UX failure of the Save-On-Foods receipt

By Sherwin Arnott Art & Design
Totally annoying Save-On-Foods receipt from Victoria Canada

Sometimes I get groceries at my local Save-On-Foods supermarket here in Victoria. This summer I purchased blueberries and cherries and I noticed a problem. I wanted to know how much I paid for the cherries. And the amount wasn’t printed on the receipt.

It’s an interesting user experience failure of, what I think is, a new receipt system. The receipt showed me the total that I paid.  The receipt showed me my total discount for each item. And it showed me the amount I paid before the discount.

But the receipt didn’t have the actual amount that I paid for each item.

The receipt was forcing me to do arithmetic. In the summer sun.

What I find fascinating about this predicament is that the receipt was covered in information. Absolutely slathered in data. But not the particular information I wanted. It’s a really weird user experience failure. I would love to talk to the marketing executive that convinced Save-On-Foods to do this.

Here’s an itemized list of all the types of information that can be found on the receipt:

  1. name of the company
  2. number of the company outlet
  3. name of the Mall where the store is
  4. the province where the company is owned
  5. company URL
  6. type of food item #1, blueberries
  7. total cost of blueberries before discount
  8. number of blueberry packages
  9. per unit cost of blueberry package, before discount
  10. savings for blueberries discount (from so-called membership)
  11. type of food item #2, cherries
  12. per kilogram cost of cherries before discount
  13. weight of cherries
  14. per kilogram discount for cherries
  15. total money saved from discount on cherries
  16. cost subtotal
  17. number of membership points used
  18. total cost
  19. total debit amount
  20. slip number, whatever that is
  21. term number, whatever that is
  22. type of dollars (Canadian)
  23. debit card number (last four digits)
  24. which account the debit came from
  25. date and time
  26. authorization number, whatever that is
  27. reference number, whatever that is
  28. type of appliance (Interac)
  29. AID number, whatever that is
  30. IVR number, whatever that is
  31. ISI number, whatever that is
  32. total cost of merchandise, again
  33. amount of cash back
  34. total debit withdrawal, again
  35. whether the transaction was approved (it was)
  36. some kind of written disclaimer about the pin and cardholder
  37. change given, again
  38. total amount of savings, due to “membership” discount
  39. membership number
  40. subtotal of “points” balance on membership card
  41. membership points earned
  42. total points on membership card
  43. advertisement and url for feedback survey
  44. information on how to return purchase
  45. cashier name (checkout number and type)
  46. date and time, from the bank1
  47. unknown code #1
  48. unknown code #2
  49. unknown code #3
  50. unknown code #4

Save-On-Foods receipt from Victoria Canada

This is a lot of different sorts of data. But there was not the one thing I wanted; what I paid for each item. Was this some kind of consumer psychology thing? Were they saving space, lol? Was it even on purpose? I’m so curious to know more.

 

One Comment

  1. Ha ha. This reminds me of the old xkcd cartoon about university website home page. Low overlap between information you have and information you want.

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