On the same topic as our recent post about the absurdity of the enormous receipts at K-Mart and other commerce hubs, Slate's Big Money took a look at what it would take for every store to get to where Apple is now: offering emailed receipts as an (incredibly convenient) option. Turns out, it would take a lot. While it wouldn't be that difficult for credit card companies to embed your email address on your card (thus obviating the need to try to spell out your email address to the salesperson), creating the hardware and software to allow large stores to send that email would be prohibitively expensive and offer very little in the way of cost savings. So, while new stores can-and should-have these systems in place, don't look for your local K-Mart to start emailing you a 12-megabyte receipt any time soon.Photo by Flickr user Marchowitz via the Flickr group The Long Reciept Club, which sadly doesn't have nearly as many entries as it should. Can you help them out?
On the same topic as our recent post about the absurdity of the enormous receipts at K-Mart and other commerce hubs, Slate's Big Money took a look at what it would take for every store to get to where Apple is now: offering emailed receipts as an (incredibly convenient) option. Turns out, it would take a lot. While it wouldn't be that difficult for credit card companies to embed your email address on your card (thus obviating the need to try to spell out your email address to the salesperson), creating the hardware and software to allow large stores to send that email would be prohibitively expensive and offer very little in the way of cost savings. So, while new stores can-and should-have these systems in place, don't look for your local K-Mart to start emailing you a 12-megabyte receipt any time soon.Photo by Flickr user Marchowitz via the Flickr group The Long Reciept Club, which sadly doesn't have nearly as many entries as it should. Can you help them out?