Article

CVS taking heat for length of store receipts

Coupons and special offers are stretching the length of the average receipt - and customers don't like it.

August 28, 2011

The following is an excerpt from a recent conversation on RetailWire, with comments from its panel of contributors.

As retail controversies go, longer sales receipts are probably not one of the bigger ones. It also isn't an issue about a single retailer, as we discovered in a 2009 RetailWire article and poll, which found that only 13 percent were positive about longer receipts while 59 percent saw them as being extremely wasteful.

All that being said, CVS has been receiving some negative press and social media commentary over the length of its paper receipts.

Take this posting from the Facebook page "One Million Strong Against Unnecessarily Long CVS Receipts" as an example: "My last CVS receipt for $3.34 was 25.5 inches long. And that's too (expletive) long. I don't care that they use my CVS card to track me across the planet, I just want a receipt that isn't 1/3rd my height."

David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times has been dogged in his pursuit of CVS on the company's receipt policy. Lazarus' basic contention with the drugstore chain is that its Extra Bucks reward system could (should) apply discounts directly to the consumer's ExtraCare loyalty card rather than to a long, tree-killing receipt that consumers by-and-large neither like nor want. CVS offers 2 percent off purchases if cardholders present receipts at its stores.

CVS has added to issue, according to Lazarus, by suggesting that it would be moving to shorter receipts and then reversing course. Specifically, Lazarus claimed that CVS chief marketing officer Rob Price had told him that "the receipt won't be the currency going forward" and "the goal is to have the reward stored in the customer's card."

It should be noted that CVS does have a system in place for customers to shorten the length of receipts. All they need to do is go online and register for ExtraCare emails. Special offers are then emailed to consumers rather than going on receipt slips. The only problem with that, according to a blog on The Atlantic site, is: "Customers who want to avoid receipts and still use their coupons will have to read each coupon email and decide whether to send it to their printer or to their CVS card. Which is annoying, almost as annoying as receiving a 25-inch receipt after purchasing a quart of milk."

Back to Lazarus: He asked readers of the LA Times to let him know how they felt about the receipt issue. He reported that he stopped counting the number that came in once it reached 400 and that the vast majority were for shorter emails and rewards being placed directly on their ExtraCare cards.

One person who wrote in, Ann McCann, said, "I love your store, but never benefit from the extra bucks because my super-long receipt is a) at home, b) in my purse, expired, or c) accidentally gone forever in the garbage."

A CVS spokesperson told Lazarus that the small sample of objections he presented to the drugstore chain did not represent the universe of cardholders and those in favor of the current system "actually proves the point we were trying to make, which is that there are still customers that want that choice."

RetailWire BrainTrust comments:

It's just possible to characterize this as a tempest in a teapot. The length of the receipt is frequently governed by the coupons, and seeing the coupons on the receipt effectively highlights them for the customer, more so than storing them on the card. Supermarket receipts, due to large, multi-item transactions, are equally as long as the CVS ones, but no one is complaining there. I think Mr. Lazarus should grow up, or find another way to notoriety. - Roy White, business development executive, RetailWire

Mr. Lazarus needs to get a life. I'm looking at five receipts from CVS on my desk--all are about 5 inches long and one is about 16 inches long--the one with the reward.

Why do you not put it directly on the card? You lose the advertising and reminder value of that paper coupon. Until the day when we all have smartphones that will light up when we come anywhere near a CVS store, how else would they remind us? - Dr. Stephen Needel, managing partner, Advanced Simulations

Whatever side one favors regarding the length of a CVS sales receipt, the company needs to do a better job of responding to its critics. In my opinion, Mr. Lazarus is right; CVS's loyalty program is not consumer or environmentally friendly. Perhaps the program is set up to allow bragging rights about significant rebates, while counting on few redemptions. Regardless, it does not seem to have caused consumers to stay away from CVS stores. Nor does it seem that CVS really cares. - Max Goldberg, founding partner, The Radical Clarity Group

And here I thought I was the only one! CVS's receipts are borderline insane. The only legitimate reason I can think of is that it decreases my odds of actually USING the coupon, because where the heck am I going to store the things?

But the Empire Strikes Back! I won't use the loyalty card, because I don't feel like I'm getting a fair exchange for my information.

I am obviously writing this more as a consumer than as a retail observer, but the observer in me says, "It's a way to avoid paying up." Reminds me of those rebate programs that seem to finally be going out of style. Just wrong. - Paula Rosenblum, managing partner, RSR Research

(Photo by hattiesburgmemory.)