ottawa foodies

I heard that some of the Loblaws locations have machines that hand out store credits if you dump a load of loose chain in.

Does anyone know which locations have that?

Any other info on it? Do they keep a percentage?

And does it take pennies? As in, thousands of them?

Exactly! LOL!

I'll correct my earlier typo: "loose change", not "loose chain".

The Superstore on Richmond in Westboro has one, a Coinstar machine. I don't know about store credits, but it will give you (a voucher redeemable for) cash, minus a 9.8% service charge. Unlike most American Coinstar machines, it doesn't let you avoid the service charge by getting Starbucks and Amazon gift certificates.

I've been meaning to dump my change for a while, I should do it this weekend. I'll find out then if it lets you get store credit without a service charge.

Here's a map of all of the Coinstar locations in Ottawa:

locator.coinstar.com

Thanks! Exactly what I need to know!

Have a great weekend :)

Anyone beleive me if I said I just dumped $230 worth of change at one of these machines. Had problems getting cash as the cashier claimed she didn't have that much. I offered to take 2x $100 gift certificates to lessed the cash drain on her drawer....

Crazy!! Did you use a wheelbarrow to haul it in? How long did it take?

I'm taking a small bucketful of nickels, dimes and pennies tonight. I'm anxious to see what it's worth. I'm thinking about $50...

Hrm. I've got jars and jars (and a couple cat litter pails!) of change to take in. I'd better do it bit by bit.

It was reallymy wife's stash, that we've been 'saying' we would get rid of. She had dutifully rolled most of them in paper. Three shopping bags near breaking from the weight, I'd guess maybe 40 or 50 pounds. There was (according to my bill) maybe 4000 pennies. Because I had to rip open every roll, it took me about 30 minutes going as fast as I could to get them all in.

Pete: Not bad wage for 30 minutes work!

I hit the one at Merivale Loblaws last night with a large popcorn bucket full of pennies dimes and nickels. $32.00. Took about 4 minutes.

Next visit will be silly - about 4 times as many pennies..but might as well take them there - it's not worth it to spend the time rolling them, imo.

You know, I'm sure banks must have these machines. I wonder what they charge for conversion. Presumably less than 10%, but quite possibly not much less.

Although it's a little bit smaller-scale, I've walked into banks with rolls of change and had them converted into real money for no charge. Usually I have less than $20 worth, though, so your mileage may vary.