News

Coinstar adds gift card program

February 2, 2005

BELLEVUE, Wash. - Coinstar Inc. (Nasdaq:CSTR) announced that additional sets of gift cards will be added to its new Coin to Card program, which allows consumers to convert loose change into gift cards from national retailers and supermarkets. The new offering, rolling out to selected Coinstar kiosks beginning this spring, helps further drive consumer traffic to Coinstar's retail customers and card issuers, while providing a no-fee coin counting option to the end user.

According to a news release, the Coin to Card model was first tested with Starbucks Coffee Company and the Starbucks Card in Seattle, Las Vegas and Philadelphia. Based on early results, this new service, which will continue to include the Starbucks Card, will be expanded and rolled out to the Coinstar network on a regional basis beginning this spring. It is expected to be fully implemented across the country within the next two to three years.

Hollywood Video will also be among the first set of gift cards to be added to the Coinstar kiosk. Coinstar is looking to add additional retail gift cards in the future, which will include cards in categories such as books, movies, apparel, restaurants and home improvement.

The Coinstar kiosk, typically located at the front end of supermarkets, will provide users with the ability to choose from up to three retail gift cards or a branded gift card from the participating supermarkets.

"We are thrilled to be introducing this innovative program and are proud to offer gift cards from some of the country's finest retailers," said Rich Stillman, president of Coinstar, Inc. "It's a great program for our retail and card partners as well as consumers. This new service, featuring no-fee coin counting, gives consumers a compelling reason to convert the estimated $10 billion in idle change sitting dormant in American households into something of real value."

An estimated 80 percent of Americans accumulate coin, but only 58 percent of them choose to cash in their coin. The ability to turn this inactive change into a latte, DVD rental, accessories for the home or even groceries with no coin counting fee, gives consumers a choice and a motivating reason to cash in change. In addition, Coinstar's new coin-counting model allows the company to tap into the burgeoning gift card market which, according to the Pelorus Group, is expected to grow to $132 billion in 2008 from $79 billion in 2004.