I was at Home Depot yesterday getting some ant traps, a screw, and a toilet duck (don’t ask) and got this receipt (pictured above). Home Depot, may I ask you a question? Why is your receipt fourteen inches long? Do you have receipt envy? Did Lowes used to have a bigger receipt than you and you needed show them who’s boss?
I kid, of course but there must be some reasoning behind making such obscenely large transaction records for your customers. Let us go through this receipt section by section and see what is really necessary and what’s just a waste.
The Top
This portion of the receipt displays the:
- Store’s Name
- Store’s Number
- Store’s Address
- Store Manager’s Name
- Store Phone Number
- Date and Time of Transaction
- And two lines of numbers that I don’t understand
All of this seems like pretty useful information and is fit into a space of about and inch and a half. Well done!
The Logo
In case we forgot that we purchased these items at Home Depot, and are unable to read the top line of the receipt that says “The Home Depot,” this lovely home improvement chain has decided to remind us yet again that we bought these goods at “The Home Depot.”
WASTE!
Items Purchased and Barcode
This section is really the whole point of getting a receipt in the first place. It shows us what we purchased, at what price, and even gives us a nifty barcode for quickly scanning the receipt for swift exchanges or returns. Totally needed and understandable.
Legalese, Return Info, and Ad
This section just tells us that Home Depot doesn’t have to sell to you if you’re being an ass. I guess there are that many people acting up inside The Home Depot that it’s necessary for them to let all their customers know that they can give us the boot if we start acting crazy. It also includes when their return policy expires, and that if you want something installed you should call them. Thank you Home Depot for letting me know when your return policy expires and no thank you I don’t need anything installed by your overpriced contractors.
Biggest Waste Ever
Bilingual Waste!
Here’s where things get a little frustrating. It’s cool and all that Home Depot wants to give away a $5,000 gift certificate every couple of months, but does their primary promotion have take up almost HALF of the receipt and come in two languages?
Let’s break down just how much waste this really is. According to Home Depot’s own Quarterly Earnings Release there were 318,000,000 transactions completed across all of their stores in first quarter ‘08. That’s approximately 1.2 billion transactions a year. The $5000 dollar gift card promotion portion of the receipt is approximately 8″X3″ or roughly 24 square inches of paper totaling in ~28.8 BILLION square inches of promotional waste.
That’s about 450,000 square miles which would cover about 300 Rhode Islands, 10 Ohios, or 3 Californias.
That’s a lot of paper.
It’s also needless. Considering the survey promotion is about half the receipt length, all Home Depot would have to do is put the promotion on the BACK of the receipt and presto %50 less receipt waste.
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August 11th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
No joke, I have seriously wondered the same thing…. what gives with the friggin reciept as long as my arm?
You should hit up a circuit city sometime, and get something with a rebate… you’ll flip!