Two Minutes Hate

Long Receipts

I hate all the information that stores put on receipts these days...well not even information, advertising and self promotion. It is just such a waste of paper and space if I want to actually keep it for returns.

Last week I went to the store to buy one single item - Trivial Pursuit 25th Anniversary Edition (number 44 or 45 I think in my collection of Trivial Pursuit games). One item - I am expecting a receipt that has the store's name, address and slogan, the time and date, the item, total and then a bar code...should be around 2-3 inches total. I was surprised when it kept printing and printing and printing. The receipt ended up being nearly 20 inches long - for one item.

Let's go through it, shall we?

• Store Name and Address - Good.
• On-Line Guest Survey Invitation - OK, I guess.
• Rules for Guest Survey - Bad, why isn't this on-line, way too much detail for the receipt, 20+ lines of crap.
• Survey Code - bad - its the same as the receipt code, I really don't need it printed again.
• Store Name and Address (Again) - Bad, I see it at the top.
• General Return Policies - Bad, these are already printed on the back of all receipts.
• Check out our Web Page for coupons - OK, nice and short at least.
• Store #, Register#, Transaction, Time, Date - Good, this stuff is necessary.
• Sale Item - Good, but seriously the description says "Games", of all the places that I could use a better description, I think it would be here.
• Coupon Discount - OK, but why it takes five lines to say that I used a 20% off coupon I don't know.
• Subtotal - Good, necessary.
• Discount (coupons) total -Bad, this is just listed a couple lines up.
• Sales Tax - Good, but again three lines?
• Total Tax - bad, didn't we just go through that?
• Total - Good, necessary.
• My Discount Savings - bad, what? hasn't this already been gone over twice.
• Cash & Change Given - Good, necessary.
• Items Sold - OK, but not really necessary.
• Items Returned - OK, but only if I returned something (I didn't).
• Sales Associate Name - OK, even though I could read her name tag just fine
• You Saved $xxxx - Bad, this is a bullshit number that really doesn't mean any.thing. I don't care how much I saved over an artificially inflated "their price" - no one sells it for that price, it means nothing.
• Thanks for Shopping - OK, nice to end of a polite note.
• Check out our Web Page for coupons (again) - bad, I thought we were done, plus this is above...and the checker gave me a handful of coupons anyways, I don't really need more.
• Store Name and Address (and again) - Bad, yes I see it the other two times, I really don't need it a third.
• Bar Code - Good, necessary.

The good stuff that is needed literally takes up a tenth of the receipt. All this extra crap, just makes it a confusing receipt to read. It would be much better if it didn't have most this on it. Seriously people, this just reminds me of legalese where everything is written out so stupidly ("the aforementioned party, hereby and forthwith") that it takes 5 pages to say something that should take a couple sentences at most.

End Hate