Super U and Carrefour have just announced that they are ceasing to issue paper receipts …(our local Super U stated on Monday) unless specifically requested…instead they will email the receipt.
All very good environmentally …it will save SU 40,000km of paper (find that amount surprising).
Encouraging this is official French Gov’ policy… as now in UK.
However this means you will need to sign up for a “loyalty card” at all regularly used shops…and have to opt out of their junk mail, and no doubt they will make users have to refresh this opt out regularly. Win win for retailers, more adresses to mail, cost saving and plays to environmental responsibility, (which we all want).
For infrequently used shops you will need to ask…and of course the one you might need a few days later will be the one you didn’t ask for!
Upside is environmental sense, down side yet more junk mails and monetarisation of one’s data…if you block an address from a retailer you then won’t get the receipt.
Seems that we all have to make compromises for the benefit of the Planet.
That caught Vanessa out the other day at our local U. After paying for the shopping (only a few items) she noted that th assistant hadn’t given her the ticket, so she asked for it. The assistant said it would be emailed but gave her the ticket anyway.
As she got home, her phone beeped and there it was, the ticket!
What a splendid idea.
OTOH Vanessa hasn’t noticed an increase in junk emails… we’ve had loyalty cards with U, Intermarché and LeClerc specifically for years and I’m sure you can still opt out of unwelcome advertising emails.
Yes it is a good idea and convenient and we have cards to a couple we use regularly…indeed Booths Supermarkets (known locally in NW and Yorks as Waitrose of the north) have emailed receipts for 3 years.
Its more of a decision as to which and how many shops you sign up to …and how they then might use and explorate that known contact and buying characteristics.
I once signed up to “Wayfare” online retailer every three months I received a reminder I had opted out of their promotional marketing , the only way to stop it was an email instructing them to remove me from their data base.
Having customers sign up for receipts is a wonderful source of targetable contacts.
I’m not really bothered about my actual email address as its like an address or phone number…you have to accept giving it out in today’s world for relevant use…I just don’t want to spend my time fending of “promotional info’ and offers you might find interesting” and then every say three months spend time opting out.
but are the rules regarding opting out in Europe different to those in the UK
When I have opted out of things from within France, they seem to be persistent and no further action seem necessary.
Jim has just gone to our local U.
I will see what happened as last time he left a long receipt on the kitchen table and I waited for days to see if he was going to move it.
Yes, you guessed right, I had to ask him if he was keeping it for something special.
Think its got bugger all, to do with the environment , if it was then maybe they should look at their packaging policies first. I think it’s so you can’t check your receipt before you leave the shop, so you can’t check that you’ve paid full price for something that you thought was on “promo”. Our local Carrefour is shocking for this.
I don’t like this at all as it lets supermarkets sell data that has become even more valuable. Even if they were to claim it’s sold anonymised it’s frighteningly easy to link with data from other sources to know everything about an individual, whatever they say and it’s done all the time.
Additionally this is going to cause me serious problems with Leclerc whose app has a geoblock. It won’t even let any non-France phone(and I think, email, though that is less if an issue) download the app.
It was refusing since last year so presumably blocking other EU too. I asked them to remove the geoblock (I believe blocking EU, + UK up to last year, is illegal.
I can’t see anything good coming out of this and believe trees is just an excuse. It’s about massive commercial data mining matching selling etc and government data gathering.
Oh yea of little faith (in technology)…
of course that sort of thing can happen but generally, if the checkout software has been updated correctly, it shouldn’t.
Many promo’s are time limited and the issue may well be with the marker on the shelf (expired, but not removed), rather than the till software being at fault. I very much doubt that it is done deliberately to defraud shoppers but perhaps it is me who places too much trust in humanity.
The Carrefour in the larger market town near me regularly fails to process promotions at their tills. I probably have to call the supervisor one in every 2 visits for this. The supervisor is clearly surprised anyone bothered although the one I usually get is getting to know me now
Don’t tell me that’s an accident it’s a deliberate ripoff by a franchised store.
I feel like I have to check my wallet… or at least my receipt, every time I leave there. They’d get more visits from me if this wasn’t a pattern there.
They wouldn’t do that, would they?
Surely there is no difference between getting the paper receipt and one to your phone (except saving paper). If there has been an error, the receipt shows shows it and their own records will confirm what the price was at the time of purchase, so what’s the difference (other than holding up the queue at the checkout whilst you negotiate with the caisse assistant in an attempt to hld them to ransom?) mostly, you would go to the accueil to argue the toss… and as the email is generally pretty swift, it surely makes little difference as to whether you spend time at the caisse checking the till receipt (if you can remember all the offers you purchased) or doing it before you leave the shop or on your next visit…
@graham Well if it wasn’t profitable why would they keep doing it? I probably land the same supervisor as no Accueil.
“breakage” is a calculated factor taken into account on promotions and No Receipt at the time of payment, while you are in the store, must increase that exponentially.
Just be be clear from my perspective… I’m not defending the supermarkets I’m defending the technology and as we all know and understand, the weakest link in technology is the human interface - RIRO
Completely agree. It is rare that we do a shop without a mistake, and never in our favour!
I wouldn’t mind if you could see what they were ringing up more clearly, but the different way promos and discounts are charged (on the price, when you total the bill, or added to your loyalty credit) makes for mass confusion. Especially as my OH will not give way over a centime, so we have to add 15 minutes onto shopping time for him to go to accueil and get said centime back.
