Two-Foot-Long Receipts: Love the Coupons, Hate the Waste

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You pick up a few items at the supermarket or pharmacy, and what comes out of the register? A receipt that curls and streams out to a yard or so in length. There has to be a better way, no?

These days, receipts come with all sorts of fine print—some of which you’re probably interested in (coupons, details on how much you saved by using your shopping card), and a lot of which you could do without (credit card offers, reminders that it’s important to keep your receipt!).

“The receipt issue has gotten out of hand,” says one shopper quoted in a WSJ story about the modern-day, XXL receipt. I like the input from another shopper:

Rick Robbins’s recent nine-item purchase at a Louisville-area Kroger spawned a two-foot receipt that included an inch-and-a-half about how the “Power of Family Meals” helps keep children from getting fat. Another nine inches were devoted to an application for a Kroger credit card.

“What a waste of paper,” said Mr. Robbins, a 41-year-old finance director at a nonprofit health-care provider. “If [Kroger is] looking for ways to save money, they could start with their receipts” and pass the savings on to shoppers.