Aussie discovers Coles receipt from 1998 that made its way to Japan
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Life has a funny way of reminding us of home. For one Aussie based in Osaka, Japan, it came as a paper receipt.
The high school teacher found a Coles receipt issued in 1998 while leafing through what he described as a ‘random book with staff guidelines.’
Shared on the social news website Reddit, the post piqued the interest of many Australians and garnered almost 2000 ‘upvotes’, which is the equivalent of ‘likes’ on the site.
The original poster showed both sides of the receipt, prompting many Redditors to inspect its contents.
A high school teacher in Japan found a 1998 Coles receipt in a staff guide book. Credit: hayitsness
A top comment said: ‘150 for a timing belt job on a Toyota? Sold.’
Another Redditor responded to the comment, noting the validity of the offer: ‘Offer expires 14-9-98. Does that make it good for another 76 years?’
Others jokingly said it was worth a shot, with one commenter recommending taking it to Toyota: ‘Pacific Toyota is still at that same lot according to Google Maps. Present the docket and say it expires in 2098.’
Others were shocked at the cost of the sparkling water ($4.74 according to the receipt, which is around $8.50 in today’s money), which was the only item bought according to the receipt. ‘Still a rip-off for water!’ one said.
Another Redditor commented: ‘Coles and Woolies both sell a 1.5L bottle of home brand spring water for 80c. $1.58 is only reasonable if it's refrigerated or if you're at a servo. Also, this was in 1998 when the dollar was worth about twice what it is now, so really it's probably close to 4x as expensive as it should be by today's standards.’
Tap water is considered safe to drink in Australia, so one commenter speculated that it must be due to the low demand for bottled water decades ago: ‘I wonder if the fact that people weren't buying bottled water anything like they do today is a factor. I never even considered the concept of paying money for a bottle of water in the 90s.’
It is highly likely though that the original recipient of the paper was from a tourist in Cairns, a popular destination for Japanese visitors (according to a Financial Review article in 1996, 43% of the 1.2 million tourists that arrived at Cairns Airport annually were from Japan!), or a visiting student or educator.
An online sleuth hypothesised that it might be from a conference in 1998: ‘There was an Australasian education conference in Queensland in early July, 1998. A teacher from the school may have taken the book to study or use then stayed on to a little sightseeing before heading back to your school in Japan in August.’ They also added an interesting tidbit: ‘’In case anyone was curious, the weather in Cairns on the 11th August 1998 was 27.7°C.’
The original poster commented that it was likely: ‘Oh this is the most probable! Unfortunately there’s no way to find out who it was as teachers get transferred every few years here!’
One Redditor offered another possible explanation: ‘Cairns also had plenty of schools that had sister schools in Japan, and we would often do exchanges with students and teachers.’
Another Aussie chimed in: ‘Yes, another probable explanation. Especially if it was sent to a student to study up on school expectations prior to exchange, then taken and left at the school when they returned home.’
Some commenters encouraged finding pieces of the past from their possessions. One Redditor said: ‘This is why whenever you get rid of books, you should leaf through them for peculiar, forgotten souvenirs. Last week I found a London Tube ticket for 29 July 1981, the day I arrived in London and also Charles-Diana royal wedding day.’
The movie ticket or the store receipt you receive might not mean much to you today, but there is a whole movement that aims to collect these pieces. Not too long ago, people had subscriptions to physical magazines and newspapers, or they bought maps that were meant to be replaced after a while. These were transient possessions, supposedly only useful for a short while, but today, they provide insight into how societies functioned in the past.
In fact, the National Library of Australia has a collection dedicated to these. Since the early 1960s, it has kept selected printed ephemera ‘as a record of Australian life and social customs, popular culture, national events, and issues of national concern.’ These include all sorts of curios such as posters, stickers, badges, handbills, junk mail and more! The Library also collects ephemera relevant to the Asia-Pacific region.
But you don’t have to be part of the National Library to start a collection. Since 1987, the Ephemera Society of Australia has been around, with members dedicated to preserving ephemera from different categories. The organisation came to be through Honor Godfrey, a museum curator who collected paper bags. They hold show and tells, fairs, symposiums, and other gatherings to display collectibles. You can find more information on their Facebook page and website.
Here’s a 1988 clip from a music chart promoting a footy crew, shared by the Ephemera Society of Australia on Facebook. Source
Collecting receipts today pose a problem though, as pointed out by other comments on the Reddit post. A comment said: ‘Bruh, my receipt from two weeks ago has already faded so bad its unreadable, I swear they do this deliberately so you don't return stuff. They don't make things like they used to.’
A former Coles employee also provided some insight: ‘I worked at Coles when they still had these receipts. It’s a dot matrix printer using an ink ribbon. They were slow and noisy as sh**, and we used to have to replace the ribbons fairly often. Fun fact, back then each item would print on the receipt as you scanned it rather than it printing out the entire receipt at the end. It was the only way to see what had been scanned and if something had been double scanned or mis-scanned.’
Another Redditor said: ‘They fade quicker if they're exposed to oxygen or sunlight (or, more specifically, UV light). Being between the pages of the book would keep even a modern receipt from fading. Though it probably wouldn't last 24 years.’
The shift to thermal paper has been accepted globally for its benefits, including reduced operating costs and less maintenance. Retailers no longer need ink to produce receipts. But even if you don’t keep receipts as ephemera, you might still want to preserve them for other purposes by scanning them or taking a picture. The Checkout suggests more solutions through this humorous but informative short clip:
Have you ever found any ephemera that took you on a trip down memory lane? We’re interested in your stories and pictures!
The high school teacher found a Coles receipt issued in 1998 while leafing through what he described as a ‘random book with staff guidelines.’
Shared on the social news website Reddit, the post piqued the interest of many Australians and garnered almost 2000 ‘upvotes’, which is the equivalent of ‘likes’ on the site.
The original poster showed both sides of the receipt, prompting many Redditors to inspect its contents.
A high school teacher in Japan found a 1998 Coles receipt in a staff guide book. Credit: hayitsness
A top comment said: ‘150 for a timing belt job on a Toyota? Sold.’
Another Redditor responded to the comment, noting the validity of the offer: ‘Offer expires 14-9-98. Does that make it good for another 76 years?’
Others jokingly said it was worth a shot, with one commenter recommending taking it to Toyota: ‘Pacific Toyota is still at that same lot according to Google Maps. Present the docket and say it expires in 2098.’
Others were shocked at the cost of the sparkling water ($4.74 according to the receipt, which is around $8.50 in today’s money), which was the only item bought according to the receipt. ‘Still a rip-off for water!’ one said.
Another Redditor commented: ‘Coles and Woolies both sell a 1.5L bottle of home brand spring water for 80c. $1.58 is only reasonable if it's refrigerated or if you're at a servo. Also, this was in 1998 when the dollar was worth about twice what it is now, so really it's probably close to 4x as expensive as it should be by today's standards.’
Tap water is considered safe to drink in Australia, so one commenter speculated that it must be due to the low demand for bottled water decades ago: ‘I wonder if the fact that people weren't buying bottled water anything like they do today is a factor. I never even considered the concept of paying money for a bottle of water in the 90s.’
It is highly likely though that the original recipient of the paper was from a tourist in Cairns, a popular destination for Japanese visitors (according to a Financial Review article in 1996, 43% of the 1.2 million tourists that arrived at Cairns Airport annually were from Japan!), or a visiting student or educator.
An online sleuth hypothesised that it might be from a conference in 1998: ‘There was an Australasian education conference in Queensland in early July, 1998. A teacher from the school may have taken the book to study or use then stayed on to a little sightseeing before heading back to your school in Japan in August.’ They also added an interesting tidbit: ‘’In case anyone was curious, the weather in Cairns on the 11th August 1998 was 27.7°C.’
The original poster commented that it was likely: ‘Oh this is the most probable! Unfortunately there’s no way to find out who it was as teachers get transferred every few years here!’
One Redditor offered another possible explanation: ‘Cairns also had plenty of schools that had sister schools in Japan, and we would often do exchanges with students and teachers.’
Another Aussie chimed in: ‘Yes, another probable explanation. Especially if it was sent to a student to study up on school expectations prior to exchange, then taken and left at the school when they returned home.’
Some commenters encouraged finding pieces of the past from their possessions. One Redditor said: ‘This is why whenever you get rid of books, you should leaf through them for peculiar, forgotten souvenirs. Last week I found a London Tube ticket for 29 July 1981, the day I arrived in London and also Charles-Diana royal wedding day.’
The movie ticket or the store receipt you receive might not mean much to you today, but there is a whole movement that aims to collect these pieces. Not too long ago, people had subscriptions to physical magazines and newspapers, or they bought maps that were meant to be replaced after a while. These were transient possessions, supposedly only useful for a short while, but today, they provide insight into how societies functioned in the past.
In fact, the National Library of Australia has a collection dedicated to these. Since the early 1960s, it has kept selected printed ephemera ‘as a record of Australian life and social customs, popular culture, national events, and issues of national concern.’ These include all sorts of curios such as posters, stickers, badges, handbills, junk mail and more! The Library also collects ephemera relevant to the Asia-Pacific region.
But you don’t have to be part of the National Library to start a collection. Since 1987, the Ephemera Society of Australia has been around, with members dedicated to preserving ephemera from different categories. The organisation came to be through Honor Godfrey, a museum curator who collected paper bags. They hold show and tells, fairs, symposiums, and other gatherings to display collectibles. You can find more information on their Facebook page and website.
Here’s a 1988 clip from a music chart promoting a footy crew, shared by the Ephemera Society of Australia on Facebook. Source
Collecting receipts today pose a problem though, as pointed out by other comments on the Reddit post. A comment said: ‘Bruh, my receipt from two weeks ago has already faded so bad its unreadable, I swear they do this deliberately so you don't return stuff. They don't make things like they used to.’
A former Coles employee also provided some insight: ‘I worked at Coles when they still had these receipts. It’s a dot matrix printer using an ink ribbon. They were slow and noisy as sh**, and we used to have to replace the ribbons fairly often. Fun fact, back then each item would print on the receipt as you scanned it rather than it printing out the entire receipt at the end. It was the only way to see what had been scanned and if something had been double scanned or mis-scanned.’
Another Redditor said: ‘They fade quicker if they're exposed to oxygen or sunlight (or, more specifically, UV light). Being between the pages of the book would keep even a modern receipt from fading. Though it probably wouldn't last 24 years.’
The shift to thermal paper has been accepted globally for its benefits, including reduced operating costs and less maintenance. Retailers no longer need ink to produce receipts. But even if you don’t keep receipts as ephemera, you might still want to preserve them for other purposes by scanning them or taking a picture. The Checkout suggests more solutions through this humorous but informative short clip:
Have you ever found any ephemera that took you on a trip down memory lane? We’re interested in your stories and pictures!
