Edeca has announced a significant innovation for its stores: instead of receiving a paper receipt, customers will have the option of digitally downloading a purchase receipt to their smartphone in the future. For this purpose, a QR code is generated at checkout, which can be scanned from the checkout monitor with a mobile phone, such as the Hamburger Abendblatt. Reported.

Background: Until now, in Edeka, as with other discounters and supermarkets, a receipt is always printed automatically, even if the customer does not need it. According to information from Abendblatt, an average of 31.3 rolls of cash register paper are used per day at Edeka branches. With the new strategy, the supermarket also wants to do something for the environment and curb high levels of paper consumption – about 20 percent to be saved with a digital receipt.

Edeka & Co.: Receipt obligation forces markets to rethink

Since 2020, there has been a requirement for all types of retailers in Germany. This is highly controversial both in the markets and among customers, as it creates a lot of extra paper waste.

However, the reason for the introduction of the liability was to make tax evasion in business more difficult. However, this argument was not universally accepted. Stefan Genth, managing director of the German Trade Association (HDE), said last year: “Tax evasion must be effectively combated – if only for reasons of fair competition. But the obligation to obtain receipts does not achieve the goal. is. […] Even the mandatory introduction of technical safety devices in all cash registers ensures that nothing is tampered with by the tax authorities.”

A few months ago, Schwarz’s subsidiaries Lidl and Kaufland also announced an update to receipts that should benefit the environment. what was it about we explain to you here.