Independent Michigan Grocer Offers Document Shredding

WENDY TOTH

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Duthler's Family Food is testing a service that is relatively new to retail stores: professional document shredding.

The four-store chain signed with ShredStation, Bensalem, Pa., which installed a secure automated drop box for sensitive documents in two of Duthler's stores late last month. Customers are notified electronically when those documents have been shredded.

“Think about identity theft,” said David Duthler, owner of Duthler's Family Food. “It is very disruptive to have your identity stolen. So this is a service for our customers and another reason to stop in our store.”

The ShredStation deposit boxes are located in the front of the stores by the checkout lanes, are made of commercial-grade steel and are bolted to the floor, Duthler said. Using the same technology as ATMs, the boxes accept credit or debit cards and charge customers $5 to place a 2-pound envelope of documents into the box.

A transaction ID number on the receipt is registered on ShredStation's website and customers receive notification via text message or email at the time of document destruction.

“We are getting a lot of questions about what the deposit box does,” Duthler said. “So we are thinking of offering customers a coupon where they can get money off the first envelope of documents they want to destroy.” Duthler's gets a percentage of sales from the machine.

Using industrial cross-cut mobile shredding trucks, agents licensed for professional business and government document disposal come to the supermarket and shred the documents on site, later recycling it in a commercial bulk that cannot be traced to a single user or business, according to ShredStation.

“This would take your basic home shredder about half an hour,” said Al Villamil, president of ShredStation. “Think about it as washing your car or driving through a car wash. Supermarkets are competing to be a one-stop shop and this service is extremely relevant.”

“The shredding service will take getting customers to try it and see how easy it is,” Duthler said. “Then the repeats won't be hard.”