It’s like a Monty Python skit.
You buy something at CVS — batteries, say, or mouthwash or whatever.
The helpful cash register person says, “Did you find everything okay?” (Has anyone ever said, “No!”?)
You hand over cash, or put your credit card in the chip machine (which may or may not work).
Your transaction may eventually be done, but the register isn’t. Coupons for everything — combs, Reese’s pieces, suppositories — come spitting out, in a receipt longer than a human being is tall.
It won’t fit in your pocket, purse or wallet. You can’t possibly wade through all of those coupons, to find one you’d actually use. You’d hand it to the cashier to toss, but he or she is already printing out another receipt, for the next discontented customer.
I learned a while ago how to avoid this agonizing practice. I signed up for “digital receipts,” which means they’re sent to my email. For some reason the cyberspace version includes only 3 or 4 coupons, which I click on to send directly to my “card” on the CVS app.
I’m not the only one who likes the idea. CVS itself pushes digital receipts. Here’s their display, right inside the Compo Shopping Center front door:
This collage clearly did not come from corporate headquarters. It was put together — hopefully on company time — by an employee who probably got tired of putting in a new roll of register tape after every third customer.
I like the men and women who work at CVS. They probably think it’s absurd to ask if I found everything okay, and I’m sure they dislike these skyscraper-long receipts as much as we do.
So do them — and yourselves — a favor. Sign up for digital receipts.
The earth’s forests thank you.
I got a CVS receipt the other day that was almost as long as a Tolstoy novel.
Did they ask you if you wanted the receipt bagged?
Some of us like them. You can use them right then and there. Not all of us are “digitalized”. Please don’t discourage them for continuing.
Same Priscilla.
I do have some digitalised cards.
I find a ton of great items at CVS, I can get on sale when the receipt prints out and the cash money coupons!
Here’s another idea: don’t feed the monster.
Whenever possible, support our excellent locally owned pharmacies.
I’m with Mr. Boyd. Another reason to go see the nice folks at Colonial Drugs next door to Fresh Market.
One more vote for Colonial. 👍🏻
I was in the business prior to retirement. There is nothing but toxic chemicals in the direct thermal paper that’s used in those register receipts.
I feel like I’m at The Golden Nugget in Vegas when my receipt scrolls out.
I find it hilarious and how i live for the $3 and
$5 extra bucks rewards .
I’m amused by how dumb these “smart” coupons are. If I buy a jumbo Listerine, then chances are I don’t need a coupon for another one five days later. And no, nothing in my shopping behavior would indicate that I’d use a coupon for Maybelline mascara.
It always warms my heart to have one of my own pet peeves validated. Makes be realize I’m not alone!
A second peeve…all those yellow “buy one, get another at half-price” labels which hang off the shelves and obscure the item. A third peeve…lack of branded products in various sizes often overtaken by CVS products.
I’m sure nobody cares but CVS stands for Consumer Value Stores. With their current prices, I think that they may have forgotten what the “V” stands for.
All this, plus the poor skeleton slumped over the cash register last month who had declared himself/herself “worked to death!” Too many long receipts!
It annoys me to get the coupons after purchase I usually tell them to return and re purchase with the new coupon. Yep annoys them too. My only way to get back at them
In addition, all thermal receipt paper has BPA (Bisphenol A) & BPS (Bisphenol S), substances that have been banned from baby bottles as well as plastic drinking bottles because of their known carcinogenic properties. They are hormone disruptors and major contributors to such diseases as ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, as well as cardiovascular disease, and other major organ disorders. https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2016/12/23/is-bpa-on-thermal-paper-a-health-hazard.
Now here is the real kicker. Unless a merchant specifically orders and buys BPA & BPS Free Thermal Paper, all of the receipts that we receive from all the merchant stores, restaurants and medical facilities, etc. are giving us potentially carcinogenic causing receipts which we are requested to sign. Within 10-15 minutes of handling this paper with bare hands, the BPA & BPS is absorbed into the blood stream, unless we have immediately washed our hands after handling these receipts. I personally have told the the Corporate Executive offices of CVS that they are using BPA & BPS thermal paper and they have ignored the call to switch to BPA Free & BPS Free thermal paper. I stopped signing thermal receipt paper or taking it at all stores and merchants as well as doctors, and instead have attempted to get all retailers, doctors as well as Costco to switch to BPA Free & BPS Free Thermal paper instead. You can do this, too, if you would like to keep our families and children healthy. Again all this information can be verified on: https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2016/12/23/is-bpa-on-thermal-paper-a-health-hazard. As well as many other medical websites.
As a doctor in the community, I am trying my best to inform others of the dangers of such an everyday, simple thing as thermal paper, which all receipts are printed on. It is rather ironic perhaps, that BPA & BPS Free Thermal Paper can be purchased by all merchants at the same price as the present BPA & BPS thermal paper.
Oh, and by the way, I have nothing to gain economically by everyone requesting that they ask all their merchants to switch to BPA & BPS Free Thermal Paper, only the better health and well-being of my friends, family and community.
In addition to not needing a long receipt loaded with ads, you also don’t need the store’s shopping card, altho a lot of people think they’re required. The grocery store I go to, called McQuade’s, (one store in CT, 2 in Rhode Island) does not use cards at all. How nice!
The receipts are like the porridge that boils out of a pot in a childhood fairy tale I remember. It keeps coming unless you say the magic words to stop it. I don’t know the magic word to stop the porridge or the receipts, so instead I look at the clerk and giggle as the receipt spills out.
That’s funny considering that CVS banned cigarettes from their stores couple of years ago yet they continue to kill trees.
Agree…instead they should put their coupons in pamphlet form or in the newspaper.
I actually mailed a nearly 5 foot long receipt back to the CEO of CVS. I got a polite letter from someone in marketing who apologized but indicated that their customers like getting these receipts. Whatever.
About a year ago I made a purchase at CVS. When paying, the cashier then asked me if I wanted a “scarf?” I guess you know where this is going….
Synchronistic timing: This was in my newsfeed today.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-10-bisphenol-pain-sensation-mice.html