Coinstar renames itself "Outerwall", buys ecoATM, etc.

[walkitout]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/02/outerwall-formerly-coinstar-buys-ecoatm-for-350m-in-cash-to-expand-into-device-recycling-kiosks/

From July of this year.

Coinstar runs those refrigerator sized boxes that you sometimes see people pouring buckets of coins into, then getting paper money from (or a receipt they take over to a POS to get cash from a person). Possibly you have used one of these; I never have the volume of coins that would justify using one, because I keep pouring excess coins into tip jars at Dunkin' Donuts. From there, they likely go straight into a Coinstar machine. ecoATM is a used electronic self-serve despository-for-cash. Weird, but cool. Coinstar had already purchased Redbox, which is a vending machine for movie rentals.

The device recycling ATM is interesting, especially since I drove over to _Chelmsford_ to recycle devices. Twice.

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Not that it's terribly relevant, but I went to school with one of the guys who started Coinstar.

Very cool!

[walkitout]

I think it's kind of neat to be able to look at a company and know some of the people who founded it/work there/make it what it is.

Re: Very cool!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I just found out yesterday that one of the pillars of my high school (long-time basketball coach and administrator and so on) is from the same Bailey family as the Bailey-Boushay House and Bailey Coy books. It had never occurred to me there was any connection at all, Bailey being a common name. In fact, as my oldest sister (who went to school with one of the Bailey kids) pointed out, there were four siblings, three of whom were gay. (Not, apparently, the coach dude, barring bisexuality and/or his wife being a beard, neither of which I think likely.)

Incidentally, one of my old teachers there (now, I think, over eighty) grumbled to me a while back that he was STILL the only teacher who had come out of the closet. It was quite clear that he could think of several others (not of course counting the ones who would be long dead by now). I was vastly amused.