Here in Michigan, we have a deposit on beverage containers. Everytime you purchase a bottle/can of beer or a soft drink, the store collects a $.10 deposit. Then, when you return the container, the store refunds the money. Small stores refund the money manually, while large stores have special machines.

There are two types of machines, one for cans and one for bottles. When you stick your beverage container in the machine, the machine reads the bar code to determine if the container is eligible for a refund. If it is, the machine swallows the container and racks up a tally. If not, the machine returns the container.

When you are all finished, you hit a button and the machine prints out a tally slip. Then you hand the tally slip to the cashier and you get your deposit back.

Now Meijers (regional grocery chain) has a special room for returning bottles and cans. And in that room are about 10 of these machines.

Today, when I was at Meijers, I noticed that there was a line of people waiting to return bottles and cans. I have never seen a line of people waiting to return bottles and cans.

I guess it is official, the party is over.