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Why are CVS receipts so long? (2018)
- weiming 7y agoAnything with toxic thermal paper immediately goes to the trash if I can help it. Other than arguably being bad for the environment (so much paper wasted) they can also be harmful to you simply from touch. E.g. "A significant increase in urinary total BPA concentration was observed for cashiers handling daily thermal paper receipts. " [1][2] [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927604/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927604/ [2] https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/03/the-health-risk-of-bpa-in-receipts/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/03/the-health-...
- hunter2_ 7y agoDoes BPA exposure increase proportionally with receipt length? It would be interesting to, say, ink up your fingertips and then compare the area of ink transferred to different length receipts after handling them in a typical "toss into bag/pocket, skim when you get home, toss into trash" procedure.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- 14 7y agoI can’t stand when I go to Mcdonals and ask to hold the pickle. They print a grill order receipt and tape it to the burger. It is a little receipt that states no pickle. All I can think when I see them is their ink is rubbing off on my fries.
- ajxs 7y agoNot to bash the obvious, but If you're eating McDonalds there are more pressing health concerns than the ink on the fries.
- raverbashing 7y agoGiven the "traditional" way of wrapping fish and chips was with newspaper, a bit of non-lead paint is an improvement
- kinkrtyavimoodh 7y agoNo, there are not. This meme that McDonald's is inherently bad is nothing but elitist signaling and needs to die.
- yawaw0rht 7y agoMcD's is very low quality nutrition. There is more to nutrition than macronutrients. There are wayyyy better things you can put into your body with better vitamin and mineral absorption and much better for gut health.
- krapht 7y agoYes, but nobody likes people who tell them sanctimoniously that their dietary/smoking/drinking/non-exercising/chair-sitting habits are wrong.
- ajxs 7y ago"Fries" have basically zero nutritional quality, they're potato deep fried in the cheapest oil that the human body is capable of digesting. There is nothing even remotely nutritious about them. You're able to get usable calories from them. They'll prevent you from starving, but that's about the extent of it. I find it funny that you're accusing me of "elitist signalling". Looking after your health isn't "elitist", but how well you look after your health is definitely a factor that will go a long way to influencing your socio-economic status.
- anbop 7y agoActually of all the restaurants in your vicinity, the McDonalds probably has the highest food safety.
- 7y ago
- weiming 7y agoWhat I noticed last time at McD's, is that the ink literally rubs off from the colorful paper mat (on the tray) on which I have been putting ketchup and fries my whole life. Try rubbing it with your finger next time, yikes.
- raverbashing 7y agoDid you expect that paper to be food grade? It isn't
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wjn0 7y agoIt almost certainly is. Likewise for the dye.
- knolax 7y agoDid you get a Big Mike and Coca Cols at Mcdonals?
- johnsimer 7y agofwiw, according to Dr. Gundry the buns and meat you are eating from McDonalds are carcinogenic and disrupt your hormones as well, so even if they didn't give you a receipt, you probably shouldn't be eating McDonald's anyway.
- rootw0rm 7y agoi'm a cashier right now. i coat my dominant hand fingertips with cyanoacrylate to lessen my exposure to BPA.
- creatornator 7y agoDoes that not feel terrible? Superglue feels like the tactile equivalent of nails-on-a-chalkboard to me. Though I suppose it's better than exposure to BPA
- 234wfsdf 7y agoThis has been bothering me for a long time, I learned from this article that you can disable receipt printing from the CVS app. Go into account settings and set email delivery to disable local print.
- jdblair 7y agoBut then I would have to tell them my email address.
- mehrdadn 7y agoGet a dedicated email address/domain? Handy for lots of situations and makes you not have to worry about this again.
- beizhia 7y agoI use an older Gmail address that's already been spammed like crazy for things like this. If I need something from it, I can search the archive.
- ThePirateofOz 7y agoRight... your temporary, disposable e-mail address. Like mailinator.com, 10minutemail.com, and thousands of others. Out of the many online accounts I have, I don't think I have one tied back to my personal e-mail.
- sys_64738 7y agoI don’t want to install their garbage app though.
- Animats 7y agoI can live with the long receipts. What I hate is the huge penalty for not having an affinity card. Safeway did that first, then Walgreens and CVS followed. Lucky doesn't do that, and I usually go there.
- PhantomGremlin 7y agoYears ago it was possible to get a Safeway affinity card by enrolling as "Safeway Shopper", without providing any additional information. I don't know if this is still possible. That's helpful if you wish to opt out of the tracking. Of course, if you pay by credit card, even once, the company has now associated a name with that affinity card. As I'm sure you know, Scott McNealy proclaimed this a few decades ago: "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it". How remarkably prescient that was!
- fmj 7y agoIf the store lets you use your phone number instead of the card try (local area code) 867-5309. Somebody has usually registered it already.
- gnicholas 7y agoA couple years ago, Safeway rolled out an app that contains the best deals. It's slowly becoming a situation where you can either use the app (and get tracked) or get reamed on pricing.
- axaxs 7y agoFor anyone curious, same with Kroger in the midwest. I generally choose Meijer...they do digital coupons, but nothing dramatic. And they don't inflate their prices for 'nonmembers.'
- Something1234 7y agoWhat's special about 867 5309? Is it a reference to a tv show like 90210?
- kylehotchkiss 7y agoI've wondered for some time why card processors don't have an API to accept receipt data so that they could handle storing receipts along with the transactions. It would be a little less wasteful but also allow some of the newer banks to create some interesting products. Your bank or card issuer already knows which store you visited, when, and where. Knowing what products your purchased doesn't add too much more dimension of creepiness onto their pile of data.
- jolros 7y agoThe Visa VCF format does this, but like any old legacy format, it can be a pain to work with. Data quality is up to the merchant, and consistency among merchants is lacking even within a single industry with documented attributes like travel tickets, which AFAIK is still the primary use case. https://online.ogs.ny.gov/purchase/biddocument/22712rfp_VCF40.pdf https://online.ogs.ny.gov/purchase/biddocument/22712rfp_VCF4...
- mparkms 7y agoMy Amex card does this for purchases at Square terminals. There's a "view receipt" link next to the transaction on my statement that opens the Square receipt. I haven't seen it for anything else though.
- monocularvision 7y agoYou can also do it with iTunes receipts on your Amex card.
- skissane 7y agoThis would also be really useful for increasing automation of expense reports if you are using a corporate credit card.
- yellow_postit 7y agoGiven how much advertising companies would pay for item level data I’m sure someone and the credit card companies is trying to make this a reality.
- jmdjmd 7y agoStill a lot less paper than a kids school notebooks.
- ac29 7y agoI wish we could just get rid of paper receipts by default. At the end of more or less every retail transaction, they kindly hand you a few inches (or feet) of trash, which is a waste. Many places are kind enough to ask if you need the receipt, but it still prints out if you say no - the cashier just throws it directly away for you. I get that some people need or want receipts for various reasons, but judging by the trash can outside many stores exits, many people don't want them. The world generates enough trash as is.
- Consultant32452 7y agoWalmart pay is great about this. All of my grocery receipts are easily accessible in the app, including a picture of the product in case the description isn't clear enough.
- kalleboo 7y agoI believe that sometimes there are regulatory requirements to print receipts (as a transaction without a receipt is more likely to be cash-in-pocket tax avoidance). My parents lived in Greece during the financial crisis, and at the time the tax agency would randomly audit people and require them to present 25% of their yearly income in the form of receipts. This was introduced as a way to get consumers to ask vendors for receipts (as a way to force them to input sales into their cash registers and book them as income)
- adrianN 7y agoSince we live in the future, they could just e-mail the receipt directly to the guy who checks their tax returns.
- cyphar 7y ago> I believe that sometimes there are regulatory requirements to print receipts (as a transaction without a receipt is more likely to be cash-in-pocket tax avoidance). Though it is quite ironic that most original receipts don't last long enough for any audit purposes. In Australia businesses need to keep all receipts for 7 years (and for individuals it's 5 years), for tax audit purposes. But I have yet to encounter a paper receipt which lasts more than 2 years.
- timwis 7y agoLoved the writing of this article!
- staunch 7y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWlNesxOGrU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWlNesxOGrU #ObligatoryHedberg
- carlob 7y agoWell if they are so opposed to long receipts, why did they publish such a long article to begin with? /s tl;dr coupons
- rdm_blackhole 7y agoIn Australia, most cashiers will ask you if you want the receipt when paying and you can decline so that they don't print it. I usually decline and only ask for a receipt if the total is over $100.
- joeyh 7y agoI've only shopped there once, and I wonder if this is subconciously why. (More likely something to do with revision control I suppose.)
- tmaly 7y agoI think if they just added coupons to your cvs card and emailed you a summary it would be a better customer experience
- pacifiedcitizen 7y agoFinally had to stop lurking here to share the good news... if you get the CVS app, buried within app settings is the option to go paperless. Once you do so, the registers won't even try to print a receipt which seems to confuse 10 out of 10 cashiers when they're about to ask if I want my receipt. Bonus points, receipts go directly to email. Can also manage your prescriptions completely as well, a surprisingly easy user experience.
- chews 7y agothank you amazing human