Why wouldn't I want my receipt?

[Lorrymum]

I've recently noticed that every time I buy something Im asked if I want the receipt. I always feel a bit awkward when I say "yes please" and it feels as though Im being a bit of a pain.
Why wouldn't I want it? How would I return something if I don't have one? Is it to save paper or ink?

I usually use Apple Pay and add it to a written account so I can check it against statements that way.

Well in Sainsburys you need a receipt to be able to leave (you have to scan it at barriers to exit, my local is a large Central London store). Its bedlam every time I go on. People just aren't used to taking receipts.

Not in my Sainsburys!

I've only ever seen such a set-up around leaving the self-checkout area (not in the UK). Do you mean that sort of thing? It surely cannot be from the shop entire? Sometimes you leave without ending up buying anything.

I wonder how it will happen when checkout-less shops become the norm - when powerful sensors will know that an item has left the store with you and your account is automatically charged. What if you go in shop 2 with an item that you've already bought and paid for in shop 1, but which shop 2 also sells?

What happens if you go into a supermarket wearing clothes that you bought from that same supermarket on a previous visit? Will it try to charge you for the same garment every single time you go in wearing it? Will people have to remember and make sure that they only wear clothes from another shop every time they go in to do their shopping - like a lot of people currently deliberately take their bags for life from a different shop, to avoid being accused of having taken them new and not scanned/paid for them on this visit?

How will strong scanners restrict themselves to the boundary of the store? If you walk along the street outside, past the entrance of Asda, wearing George clothes that you have previously bought from there (or from any Asda), will it raise an alarm that it thinks you're shoplifting the clothes from there?

It's the whole shop!!

There was one barrier that you could exit through without purchasing but they've changed that to a barrier requiring a receipt now as well.

If you need to leave without buying something you can ask a security guard to let you out (or go behind someone else. The barriers stay open for a fair amount of time)

It's an awful, horrid system and I wish this wasn't my nearest supermarket.

Wow, that really is awful! Either you have to sneak out behind someone like a wrong-doer might or you have to ask to be let out like someone asking for a favour.

I would write to them complaining, though I wouldn't expect that to do much good.