I bet if somebody made a receipt printer that could print nice, customizable receipts and interface with existing equipment, they'd get plenty of customers.
How about a pc inkjet printer? They can actually be hooked up to the nice touchscreen ones you see at restaurants. If size/perception is an issue, why not try a small photo-printer such as the new Polaroid PoGo.
Also, as a side note, Starbucks might not be the best fit since it's a relatively low-price-point commodity. Both previous examples were high-price-point, luxury experiences, which would benefit from 1) the lack of a bad reaction 2) receipt as a marketing tool since you create worth through creating a souvenir. Starbucks on the other hand, would only benefit through the latter, where you create worth through impressions (kind of like those annoying magazine signup forms). This is actually not helpful since Starbucks doesn't need any more impressions due to their many stores, and when you throw them away from the back seat of your car, you'll indirectly attribute the brand to junk.
It would be nice to see online services mimic retail merchandising techniques.
There is a strong correlation between comment quality and length; if you wanted to compare the quality of comments on community sites, average length would be a good predictor.
I'm saying that a paragraph that long is uncomfortable to read, given that HN comments span most of the width of the page. It needed to be broken into multiple paragraphs.
Frankly, I'm offended that I got downmodded so much on this. People clearly did not carefully read what I said.
I think most receipt printers have the capability to print graphics. The problem is more that the software vendors do not offer this capability, or it is not utilized.
Here's a company doing more "useful" receipts by supplying customized nutritional information for exactly what you've purchased. They're fairly nicely designed as well if not a bit busy. http://www.nutricate.com/
