Archived How does your store handle bottle deposit returns?

[LearningTree]

To you guys who live in states where retailers are required to charge bottle deposits, how do you process the returns when guests bring back the empty bottles? My store has an option in the register as did another store closer to my house. I used to return my bottles all the time to one or the other with zero problem. Now I've moved and I'm now on the border between 2 districts. The new store I go to claims they don't do that, etc. The way I've understood the legislature, is that retailers who charge a bottle deposit must either have a system in-store to process refunds or a nearby recycling center. This new store had neither.

 

[OneArmedJesus]

We have a machine in store that you can return cans and bottles too, and you get a slip to turn in at GS

Our GS doesnt accept bottles the machine wont take

 

[SoCalMama]

OMG my store used to have to take them back at GS. A damn nightmare. Guys would come in with 2000 bottles, 5 days a week. We had no room for it.
Here's the best part. They'd store it in the garden center. In the middle of the night, people would break in and steal them. In the morning, they'd sell them back to us. Repeat, repeat.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

I am in a state that charges a bottle deposit and we do not take them back.

 

[Fluttervale]

We are required by law to take back any that we sell.

We hand count them, and if people get antsy they can go to the 24 hour store next door. They are also invited to do that if they bring us dirty bottles.

I haven't seen anyone bringing back more than a few since we make it tedious.

 

[buliSBI]

When I worked a store in Iowa. It had the CAN-DO can crusher and bottle/plastic scanner. This has been the single most disgusting CA task I ever did with Target.

The cans are not scanned by the crusher. But are with the bottle/plastic scanner. All rejected bottles/plastics then had to be verified by GS. As long as it was major brand or Target brand carried by Target, GS accepted it. If it was Walmart or unknown product, GS refused it.


It either went toward a paper giftcard, or cash (when under $5).