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> Struggling to understand the use case for this. The article lays out the use case for this near the beginning. Having the information laid out on the receipt

> Struggling to understand the use case for this. The article lays out the use case for this near the beginning. Having the information laid out on the receipt like this provides at a quick glance the relative cost of the items you purchased.

rchaud 7y ago
I tried to address this in my comment. The "at a glance" info works in a ideal environment where all items are accurately and uniformly classified across the database, which is far from a given. Those databases are meant to serve the goals of supply chain and finance people, and they won't agree to a change in their product coding processes so that customer receipts can now generate a bubble chart.
JohnFen 7y ago
But what's the use case for having that overview on the receipt? What would you do with it? I, too, don't really understand the purpose. It wouldn't bother me if those circles were there, but I don't know what good it would do me.
- BrandonMarc 7y ago
  We track our spending based on budget categories. Grocery stores are the toughest, as items bought there might fall into the category of "food" or "personal care" or "household items" or "pets" or other categories. Most receipts are easy - the name of the store is all we need to know what category that spending falls into. Grocery receipts we generally have to look at items and divide. This sort of information would make that a whole lot easier.
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    I'm not wondering about the usefulness of categorization (so long as the categories are standardized). I'm wondering about the usefulness of those circles. How is it useful to know what percentage of spending went in each category in a single grocery trip? You can't combine that data with the same data from other grocery trips, and the only way I can think that knowing what percentage of spending went into what category is if it's done broadly, such as for all shopping in a given week or month.

rchaud 7y ago

I tried to address this in my comment. The "at a glance" info works in a ideal environment where all items are accurately and uniformly classified across the database, which is far from a given. Those databases are meant to serve the goals of supply chain and finance people, and they won't agree to a change in their product coding processes so that customer receipts can now generate a bubble chart.

JohnFen 7y ago

But what's the use case for having that overview on the receipt? What would you do with it? I, too, don't really understand the purpose. It wouldn't bother me if those circles were there, but I don't know what good it would do me.

BrandonMarc 7y ago
We track our spending based on budget categories. Grocery stores are the toughest, as items bought there might fall into the category of "food" or "personal care" or "household items" or "pets" or other categories. Most receipts are easy - the name of the store is all we need to know what category that spending falls into. Grocery receipts we generally have to look at items and divide. This sort of information would make that a whole lot easier.
- JohnFen 7y ago
  I'm not wondering about the usefulness of categorization (so long as the categories are standardized). I'm wondering about the usefulness of those circles. How is it useful to know what percentage of spending went in each category in a single grocery trip? You can't combine that data with the same data from other grocery trips, and the only way I can think that knowing what percentage of spending went into what category is if it's done broadly, such as for all shopping in a given week or month.