One thing that the government is beginning to test out over here is a partial to full ban on printed receipts.

What does that mean? Well you know how some places just give you ridiculously long receipts? Or Do you kniw how thin the paper is that receipts are printed on? .

For starters apparently the chemical that is used to make the paper so thin and bendy is very dangerous and can cause cancer. At the same time, the government says that so much paper is wasted a year on receipts.

One law that's being tossed around here is a full ban on printed receipts, receipts would only be digital and through email or phone from now on. Another law being tossed around is banning the chemical but that would make the paper harder to make and more expensive so many stores would go digital anyway to avoid the trouble.

What do you think of a future where...

Every time you buy something, you'll have to input your email or phone number to get a receipt..

Every time you buy something in a large store that does checks (like Walmart), not only would you be forced to take a receipt, you'd have to take out your phone as you're leaving the store to show.

This has already been brought to light multiple times but checks and targeting would be done more frequently in low income and minority neighborhoods. Studies show that in such neighborhoods, stores that check receipts are up to 500% more common. As a result, even if someone has a receipt, as they are walking out of a store with a bag and no receipt, they'll be targeted until they can show the receipt.

Thoughts?

While I agree on the fact that they are made with harmful chemicals and are a total waste in most instances, but plenty of businesses depend on physical receipts of even small purchases to keep these things in account. If all record was moved to an app, accountants would need to corroborate through several different proprietary systems.

I do believe they need to be phased out, and I hope that we can move to a time where little to no paper is required in our daily lives.

I think that future is fine. We needn't be wasting paper and other resources required in printed receipts as is; in fact I've been to a few restaurants now that didn't give a receipt. My only issue being how much easier it might be to fake information or the entire receipt digitally... but I still think that's a far smaller con compared to the amount of resources wasted on print.

The kiosk things you see in various chain restaurants is also likely part of them phasing it out. I've paid for my meal multiple times on that thing and it just shows me the details on the screen.

I'm okay with going more digital personally. 9 times out of 10 I'm throwing the receipt away as I walk out the door. I can only think of a handful of times that I kept the receipt for any reason.

I would honestly find it easier to keep track of receipts too if I got them digitally to my e-mail. I'd likely create a folder for them and I'd have access to them all the time. Probably make doing returns easier for the few times I need to.

I'm generally in favor of more things being digital though. And so much of what businesses do (except for certain really small ones) are already 90% digital so accounting for it won't really change all that much. Still, I can see it being an issue for smaller businesses.

So, as a mandate from the government I would be against for the sake of companies that would be burdened with making the switch but if a company like Walmart wanted to move away from printing receipts I would be on board with them choosing to do so.

geeogree : I have not needed to keep my receipts much either. I agree that it would be easier to keep track of receipts on my email because I check my email pretty often.

I think that the transition shouldn't happen too fast, but I am for having just digital receipts from now on. Especially now that not everyone wants to touch a bunch of stuff XD Maybe the digital receipts would be called "contact-free receipts"