This Is Why Your Store Receipts Are Still So Insanely Long

There’s good news for anyone needing to line a kitty litter box, start a fire, or has a weird fetish for throwing away wads of paper. If you've been wondering which store can be relied upon for giving customers ridiculously long receipts with purchases, here's where to go: Kmart.

Buying just a single pack of Trident spearmint gum from Kmart—with cash, and no loyalty program included—will still get you a fabulous two-foot-long receipt. Just think: A few more packs of gum and you could wallpaper a house! Or fill up an entire recycling container.

The reason absurdly long receipts exist at all, according to Adweek, which conducted a test to see which store would give the longest (and shortest) receipts with a basic purchase like a pack of gum, is that companies use them as marketing tools. Receipts are full of survey requests, coupons, sweepstakes, and other special offers. The vast majority of people ignore them, but apparently the tactics work on enough shoppers for stores to keep the seemingly wasteful practice up.

Fortunately for anyone who doesn’t love getting an enormous scroll of trash with every purchase, the paper receipt appears to slowly be dying off. Adweek reports that electronic receipts are taking their place, slowly. A poll from Boston Retail Partners found that 35 percent of retailers plan to add electronic receipts in the next year.

[Adweek]