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Bitcoin joins the grocery shopping list

Service now enables digital currency to be purchased at over 2,200 stores

Russell Redman

May 24, 2019

2 Min Read
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Consumers can now buy the cryptocurrency bitcoin at kiosks in more than 2,200 grocery stores through a partnership between Coinme and Coinstar.

Seattle-based Coinme, a blockchain financial technology company, said this week that its collaboration with coin-counting kiosk provider Coinstar has now expanded its bitcoin purchasing service to retail locations across 21 states, including major markets such as Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Coinme and Bellevue, Wash.-based Coinstar launched the bitcoin service in mid-January at Coinstar kiosks inside select Safeway and Albertsons supermarkets in California, Texas and Washington. Other grocery banners now offering the service include Jewel, Shaw’s, Lucky/Lucky California, Save Mart, FoodMaxx, MaxxValue Foods, Strack & Van Til, Winn-Dixie, Piggly Wiggly, Acme Markets, ShopRite, Foodtown, Shop ‘n Save, Tops Market, Tom Thumb and La Fiesta Supermarket, among others.

Coinme-Coinstar_bitcoin_service_kiosk_screen.PNG copy.png

“Bitcoin and other digital currencies offer unique benefits to consumers, including the potential for more cost-effective and faster remittances to family and friends,” Neil Bergquist, co-founder and CEO of Coinme, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to team up with Coinstar to make Bitcoin more accessible to consumers than ever before and offer a key component for the new digital currency economy.”

Customers must use U.S. paper currency to purchase bitcoin at the Coinstar kiosks. The process works as follows: At a Coinstar station, consumers select “Buy Bitcoin” on the touchscreen, review and accept the transaction terms, enter their phone number and then insert bills into the cash acceptor (up to $2,500). They then receive a printed voucher with a bitcoin redemption code and go to Coinme.com/redeem to create a Coinme account or sign in to an existing account to claim their bitcoin.

Coinstar owns and operates more than 20,000 self-service coin-counting kiosks in nine countries, and the company said it has “thousands in the U.S. market” that can be enabled to accept bitcoin transactions.

“The response to being able to purchase Bitcoin at Coinstar kiosks has been extremely positive, with overwhelming demand by both consumers and new retailer partners,” according to Coinstar CEO Jim Gaherity. “We are incredibly pleased with this collaboration with Coinme and are eager to continue expanding to new markets in the coming months.”

Founded in 2014, Coinme said it was the first state-licensed bitcoin ATM company in the United States and that now, through its partnership with Coinstar, powers the world’s largest bitcoin kiosk network and handles millions of dollars in transactions monthly.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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