--- title: This Is Why Your Store Receipts Are Still So Insanely Long description: In a study conduced by AdWeek, a customer who purchased a single pack of gum with cash was handed a two-foot receipt by Kmart. authors: - name: Denver Nicks url: https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 60 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DenverNicks - https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932 former_staff: true published: '2015-12-22T17:11:08.000Z' modified: '2015-12-22T17:11:08.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - customers - CVS - Kmart - marketing - receipts - Retail - Shopping word_count: 229 canonical: https://money.com/long-store-receipts-why/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![147205787](https://img.money.com/2015/12/147205787.jpg) 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. [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-02.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpFindTheCollegeWidget) The reason absurdly long receipts exist at all, [according to Adweek](http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/why-do-you-get-2-foot-long-receipt-pack-chewing-gum-168578), 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. \[[Adweek](http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/why-do-you-get-2-foot-long-receipt-pack-chewing-gum-168578)\] ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/long-store-receipts-why/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Life Advice", "item": "https://money.com/life-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This Is Why Your Store Receipts Are Still So Insanely Long" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/long-store-receipts-why/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/long-store-receipts-why/", "name": "This Is Why Your Store Receipts Are Still So Insanely Long", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-12-22T17:11:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/long-store-receipts-why/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/long-store-receipts-why/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2015-12-22T17:11:08.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This Is Why Your Store Receipts Are Still So Insanely Long", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/12/147205787.jpg", "width": 478, "height": 359, "caption": "147205787" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denver Nicks", "url": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2012/09/09_1165862081.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DenverNicks", "https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-12-22T17:11:08.000Z", "description": "In a study conduced by AdWeek, a customer who purchased a single pack of gum with cash was handed a two-foot receipt by Kmart.", "abstract": "In a study conduced by AdWeek, a customer who purchased a single pack of gum with cash was handed a two-foot receipt by Kmart.", "@id": "https://money.com/long-store-receipts-why/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2015-12-22T17:11:08.000Z", "wordCount": 229, "keywords": [ "customers", "CVS", "Kmart", "marketing", "receipts", "Retail", "Shopping" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Self-help", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-help" ] } ] } ] } ```