What should have been a simple purchase, needing a simple receipt, took 640 mm of till-roll paper to complete. I felt moved to write to the offending shop.
I went into your shop in town
To buy a single item –
You’d think the details wouldn’t take
A foot-long slip to write ’em.
It itemised the VAT amounts
At rates from nought to twenty
(Three of which were zero, so
Just one would have been plenty).
Three times it showed the company’s name,
Its numerical ID,
Sales and Tax Invoice Numbers,
With lots of space left free.
And after that, the till spewed out
Another foot of text
With offers that I didn’t want.
It left me mighty vexed.
All I really needed was
A record, short and sweet,
Just saying what I’d bought, and when –
A simple till receipt.
What a mindless waste of paper,
Unnecessary bumf!
We customers don’t need it.
It makes us angry. Hrrumph!