I always say no because receipts have been shown to commonly contain BPA and other cancer-causing/endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can be absorbed through your skin. The data seems to be mixed on whether or not the dermal uptake is significant enough to pose a threat, but I just don’t want to take the chance.
If you have to have a receipt, try to touch it for the least amount of time possible, avoid touching the printed side, and keep it in a container or Ziploc bag in your main bag or somewhere else.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/receipt-paper-harmful/
https://www.ecocenter.org/our-work/healthy-stuff-lab/reports/receipt-deceit-toxic-chemicals-receipt-paper/test-results
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020319863
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33313651/
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/isee.2013.S-2-37-02
I would guess that the exposure to BPAs from handling receipt paper for a few seconds would be incredibly minimal, especially when compared to other potential sources of BPAs like food and drink packaging etc.
Maybe don’t reuse receipts as paper towels or toilet paper, but briefly handling them enough to put in a wallet etc is probably safe in the grand scheme of things.
Can someone explain to me what’s the joke ? I don’t understand…
Not sure there is a joke in there. For some reason the question kind of surprises you and you have to quickly decide on the spot whether to have the receipt or not. So you end up winging it, sometimes having it, sometimes not.
Nowadays, I mostly decline but on occasion still end up agreeing, so I can relate.
In the US, you often get a choice (via the PoS terminal or via the person at the register) if you’d like your receipt. Whether it’s printed automatically without asking you is in and of itself arbitrary and not even consistent within a single type of business, and there are often several options (“No receipt”, “Print”, “Email”, “Print and Email”). Even if it’s printed mandatorily, cashiers will often ask if you want a receipt and toss it if you don’t. Finally, different PoS terminals have different interfaces for this sort of thing. So it’s generally not at the forefront of your mind, it’s not really standardized, and you need to quickly weigh a bunch of factors as to whether you want the receipt and often in what format, so the poster here is joking about how extremely arbitrary their answers are since it usually doesn’t make that big of a difference which you pick.
I always ask for a receipt at gas stations with talking pumps because I want to waste their resources. It’s petty and small, but fuck them.
Fun fact! If the talking pump has buttons (usually four on each side of the screen), press all of them from the top down right when it starts yammering at you, and one or more of these magical button presses should shut its trap!
I, too, hate being audibly ad-blasted at the gas station.
Most of the ones in my area don’t actually mute, sadly.
I once even had an attendant ask what I needed help with over the little speaker, because one of the buttons was an unmarked ‘call for help’ button.
Ha! I always thought I was the most petty and malicious fucker out there for doing exactly this. If they have a working hidden mute button I forgive, but if not I punish them with wasted receipt ink/paper (I don’t even look at it!) and fill their trash bin much faster than it would otherwise be filled! Together you and I are going to teach these assholes a real lesson!
Always ask for a receipt. Let the capitalists sweat a little over the chance of you returning your purchase.
- Am I likely to have to return my purchase?
- Am I using cash instead of credit/debit?
- Do I want to review what I purchased to make sure everything was the correct price and/or (if it’s a bunch of items) that I got everything?
- Am I being reimbursed/reimbursing someone?
- Am I in a shopping mall where I’ll be bringing this merchandise into other stores with similar offerings?
if any of the above factors are true:
- Do I have an account which will let me receive a digital receipt instead?
- If not, then yes.
If none of the above factors are true: No. At that point to me it’s just a waste of receipt paper and my time.
Here in Germany, there’s a law to prevent tax fraud, which results in companies always creating a receipt for every purchase. Even if you don’t want a receipt, they print it and then directly throw it away. (I don’t know, if the law is dumb or the companies are).
And yeah, it’s resulted in me just always taking the receipt and then usually throwing it away at home.
Taiwan had the same concern. What they did is make it so that receipts also work as lottery tickets, to encourage people to ask for them and hold on to them.
Anybody say yes to bump the “yes” stats so companies don’t try anything funny based on likelihood of getting away with it?
Naw that’d be weird whistle
Edit: (for dine in) I’m totally gonna review to make sure only 20% tips were charged to my card and they weren’t fatfingered… any day now… (wonder how much I’m ahead/behind lifetime on proper tip entry)
Yeah, I always ask for a receipt at counter service/fast food eateries. Half the time, even though I only order like 2 items (3 at the very maximum if I’m feeling chippy), the order is inevitably missing something or incorrect so I like to have it as proof when I tell them I’m missing my drink order or something.
I don’t know how people fly by the seat of their pants and just let places like Taco Bell or Dunkin Donuts just give them random items without proof of what you ordered lol. Maybe I’m just unlucky!
Or yeah, if I think I might have to return an item, I don’t want a receipt.
Otherwise, 90% of the time, I don’t want one.
those people aren’t flying by the seat of their pants. they just live in harmony with those around them. they don’t feel the need to cause trouble because some thing happens.
How is it causing trouble to say “excuse me, I had a latte with my order. Thanks!!”??? I’m polite about it and I wait ample time to make sure they truly forgot and aren’t just behind. Hell, usually I’m actually approached by one of the employees when I’m just standing there waiting for a prolonged period of time, not the other way around.
But I only order 2 things. When I’m missing one of the only two items I paid for, I have a tendency to speak up. It doesn’t make me an asshole. Believe it or not, there are polite ways you can indicate that you are missing half your order.
I actually don’t correct them if they give me 2 incorrect items, so long as they are in the same category of what I wanted (a food and a drink item)…happens frequently. It’s when I’m missing a category of item that I ask for it.
