The Long, Long History of Long, Long CVS Receipts (vox.com) 113
Why is a receipt for cough drops the height of a small child? Rachel Sugar, writing for Vox: CVS is a drugstore much like other drugstores, with one important difference: The receipts are very long. How long are the receipts? For at least a decade, concerned shoppers have dedicated themselves to this question, producing a robust body of phone-picture literature on the subject. You could not major in CVS receipt studies, probably, but you could minor.
Not all CVS receipts are created equal. If you, a non-loyal shopper, mosey into CVS and buy some Tylenol and a package of seasonal candy, you will get a receipt that is unspectacular (read: a normal length). To get one of the iconically long CVS receipts, you need to use your ExtraCare card, which means you need to be an ExtraCare member. (You can join as long as you are willing to turn over your name and phone number in exchange for better deals.) People on the internet have documented this phenomenon with a vigor usually reserved for cats climbing in and out of boxes. On Twitter and on Instagram, shoppers stand next to their CVS receipts, which are often as tall as they are, and sometimes taller.
Not all CVS receipts are created equal. If you, a non-loyal shopper, mosey into CVS and buy some Tylenol and a package of seasonal candy, you will get a receipt that is unspectacular (read: a normal length). To get one of the iconically long CVS receipts, you need to use your ExtraCare card, which means you need to be an ExtraCare member. (You can join as long as you are willing to turn over your name and phone number in exchange for better deals.) People on the internet have documented this phenomenon with a vigor usually reserved for cats climbing in and out of boxes. On Twitter and on Instagram, shoppers stand next to their CVS receipts, which are often as tall as they are, and sometimes taller.
Wtf (Score:1)
Slashdot is advertising CVS loyalty cards now?
Holy shit
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Nah, the editors don't have any good Trump stories in the queue today. I'd say the stock market taking a dump yesterday is more interesting than the length of paper receipts from an overpriced convenience store that also dispenses prescriptions.
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Nah, the editors don't have any good Trump stories in the queue today. I'd say the stock market taking a dump yesterday is more interesting than the length of paper receipts from an overpriced convenience store that also dispenses prescriptions.
But ... but ... it's "funny"!
Didn't you see the Monty Python foot???????
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Speaking of funny, CVS bought out Long's Drugs. Coincidence? I think not.
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overpriced convenience store
Overpriced? How can that be when the name comes from "Consumer Value Store"?
Re:Wtf (Score:4, Interesting)
Slashdot is advertising CVS loyalty cards now?
Yeah, doesn't really meet the standard of News for Nerds or Stuff that matters. I prefer the way Meijer [meijer.com] handles their loyalty program & receipts. I just punch in my phone number at checkout, and my electronic coupons & everything is applied automatically, and I get my receipt emailed to me as a PDF. If I need to do a return, I just whip out my phone & pull up the PDF. Much more efficient.
Re:Wtf (Score:4, Insightful)
It sounds like you just proposed a technical solution to waste and slow receipt printing.
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How do you get the receipt via email instead of a paper receipt?
I definitely can do the promos via the app and pay via the app (and today, via ApplePay)..
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You know, you could just say "people" these days
>> People on the internet have documented this phenomenon with a vigor usually reserved for cats climbing in and out of boxes
OK, so not "news for nerds" then. (We're busy - quit bugging us with crap from a soon-to-be-killed-by-Amazon retail outlet.)
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I figured that most Slashdot users have their CVS receipts e-mailed like I do. I don't want that crap ending up in my car.
CVS? (Score:1)
Oh, the pharmacy CVS, not the Code Versioning System some of us remember.
Is the idea of long receipts at an American pharmacy newsworthy now? Does this have any tie in to tech at all?
Re:CVS? (Score:5, Funny)
There is a printer involved. That seems to be enough.
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And that printer probably prints on BPA receipts, thus causing a controversy [wikipedia.org].
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Triple if you wipe with them in an emergency.
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the ink cartridges
If you read the article, you will see graphic evidence that the printers in question are usually thermal printers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_printing [wikipedia.org]) so no ink cartridges are involved. Maybe that is the intended technology takeaway from the article?
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From what I’ve seen, most store receipts are thermally printed. It’s also why the receipts fade over time.
Incidentally, a research lab I worked at long ago printed out its raw experimental results using an (HP?) thermal printer. The measurements were also stored on a disk, since the equipment was controlled by an old HP minicomputer... but the boss wanted the paper records for backup, for whatever reason (there was no way that raw data was ever going to be re-entered by hand - there were tens of
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Oh, the pharmacy CVS, not the Code Versioning System some of us remember.
Now I want to add things like "20% off Git services" to my CVS log entries...
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Looks like you're the one who doesn't remember the Concurrent Versions System. Supporting multiple concurrent tips (branches) was its key advantage over systems like RCS and Projector.
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Buy a pregnancy test and see what that does to your receipts and for how long.
Revision control (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought this was going to be about revision control tickets or some shit.
Re: comma value separated (Score:2)
I was hoping for a rant with how Excel handles comma value separated files. Rather than using a normal escape character, they double quotes and have other funky rules.
It's nearly impossible to parse a CVS file.
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nearly impossible to parse a CVS file
And a comma-separated value (CSV) file is only sightly easier.
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Do you mean CSV? The rules that Python applies to read and write tab- and comma-separated values compatible with Microsoft Excel aren't that funky. If a value contains a double quote, the delimiter (tab or comma), or a newline, double all double quotes and wrap the value with quotes. That's it. The SQL standard also does escaping by doubling up single quotes.
I wrote a PHP CSV reader/writer that applied the same rule (because I was having trouble with fgetcsv() at the time), and it interoperated with both Ex
You can get similar results elsewhere (Score:2)
Walmart will give you receipts of varying length. Home Depot and Lowes also.
Since Walgreens is in the same business, they fear no receipt.
Supermarkets in the US are legendary for receipts, but these are itemized, so that's understandable. Many (and Walgreens) print additional offers and coupons. You may not have room in the bag for those. JK.
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I hope so! I'd hate to see anything longer!
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Walmart will give you receipts of varying length. Home Depot and Lowes also.
Yes, but do they give ROUS's (receipts of unusual size)?
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I don't think they exist.
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I used to go to Rite-Aid and they have the same long receipt issue. Then my insurance company at the time (Caremark) forced me to switch to CVS.
Sigh (Score:5, Interesting)
Thermal paper rolls are cheap.
Thermal printers are damn fast.
It's unnecessary, but also inevitable that some moron would take it too far on the "just give them all the coupons" front. I'm more concerned about the waste of paper and what the checkouts must look like because for sure I wouldn't touch that receipt and would leave it inside the store.
I know from experience though - I wrote a piece of software that produces a firelist for my employer. We needed a quick "who's supposed to be here now" list, and the software that controls the access control has all the necessary information to tell us but just won't churn it out in a compact enough form.
I put in a little test system with a thermal printer (no ink, quick printing, cheap to run) and when the fire alarm goes off, it churns out a list of my choosing.
It was so successful that over time I was asked to list every member of staff, whether they were in or not, the time they last tagged in/out, plus the people who aren't even supposed to be here, plus all the temporary visitors, plus the other sites, plus.... and then do it twice at both ends of the site so the duty of checking it can be split and we have a "backup".
It still only takes about 3-4 seconds (1ms processing time, the rest is sheer print-time) to churn out a complete list (which is longer than it takes to realise the alarm is genuine), but the list is now over 6 feet long.
Usually I check the paper reels immediately after any fire drill/alert because it uses up so much paper, but it's a good backup to any electronic system and churns out fast enough that you could grab it in a real fire (it's safer to grab that, than to try to check that everyone you think might be outside are - by the time you check anything else, they're already dead, but it takes seconds to skim the highlighted / obvious / simplified list of names and see who's missing).
I'm waiting for the ironic day that what catches fire is the thermal printer itself, or something nearby, and which just keeps feeding more and more paper into it to fuel it...
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Thermal paper rolls are cheap. Thermal printers are damn fast.
Apple also makes pretty long receipts. A short receipt would give the customer a sense of a "cheap" item.
Re:Sigh (Score:4, Interesting)
You remember that BPA plastic thing?
It turns out humans absorb more BPA handling thermal paper receipts than drinking out of BPA containers. In fact, they absorb about six times the recommended maximum BPA intake handling thermal paper receipts--without the BPA going through first-pass metabolism, so it's not like your liver's even slightly reducing the amount that actually makes it into your blood.
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It was so successful that over time I was asked to list every member of staff, whether they were in or not, the time they last tagged in/out, plus the people who aren't even supposed to be here, plus all the temporary visitors, plus the other sites, plus.... and then do it twice at both ends of the site so the duty of checking it can be split and we have a "backup".
No good deed goes unpunished.
Additional profits? (Score:2)
Thermal paper rolls are cheap.
Cheap is a relative term. Cheap in relation to what exactly? And frankly it doesn't matter. What matters is whether these long receipts are generating enough additional profits to justify printing them. If they result in additional sales which results in even modest additional profits then it's perhaps worthwhile. But perhaps they could generate the same results with less waste and thus less cost in a different way.
Honestly it seems pretty wasteful and I have a hard time imagining that they couldn't ge
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I shop in places that give me cheap prices in the first place, and don't make me carry around a ton of paper in my back pocket.
Just give them back every time. (Score:3)
Every time I get a massive ream of receipts, I stand there and make the person behind me wait while I look at them to see if there's anything good in it. There never is, so I tear that crap off and essentially throw it at the cashier. (I am more likely to literally toss it on the checkstand, but eh.) If everyone did that, it would slow things down enough and they would be throwing away enough additional trash to where they'd stop issuing massive receipts.
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As someone who used to be a cashier, let me just say that is a shitty move.
Honestly, if it went to email or text receipts, you or someone else would be bitching at the loss of privacy. If it just was the total, you or someone else would bitch about the lack of transparency. But hey, at least you get to give that cashier one more unpleasant experience for their day.
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I was going to say that was a dick move to the cashier who has ZERO control over the format and length of the receipt. They also likely really don't care and aren't going to let management know some random customer thinks their receipts are too long and has some philosophical objection to them.
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I don't throw them at the cashier, I just leave them behind.
Why the fuck would I want a paper receipt for buying anything that isn't going to need potential warranty work?
Stop wasting paper, because I am going to just leave it on your counter.
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I don't care if they're following orders, they're still entirely responsible for the part of it that they do with their own hands.
And companies that don't track push-back at the register are not well-optimized. Companies that are trying hard to make money, that does get recorded. No, they're not going to record your specific philosophical complaint, but they might very well write down that you were unhappy with the checkout process. And when they look at their checkout process, they might indeed find out th
loyalty (Score:2)
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Way to stick it to the man. Show the cashier you don't go for that corporate bullshit. I'm sure it will roll uphill.
Just like your shit rolls uphill and causes your betters to stop sharing their opinions? LOL
Wrong audience (Score:2)
I rarely shop at the local CVS, but when I do the guy typically tells me I could have saved $$$ if I had a loyalty card. I just reply that that is the reason I hardly ever shop there.
And not a single fuck was given by the cashier.
Wrong audience for that message.
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How do you know? Did you consider all the possible reasons for sharing that opinion, or just one that is easily refuted?
If you find yourself cherry-picking straw-men, you might not have a firm grasp of what is going on.
It might even be that your own utterances throughout the day would not have been made by [some random internet person]. How often do you stop to reconsider your words on that basis? As often as you ask others to do it, or much less? Thought so.
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Given the lavish salary cashiers pull down, I'm sure they'll mention it during the next shareholder's meeting.
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Just say no thanks and move on.
You aren't alone on the privacy concern. Just the cashier is the wrong audience for your concern.
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There is this website called NotAlwaysRight.com - you should give it a look and see how much managers care about the input of their peons. I'm sorry, I mean personnel. Simple typo.
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Not saying your complaint isn't valid, just suggesting that pestering the underpaid cashier with no decision authority whatsoever about it isn't particularly effective. It's almost like shouting into a mailbox and expecting the Postmaster General to take note of your complaint.
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Step outside. Face in the direction of CVS corporate HQ. Shout your complaint. It will have exactly the same effect, and not annoy some poor cashier who already wishes for a better job.
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If you're doing it right, then when you complain to the cashier it is actually for the purpose of a memory aid to yourself to shop somewhere else. When you turn your dissatisfaction into a social exchange it enhances your short term memory of the problem and makes it more likely you'll remember to go somewhere else the next time you need cheap bandages.
And BTW, it is pretty much guaranteed that department stores will have equal or lower prices on bandages than a "drug store." Drug stores are a species of co
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I am often regarded as being a cheap bastard, but even I don't try to shop using coupons. Sure... if I actually need something, and there happens to be a coupon easily available for that thing that I already determined that I need, I'll use a coupon. But experience tells me it isn't very likely to happen.
The coupons I get in the mail and on receipts are almost always for things that I don't need, don't want, and typically don't buy. The "Value Pack" that comes in the mail goes straight to recycling for
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Coupons work well for items you can by in bulk at Coscto and Sams. I time my toilet paper purchases around those coupons :)
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Maybe people with disposable income reached that fortunate situation by buying from companies that give them great value all the time, not merely when they can dig through a bag full of shit and find the one magical coupon.
Maru (Score:3)
Cats climbing in and out of boxes are awesome.
Most appear to be coupons. (Score:2)
Want a short receipt? Cut the coupons off, there, short receipt. First world problems.
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What's the problem? If wasted paper is your complaint - these customer directed ad+coupon are much better than the useless weekly junk mail pamphlets that just get tossed by almost everyone.
Want a short receipt? Cut the coupons off, there, short receipt. First world problems.
The problem is that thermal printed receipts can't be recycled.
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Most recyclers also don't accept the plastic bags the store gives you. Seems that just might be a bigger concern at this point. In-store recycling of these bags is more of a publicity campaign to make the problem appear solved.
Canned food is lined with plastics, no one seems to be complaining about recycling them yet (except it was BPA plastic early on, so they did fix that complai
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There is phenol-free thermal paper. Don't know if that helps much or just has different bad ingredients, plus it costs more.
I don't know what about thermal paper makes it ineligible for recycling; I was just told "thermal paper" from the recycling company.
Most recyclers also don't accept the plastic bags the store gives you. Seems that just might be a bigger concern at this point. In-store recycling of these bags is more of a publicity campaign to make the problem appear solved.
Plastic bags are classified as "plastic film". Plastic films can be recycled in some facilities, but not others. Where I live, they don't accept it for street pickup because their facility uses a conveyor belt and bags would be carried off by the wind.
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Plastic bags are classified as "plastic film". Plastic films can be recycled in some facilities, but not others. Where I live, they don't accept it for street pickup because their facility uses a conveyor belt and bags would be carried off by the wind.
Never heard that one before. Here they use the excuse that they get caught in the machine's wheels.
But the reason recyclers in the US don't accept it is that it has minimal value, and grocery stores are required by law to accept plastic film for recycling. They then pay recyclers to take it off their hands. Those people then process and resell the small portion that there is a market for, and landfill or incinerate the rest according to local custom. So for a commercial recycler doing home recycling pickup
I joke with my pharmacist about this (Score:2)
I never look at it and toss it.
Fortunately, I use the phone number 867-5309, which always works.
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LOL presumably that one works with every area code, too.
Jenny is legion.
Loyalty cards? (Score:2)
How about instead of printing out all these coupons and wasting paper, as well as requiring the customer to remember the coupon next time they visit the store...
Why not just automatically apply any discounts the customer is eligible for, identified by their loyalty card?
Or better yet, don't require a physical loyalty card and recognise repeat customer by their payment cards (of which you can store a hash instead of the actual card details), so you don't have to carry around a stack of different loyalty card
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yawn - so what? (Score:2)
I've seen this at other stores. So it isn't fake news. Is there a technology problem that I should try to solve?
Is there a problem? Maybe a I should read the Vox article.
But I don't care.
Email (Score:1)
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I don't know how CVS does it, but KMart claimed to email receipts, but usually never showed the email button and spit out the damn things before I could say anything.
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They offer email receipts you know (Score:1)
I signed up the first chance I could. Haven't seen a CVS receipt in a year.
CVS (Score:2)
I think the biggest thing that makes it stupid/funny is that it's CVS ... where everything is so expensive.
I mean let's face it, with most stores I'd love to get a bunch of good coupons on stuff thrown at me all the time.
But with CVS, even with a great coupon, an item might be ... the same price as at another store. And I'm not going to carry around a wad of crinkly register coupons for that.
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I'll grant you that this is pretty lame. This is the kind of story that should have been tossed into idle.