Is Coinstar’s Conversion Fee Worth the Price?

I think grocery store self-check stands are both a blessing and a curse.

When multiple shoppers, loaded up with enough groceries to, say, sustain a family of four through a nuclear winter are queued up in front of a human cashier, self-check kiosks are a godsend.

On the other hand, self-check stands aren’t so hot when the guy in front of you has 57 varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables in his cart — and he’s struggling to find the produce codes for everything from tomatoes and cucumbers to arugula, kohlrabi, salsify, and bok choy.

I’m telling you this because, on a recent trip to my local grocery store, I decided to take advantage of a rare short line at a checkout stand occupied by a human cashier. In fact, for once in my life the grocery store gods seemed to be genuinely smiling on me because, on this particular day, the only person ahead of me was a nice lady who was watching the cashier run the last three or four items of her modest order across the scanner.

After the last item crossed the scanner, the clerk cheerfully announced the final total: $43.32.

With that, I figured the nice lady would have done what most people do: whip out her debit or credit card, swipe it through the machine, push “accept,” and then write her signature on the electronic pad. We’re talking 15 seconds at most. Heck… on a good day I can do it in under 10.

But that’s not what happened. The nice lady decided to pay with cash.

She could have given the cashier four sawbucks and a fin, getting $1.68 in change; most likely a dollar bill, two quarters, one dime, a nickel and three pennies.

That didn’t happen either. Instead, the nice lady opened up her oversized purse and pulled out… a large Ziploc bag full of loose change.

The good news was the bag wasn’t full of pennies. Instead, it was loaded with quarters.

The bad news is it still takes 174 quarters to pay a $43.32 bill.

So I waited. And waited.

Then I waited some more while the cashier called the manager over to take away the loose change so he could send it to wherever loose change usually goes when it isn’t being hoarded by the nice lady.

I wanted to tell the nice lady that there was a Coinstar machine in the store that would have quickly converted all of her quarters into a receipt that she could have used to pay for her groceries, but I bit my tongue.

In fact, if the nice lady had thought to convert her change into a gift card, she could have even avoided the fee – somewhere slightly north of 10% – that Coinstar typically charges for its service. That’s right; Coinstar waives the fee if you choose to convert your coins into a gift card.

Even so, their fee is more than reasonable for people looking to convert large amounts of small change into easily spendable bills. Frankly, I don’t see how anyone could possibly disagree with me. Well… unless they’re the type who enjoys carrying two pounds of quarters on their person – or a boatload of dirty laundry that’s ready for a trip to the laundromat.

Photo Credit: jdnx

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