That explains it. Lately I've not seen them print automatically. It's different at the two different stores in Kalamazoo, MI. One does one does not.

A pack of "gun". Do they come in packs of six? =D

God's name is "Bob"?

My local Target seems to print them automatically for certain things. If I bought a soda, it wouldn't; if I bought an item, it would.

Was a real pain when I gave that bottle of soda as a gift and I got the wrong one.

@Preyfar: Only in New Hampshire

When I need a pack of gun, I always go to Target.

@jcostantino: I hate it when I buy someone Sierra Mist when they wanted a Sprite. It ruined Christmas.

I wish we could get over receipts already. I mean with technology today a company like target should be able to scan bar codes into their system into a central database all targets could use to manage returns.

I guess one failing of that might be that someone cold spoof the bar codes but it would be easier to just spoof a reciepts today anyways.

Really though, how much money/paper do we waste on reciepts, especially for crap we can't return like the one I get for my damn coffee every morning and subsequently throw out on the spot.

@NotChoinski: Not at Target, they don't endorse any particular religion or management style.

Where else but at TARGET would you get your pack of gun?

Typical bureaucratic mismanagement. Doesn't anyone in management talk to the other managers?

No wonder US business is so farked up.

Is this policy about making returns harder or saving money on paper? Something else?

@Hooray4Zoidberg:

"I'll just give you the money, you give me the doughnut. End of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this."

@Hooray4Zoidberg: You know, I agree with this, especially if we pay on CC's or DBC's for everything.

Of course that creates a security issue.

I do wonder on the paper receipt thing, especially for things like soda and what not. Still, you can always recycle them and I burn more paper with my Hipster PDA and notebooks than I do with receipts.

Sure beats Toys R Us. If they forget to print you a gift receipt you need to go to the service desk where they proceed to to a return/exchange just to get you a gift receipt! Unbelievable hassle.

@jcostantino: Same here. I usually automatically get receipts for clothing, electronics, and furniture, but never for groceries or soap.

@AlteredBeast: When I want a pack of gun, I head to K-Mart. Our Target doesn't sell them.

@Urgleglurk: No. Target is extremely sloppy at HQ. When I was working there, I used to need 2 signatures for approval for international wire transfers. 20 people in my department should have had authorization, but only one actually did. I needed to hunt down Tim Baer, the Executive Vice President and General Council, on a regular basis because he was the next lowest person on the chain of command for my department, and you can't have people outside your department sign for anything. It was clusterfunktacular.

@AlteredBeast: Hey Mitch, does that company have waste in it?

Every once in a while.

Actually, you CAN return an item without a receipt if you bought it using your credit/debit card or a check. The method of payment is scanned, the item is scanned, and the screen will say whether it found the item or not. If it did, you get your refund. If not, you can see if you can use your drivers license to return it. Even if you get a gift and the giver paid with credit/debit or check you can always ask them to return it for you, but most people think that is a faux pas and won't do it.

@battra92: Well they don't have to keep customer information on file, just the product serial number (if avaiable from the bar code) or even just a record of it's sale and the transaction information like sale date, price, store number etc. That's all the receipt really does anyways.

@AlteredBeast: Yeah that's the quote that comes to mind every morning when I'm separating my change from my receipt to throw it out.

So, you are telling me that Target, can't make their system print out a guest receipt when you ask for it?? IS that what i'm understanding?? Cuz that kinda blows my mind that they can't do that. The funny thing is that Wal-Mart can.

@@aerick79: Uh, no, they can print them out whenever they want. They had gift receipts long before wal-mart in most places. The question is whether or not the register automatically prints them or not.

Again, for those who don't RTFA: If you want a gift receipt at target, before or after the transaction, just tell them and they'll print it.

I think the intent for NOT Printing is simply to save paper. Across a corporation like Target, that's a hell of a lot of paper.

However, Bob Ulrich sounds like he was in favor of wasting Target's money in order to give the consumer every opportunity to to return the equipment.

So in this case, I don't think there's anything malicious about it. Yes, the automatic gift receipt was nice so I had it when I needed it- but 90% of the time I shop at Target, it's not for gifts. So that's the pencil-pusher's reason for not including it.

I see both sides. It's not like Target is refusing to print gift recipts. That would be a new kind of evil, but that's not the case here.

@NotChoinski:

No silly Gods name is Art.

Our father who is Art in Heaven

;)

I absolutely hate the mandatory receipt policy. If you carry the dang product, you should let someone at least exchange it for current price for any dang reason the customer wants to, as long as it is in sellable condition. Have you ever looked at a family member after getting a gift you don't want or have multiples of and said, can I please get a receipt so I can return this? It isn't exactly the gracious thing to do.

As for asking for gift receipts. I bought presents for my neices last weekend and asked the register jockey for a gift receipt. She looked at me like I'd asked her to climb mount doom and throw away the one ring. She had no idea how to do it. She tried to get me to go stand in line again at the customer service desk. I asked her to get someone to show her.

She turned on her light and waited for about 60 seconds then tried to get me to go to customer service again because 'There ain't nobody coming'. I said, "why don't you call someone over and pointed at her two-way radio she was wearing on her belt. I realize she is a seasonal worker, but for crying out loud, if you policy requires gift receipts, then teach these idiots how to print them on request.

@AlteredBeast: Do they let you do target practice at their bullseye logo too?

I just look at it as a way for the company to save some money on wasted paper. You have to think a gift receipt about 2 inches long times 2 if another persons receipt and it continues to multiple and in a years time you have saved rolls of paper per register. Its always the little things that add up unknowingly.

@styrofoam: The Intent is to discourage returns. Not paper. The going back and forth over used/unused, saleable condition/unsaleable condition is what the execs are on about.

@Hooray4Zoidberg:
Bar codes don't contain any unique identifiers that I know of. The Swiffer I bought at K-Mart is going to have the same bar code ad the Swiffer I bought at Target.

Since most of their customers (not all) will be using either credit or debit cards, why not add a prompt to the touch pad that asks if you want a gift receipt? Those paying with cash or check would be asked the same thing by the cashier.

Naw, that would be logical. WTF was I thinking, this is America!

@friendlynerd: Usually, but I've learned not always.

Mr Ulrich will be leaving Target In January to let one of the Target Up-and-comers take over as CEO. The new guy, Steinhafel, has supposedly learned a lot from Mr. Ulrich but has a lot to handle now.

If Target wants to keep getting those nice prestigious awards like "Worlds Most Ethical Company" by the Ethisphere council for 2007-08, then they better work a little harder on this receipt thing. Not giving customers receipts so they can't take back items that are not needed to increase profits is unethical and breaks the standard of practice in the retail world.

-Phex
-3rd Year PharmD/MBA Candidate

Referenced:

[sites.target.com]

@Hooray4Zoidberg: The receipt is protection for both the store and the customer. Yes, a store like Target that may have a central tracking system doesn't really need it, but do you have a central tracking system to record all your transactions? Card swipes don't track the product bought, only the total amount at PoS. Why should you trust another party's records over your own (trick question: the answer is you never should)? You could write your own receipts, but it's technically not authorized by the store and, you know, a hassle.

You have been provided a PoS that can print out receipts automatically for you. How much would people be bitching if their favorite store decided to nix receipts altogether? You might think it's all okay, right up until the first dispute over a purchase, like that coffee that was supposed to be decaf.

I got a guest receipt for buying an ICEE. My wife and I had our ICEE, I told my wife to return the cup and they gave her a refund.

@azntg: I would have thought Wal-Mart would be the go-to location if you wanted a pack of gun.

@j-o-h-n: Buy them by the pack -- getting products in bulk is frugal!

@Phexerian: I don't think it's an ethical issue -- you can always ASK for a gift receipt, for Pete's sake.

@Grabraham:
No silly Gods name is Art.
Our father who is Art in Heaven

No, no, no.

Our Father, who art in Heaven
HAROLD be thy name.

His name is HAROLD.

Why can't they just print them out upon the customer's request?

Otherwise, it's a heck of a lot of wasted paper.
And you always have the original receipt. If you get your nephew a Monopoly game, it's pretty obvious how much it cost anyway. Big deal.

And as far as i know, Target has a good return policy. Once, I returned something without a receipt at all. They refunded me, because they looked up my purchase through the credit card I had used.

@Hooray4Zoidberg: Do you have any idea how large this database would have to be? To keep track of every transaction and item sold in all targets would take up an insane amount of memory. Just the one I worked at would burn through memory storage in an hour let alone all day, every day for a year? (Or more depending on some warranty lengths)

Not only that but to replace the receipts they would need to bundle all purchases somehow to know who they sold what to, so they would need your identification. Not everyone wants a target card. (Most are smart and don't.) And if it is a gift return how will you prove it was a gift? 'So and so bought me this'? If you aren't the one who is in the database then you can't return it. Unless as you purchase these things you explain who you are buying them for...

Receipts are actually pretty simple, anonymous

@VioletPheonix: and time saving in comparison.

I also shudder to think what such a change in policy would cost the consumer.

(Don't know why it cut off the end there, sorry.)

We live in a time of receipt mania. When I buy a $1.25 pack of gum there is no reason to give me a receipt. I am not going to exchange it for another flavor. I am not going to deduct it from my taxes. But without fail, the cashier waits for the thing to print out and puts it under my change so that I am forced to take a receipt. ugh!

@VioletPheonix: Dillards actually doesn't require receipts for returns and it doesn't seem too time consuming or annoying... They just put a sticker on each item you buy. You go to return it, they scan the barcode, and you get your money back to your card or cash back. A lot easier than keeping up with receipts imo.

@VioletPheonix: Exactly. Even a mid volume Target can do a thousand transactions an hour this time of year..well maybe not this year but other years.

If every transaction took 40 kb of space that would eat up about 340,000 gigs per year for the whole company and thats only sales, not returns, exchanges, credits and everything else. Also you need to make sure that data has many backups all over the country and can be accessed by every store instantly no matter what...bad idea. It would also be a security nightmare.

Don't get me started on how long the receipts are either, they are way, way longer than they have to be with useless information and advertising on them which we simply do not need. I don't look at the advertising on receipts. I do recycle every receipt however they do not fit in my wallet or my purse convieniently, its a drag to shove it in my purse after the transaction.

Also ALWAYS give a real receipt with a gift, if you stick your recipient with a gift receipt they will only be able to get a gift card or store credit, this is for many stores especially Sears. A gift receipt will not get you a cash refund which won't do your recipient much good if they can't find anything they want in the store that you bought the gift at. Then you have wasted money.

@Hooray4Zoidberg: @Hooray4Zoidberg: The Lowe's that opened recently near me asked for my phone number. When I asked why they said it was so if I didn't have my receipt they could pull it up with that. I didn't fill anything out and didn't supply any other information. Of course there's the chance they could sell that information, but without any other info I'm not sure how much good it would do. I don't think I would throw out a receipt just because they've got a record of it, but it's a good start and makes it much more hassle-free when you lose a receipt.

@edosan: Compared to the standard of practice, not giving a receipt for anything you buy is not good customer service. When the execs are arguing over it at christmas time to boost sales via not allowing returns, it becomes unethical. When they take advantage of people to make more money, it is unethical. Sorry, but you are wrong sir/madam.

@parad0x360:

Maybe it's because I have worked as software developer in the IT department of world-wide company, but the tracking you propose isn't as difficult as it may seem...even to provide that data to each and every store. I would be surprised if Target wasn't already doing this.