Would you like your receipt?
So many times I've been asked by a cashier, teller, or machine, "would you like your receipt?" and often I've said, "sure" so I can keep track of my purchases. Well, there are a lot of different ways you can keep track of purchases to avoid getting those little pesky pieces of paper forming a pile in your home office. So if you have a pile of little receipts stacked up beside you in your house, the chances are your neighbor does too, and their neighbor and their neighbor does too. Ok, so if our whole neighborhood brought all our receipts together and put them in one big giant pile, I wonder how big that pile would be. How much would it weigh? Most importantly, how much of it is necessary to begin with? I understand that for big ticket items it is necessary to keep a copy of your receipt just in case. How much of us say yes to these receipts that are not necessary though? How much paper is being wasted with unnessary receipts?
Well, according to Thomas Kostigen, the co-author of The Green Book, states that if we all said "no" to the ATM machine when asked if we would like to print a receipt, we could save enough paper to circle the equater 15 times. WoW! That's just receipts from ATM machines, not counting from in stores. That is just plain stupid if you ask me, especially when you can just go online and see your transactions from that day. You can also use an ec0-conscious bank where they go paperless and get electronic bank statements. I do apologize to the post offices for my suggestion, but this is going to happen regardless eventually anyways. I find that a lot of people say that they like to see it in paper. Um, whats the difference? There is clearly a psychology behind it with having that piece of paper that makes it more real. Do you really want to make your financial situation more real? For most people, the answer is no. And how many of you really use your bank statements a year down the road? What? not many of you? Why am I not surprised? Ok, the argument of, what if I get audited? The bank can send it to you if you require it or you can get print offs right at the bank. All I am saying is, do you 'need' it or 'want' it? Do you even look at them to begin with?
What are things being done to correct this? A company called, TransactionTree has developed a very interesting program of paperless receipts. Instead of the cashier or teller giving you a paper receipt, they can simply email it to your inbox. No fuss no muss.
Well, according to Thomas Kostigen, the co-author of The Green Book, states that if we all said "no" to the ATM machine when asked if we would like to print a receipt, we could save enough paper to circle the equater 15 times. WoW! That's just receipts from ATM machines, not counting from in stores. That is just plain stupid if you ask me, especially when you can just go online and see your transactions from that day. You can also use an ec0-conscious bank where they go paperless and get electronic bank statements. I do apologize to the post offices for my suggestion, but this is going to happen regardless eventually anyways. I find that a lot of people say that they like to see it in paper. Um, whats the difference? There is clearly a psychology behind it with having that piece of paper that makes it more real. Do you really want to make your financial situation more real? For most people, the answer is no. And how many of you really use your bank statements a year down the road? What? not many of you? Why am I not surprised? Ok, the argument of, what if I get audited? The bank can send it to you if you require it or you can get print offs right at the bank. All I am saying is, do you 'need' it or 'want' it? Do you even look at them to begin with?
What are things being done to correct this? A company called, TransactionTree has developed a very interesting program of paperless receipts. Instead of the cashier or teller giving you a paper receipt, they can simply email it to your inbox. No fuss no muss.
This would help solve more than one problem too. You won't ever have to worry about losing your receipt, lineups will be way faster, and your wallet won't be cluttered with receipts. Brilliant! There was a survey conducted and 78% said that digital receipts would make their life a lot easier, according to Isaac Lay, the co-founder and CEO of allEtronic.com. AllEtronic is a digital receipt system too that is implimenting an amazing system as well where you will simply swipe your credit or debit card and your receipt will instantly go to your email. So you won't even have to give your email address to the teller. This will also reduce costs for the retailer as well.
How will this postively impact the environment? Well, with digital receipts, it is estimated to help save over 9 million trees and will prevent potentially 4 billion pounds of toxic CO2 emissions every year.
So until our society is completely equipped with this new technology, let's simply say no to the receipt if it is not necessary. We will be saving the environment more than we realized and saving the frustration of having the clutter of the receipts in our home office.
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