.

The great disappearing text trick, now everyone can offer 5 year warranties with receipt because without stopping at a copy place on your way home that receipt will not be readable after 3 months.

Thermal paper is also not recyclable, or at least we couldn’t recycle it back in the days of thermal fax paper. Much better to just issue printed receipts when requested to save on ink toner/ribbons than subject us all to this useless trend.

18

So? Sue the bastards already!

19

Fine. For people like you, the sentence “Would you like a receipt?” (or, in your country, “Gor, luv, need th’ rekkers?” or some such incomprehensible gibberish "D) was invented.

To create the paper in the first place, a large percentage of the wood of a tree is wasted, and recycling doesn’t reuse 100% of the paper. Even with recycling, receipts are still a waste.

Sua

20

In many cases, I imagine it’s to reduce employee theft. I took accounting and management courses in college a couple of decades ago, and giving out receipts was one method of reducing “shrinkage”. Same goes for movie tickets.

In the case of fast food joints, I find a receipt helpful so that I know who to yell at…either the order taker or the food preparer. Does that receipt say “No Onions”? Then it’s the preparer’s fault.