Is the Coin Shortage Forcing You to Put Off Laundry?



Buy more gum and coffee, get change, save the quarters.


"pay for loads by phone, as it were"
wow, laundry just got much better


@1 The coin shortage applies to businesses too. Some are requiring that people pay with exact change or card; Kroger and other giants just aren't giving out change at all and are going to compensate customers in other ways.


@4 "Kroger is accepting cash but is not giving out change. Instead, purchases will be rounded up and customers can choose between donating their change" I think the concept of "donation" requires choice? Of course Kroger will still get the tax break from all those "donations".

In some countries it's common practice to hand out small candies instead of smaller change - especially when they have too many types of coins or if their currency has inflated enough that small coins aren't worth keeping on hand.


The whining about the whining never ending never ends.


I knew a guy who owned an apartment building and he would never stop boasting about how the coin op laundry machines had a much better return on investment than the building itself.



Where'd that quote come from? I know there was a facebook meme floating around a few days ago, shared by dim-witted morons like Seafas (he of the "strangellingly" limited intellect) stating that Kroger was requiring purchases be rounded up. The meme was debunked though, and customers definitely could opt to receive their change. Was a few days ago though and so maybe a new policy went into effect.


Maybe the guy from the Banking Association should be telling bank branches to make it easier to bring coins (like getting their own machines and not have customers roll the coins themselves) instead of telling people with coins to go to Coinstar. Or instead of screwing customers out of their change, maybe Kroger could offer a coupon to people to bring in their change, or just as the banks should, make it easy and free to exchange it. Why should it cost me money (or getting a gift card I don’t want) to put my coins back in circulation...


I knew a bar owner who told me that when the tampon machine ran out of tampons, he always waited a dew days to refill it. Women would insert money and not get their tampon, but, would be too embarrassed to go to the bar tender to complain. Eventually, of course, he would refill but the machine was pure profit for a few days.


@6 It's a bit disingenuous not to have the whole quote. It IS a choice because there is an alternative: "having the coin value added to a loyalty card, which [the customer] can use on their next transaction."

And who cares if they get a tax break? Rounding up for charity gives millions of dollars to charities every year. The company likes doing it, customers like doing it, and customers like that the company does it.

@9 Matt was responding to me. I linked two articles in my post.

Here is a Snopes piece about it. Seems like Kroger's communication over the policy was a fucking mess.


---Kyle Hayden, an accountant at the Washington Bankers Association, encourages coin-hoarders to go to Coinstar. "If you've got jugs of coins, just dump them into the Coinstar. We have to get them back in circulation," he said.----

Yeah, and have me instantly lose 11.9% if I want cash back.

How about you give me an inventive to give you my jug of coins?


@5 if you think young working class Americans are whining now, just wait until evictions start and some of those folks decide they have nothing more to lose. As Millennials are very big on DIY/Maker things, expect to see some artisanal Guillotines.


@2 - yeah, you're the type


When you journalism like that all the time and everywhere your clothes are bound to get filthy.


If we had a functional federal government, they could partially subsidize Coinstar for a month so anybody hoarding change wouldn’t be charged for bringing it in. Or even offer 5% of the total as a reward. But as usual, they would rather throw up their hands and let the situation get shittier and shittier because that’s what Republicans do.


There are still coin-operated machines? Why, back in my day (roughly the mid-Edwardian era), even in the middle of Iowa, we had machines that used chips. I would have thought by now they’d have some sort of retina scan technology that took bitcoins.


Sorry, I've just been rounding up the tips a lot, so not adding coins, just larger bills


Why coinstar and not your bank? Every bank where I live (mid-west) has a coin machine - and you don't roll your money anymore, if you did they would just unroll it. Are coin sorting machines that rare in Washington banks? Also, if you have an account at the bank you don't have to pay a fee, unlike Coinstar.

Also I used to keep books for a landlord with coin operated laundry. He charged $1.50 per wash or dry. The coin operated machines generated enough income to pay for the machine eventually (they cost about $1000 each), pay for the water/electricity used, pay for maintenance and repairs, and pay for an employee to weekly clean the laundry room. I wouldn't say they were cash cows though. (8 pairs of machines, spread over 4 locations, bringing in a total gross of maybe $600 per month. He rented to college students though, so maybe they didn't do as much laundry as normal people.)


@22: Why not just beat them on rocks down by the river?
Now why don't you go read the farm report and bitch about that new fangled tractor the neighbor bought.


I haven’t had any problems getting rolls of quarters or change back from my purchases. Do you guys live in some kind of alternative reality?


@14, Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, you have $4000 in coinage awaiting sorting? My pile is only about $100 and i though I had a procrastination problem. Also, from one numismatist to another, you and I both know that halves don't circulate. Put them in the bank and that's where they'll stay, until another numismatist requests them.


Coinstar is for dimes, nickels and pennies. Anyone who doesn't pick all the quarters out of the change jar first is a sucker.


Personally, I don't need any reason to put off doing laundry.