One More Reason Apple Is Doing it Better

First confession: I hate the mall, and avoid it like the plague. I purchase almost everything online. But a once or twice a year an expedition to the mall is a necessity. Kind of like the dentist.

On my latest trip to the mall with my husband, we stopped in the Apple Store to purchase a cover for his new iPod Touch. As a marketer, I must say Apple does so many things right I won't bother to list them. I drool--really, it starts with their products. Minimalist eye candy adorns the store and even if you don't adore technology you want to play with everything. It's so EASY and cool.

What floored me the most wasn't the store layout, tots playing learning games or the MacBook Air. It truly the simplest thing. When we checkout out, the sales assistant asked if we wanted our receipt printed or emailed to us. Slightly stunned, we said email, of course.

How many receipts do you get every week? Can you even count? From the grocery store, lunches, ATMs, gas, miscellaneous items small and large. How much paper does that add up to? How much money do Apple stores save by not printing everyones receipts, many of which wind up in the trash. How does this impact their carbon footprint?

If all the major retail outlets in the country adopted this simple technology, what would the cost savings be? How much paper would be saved? OK, so my tree-hugging roots are exposed here for a minute. I don't mind. However, I actually would much rather have receipts from all my purchases in email. I might actually keep and track them that way.

Plus, from a marketers perspective, Apple gained an additional bonus - our email address.