“Do you want your receipt?”

Here is a new but pervasive conversation in my home area (upstate New York). You’ll be completing a credit card transaction at a retail counter and the checker says, “do you want your receipt?” Well, of course I don’t. In an era of readily available online statements there are easier ways to track my purchases. And it’s just one more piece of paper to stuff in my wallet or lose in the shopping bag and ultimately throw away.

And yet. If I DON’T accept the receipt that leaves me open for fraud (the transaction is altered after the fact) or an error, like not picking up a sale price, that I would notice if I had the record. So my policy has been to say no if I’ve been watching the items and their prices on the register screen, and it’s a place I trust, otherwise yes. And I take those receipts, as I always do, and match them against my next statement to be sure they are consistent.

I am curious where this new policy came from. Is it supposed to be eco-sensitive because it avoids wasting a scrap of paper? Is this happening where you live? Let me know.