One of the cool theories behind excessive use of technology is that it should reduce the amount of paper we use. Hasn’t that always been a mantra, to try to go as paperless as possible?
I just stood in line at the post office awaiting my turn. The customer in front of me had a parcel waiting. The clerk scanned it and the parcel came up COD. Theoretically, there was money due. The customer should not have been given the parcel until he paid for the contents.
The concept of COD still being around is quite humorous to me. I haven’t bought anything COD in a couple of decades. The last time we had any sort of postage due was when an overzealous couple didn’t put enough postage on their wedding invitations and we had to pay for the privilege to RSVP, but even that was eons ago.
The clerk scanned the package numerous times and the computer insisted that it was COD. There was some drama about trying to get out of the proper screens and the like but the clerk didn’t believe the computer because there was no COD paperwork attached to the package. So she just gave the guy the package.
This is the same postal service that just eliminated the priority mail confirmation form to go as paper free as possible.
So after the guy got the free COD package it was my turn. I had one envelope to send with confirmation. The clerk put a little sticker on my envelope. I paid in cash and then the same postal service that is trying to go paper free spewed this monstrosity of a receipt at me.
This is your government efficiency at its best.
I absolutely despise ginormous paper receipts. Dollar General, Lowe’s, Walmart, and just about every other place I shop at seems to have these excessively long receipts, often with other coupons and stuff printed out on them.
I keep hoping more retailers will embrace just emailing or even “bumping” me a digital copy of my receipt instead. But alas….
This is where technology has beat common sense. Because the new thermal receipt printers can spit out a receipt so fast, retailers think nothing of including as much information as possible on a receipt. Back in my day, the receipt was printed by a dot-matrix printer and as programmers we were instructed to use as little receipt paper as possible. The printer was busy printing out the header of the next customer’s receipt just to get the paper to where it could be torn off! Those were the days.
And the receipts didn’t go all black when you left them on your dashboard….