It is not uncommon for it to clutter up our wallet or to find it crumpled up at the bottom of a bag or pocket. The receipt, this small everyday object, which we despise as much as it is difficult to part with it, retains a significant place in the hearts of consumers. On the one hand, 54% of French people admit to having an accumulation of paper tickets in their wallet or their storage compartment, according to an OpinionWay study from March 2023, and nearly 40% throw it away directly after the purchase. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of them see it as a way to check the details of their purchases, and two-thirds use it to do their accounts. However, this tool well known to consumers is in the crosshairs of the authorities. The AGEC law thus makes its printing optional from August 1st.

This little piece of paper has a special place in history, as old as writing itself. In the third millennium BC, Babylonian clay tablets already allowed traders to keep track of their trade. An essential practice for the time since, according to the specialist of the period Catherine Mittermayer, these proofs of purchase were carefully preserved. “Unlike us, they kept these receipts and the archives of these tickets, like account books,” she explained on Swiss television in 2018.

More recently, the ticket became widespread in the 19th and then in the 20th century, also accompanying the development of the consumer society. Its form has changed, as the tools evolved, from the cash register to the automatic cash register, over the decades. He finally found himself involved in the health issues of endocrine disruptors, with the banning of Bisphenol A in tickets in 2015. The development of this object is impressive: today, more than “30 billion receipts, bank card and vouchers” are printed each year in France, according to the government.

Over the years, the ticket has really become part of the daily life of consumers, becoming both an essential companion for managing a budget, and a work of art, for some. It also tells a personal story, reminiscent of a purchase and a moment in life. “It’s an archive in the literal sense of the term, but an archive that says a lot of things about the people who constitute them in spite of themselves” according to the artist Anne-James Chaton, who was inspired by receipts to create Portraits .

The printed ticket has even found a modern champion, in the person of Patrick Bellois. This 72-year-old retiree became known for having kept all of his receipts since 1967. “I got that from my mother”, he confided to Le Parisien in 2022. His methodical recording of his purchases is a real immersed in the evolution of prices and economic life, all the more enlightening in times of inflation. The retiree is therefore one of those who do not welcome the reform with enthusiasm. “I will continue to ask them, systematically, I will enter into resistance!”, he launched, bravado.

The attachment to the ticket is however no longer universal. Already, 73% of French people say they are in favor of its abolition, despite the fears aroused; and in shops, the ticket is in retreat. “42% of our transactions are made without a paper receipt” in March 2023, according to the IS manager of the Mousquetaires group’s checkouts, David Gilanton. On the side of Systeme U, the same observation, since non-printing reaches 48% of transactions. An observation to be put into perspective in part: for household appliance and luxury brands, where larger purchases are made, the ticket remains an “obvious” and “practical” solution, both for customers and for merchants, in situations where you have to present your ticket, or simply to avoid giving your personal data.

This disenchantment with the ticket is in reality geographical and, above all, generational. According to the Carrefour group, ticket printing is only slightly more important in rural areas. On the other hand, the ticket is firmly anchored among seniors, but it largely disappears among those under 35, “more followers of the mobile application, on which they can find all of their receipts in dematerialized version.”

If the actors of the dematerialization of the ticket, like the company Killbills, speak of “old history” for the ticket by preaching for a transition to digital as soon as possible, others claim that the paper will remain for lack of legal obligation to digitize. “The law stopped in the middle of the road because it said that we stopped systematically printing the tickets, but it did not say to dematerialize, whereas it is the obvious solution of the continuation of history”, explains Franck Charton, Perifem General Delegate, which represents physical distribution brands. The trend is there, and many solutions are appearing to meet new needs: sending a ticket by email or SMS, a ticket that can be consulted online on your account, to be downloaded by QRcode or by NFC, or even integrated into a digital wallet (wallet ), there is no shortage of replacement contenders. In the meantime, paper is resisting.