I just picked up $7.85 of items at our local Duane Reed. My receipt is 16 inches long. 5 items 16 inches.

Half the receipt explains their “Dollar Rewards” scheme. First, who is reading this? Not enough people to justify doubling your paper output. Also, the ink is all grayed and streaked – the result perhaps of printing twice as much receipt as anyone needs.

To save trees – and money – Duane Reed should instead print their sales pitch and disclaimer on a nice color flyer, something people can and will read because it offers them actual value, perhaps by notifying them of items that will be on-sale next week. It should be optional: if you don’t want it, the cashier doesn’t stick it in your bag: more trees and ink saved.

In fact, the receipt itself should be optional. I’m not going to return a bottle of water, so I don’t need 8 inches of receipt memorializing my investment in Poland Spring. It’s like they’re saying ‘here, throw this out.’ What a waste.

This isn’t meager tree-hugging, cutting their receipt printing in half would not only save them thousands of paper rolls and ink refills, it’d cut the time wasted post-sale while everyone waits for the receipt to be printed. Time, Money, Customer Satisfaction.