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​"Would you like a very, very, very long receipt?

Contributor Nancy Giles has had it with those overly-long check-out counter receipts:

It used to be a simple exchange.

With cash: "Your change -- and here's your receipt."

With a credit card: "Sign here -- and here's your receipt."

And the occasional "Would you like your receipt in the bag?"

And that was it. Exchange over, you went on with your life.

But these days, receipts are looking more and more like the Dead Sea Scrolls. You make your purchase and the register spits out this thing that keeps coming, and coming, and coming. When it finally wheezes to a stop, that receipt is long enough to comb.

And if you're like me, there are dozens of them, folded like accordions, jammed into your wallet. I want to throw them out, but these slips of paper are so much more than a receipt.

At the top, they appear normal. Date, store location, phone number, maybe a store logo. And then your typical items, prices, totals.

That used to be it! Now notice how it keeps going -- there are bar codes, website addresses, smartphone codes (those weird-looking squares that I still don't understand), coupons, contests, and offers of instant gratification: Keep your receipt from your morning coffee, bring it back in the afternoon for more for just a buck!

And speaking of "bucks," some stores actually give you bucks to spend, depending on how much money you've already spent. Not real money, but fake "bucks" that have to be redeemed in a timely manner.

But guess what? You have to bring back the original receipt. ["Original?" Do these stores think we're making copies?]

Now scroll down that receipt some more: "Help us serve you better," the receipts say. "Tell us about your recent experience." The receipt gives you a chance to praise, whine, or give instant feedback about anything from a poor choice in atmospheric music to an extra-nice barista. "Your opinion counts," it says, and maybe it does.

But then there's a dark side to receipts: the so-called "point" system that, despite all the crumpled scraps of paper you save, never seems to add up to much. Are those points really worth your time, your effort, the space in your wallet? Who can say?

I know it's time to get off this receipt merry-go-round once and for all and let them all go. But I'll always wonder about the receipt that got away ...


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