I purchased two items at CVS today. You’ll see the receipt in the photo above.
Many, many years ago I wrote point of sale programs. At the time, when popping out a receipt, one of the goals was to conserve paper, as there was a time expense involved with changing receipt tape and there was also the expense of the actual paper. Programming guidance manuals advised, “print the header of the next customer’s receipt during the current transaction. This will eject receipt paper without using up blank space.”
Today’s modern point of sale programs spit out feet of paper for marketing purposes. I’ve turned off the “print my receipt” options in the app. I’ve modified my preferences on the marketing website, but here we are, still receiving over a yard of paper for the purchase of two items.
Is our technology really evolving in the proper direction?
Next time I go to our local CVS I’m going to shop anonymously to see how long the receipt is.
