CSTR

Coinstar, Inc.

A maker of self-service coin-counting kiosks found in grocery stores and big-box retailers across the country, where shoppers dump a jar of loose change and trade it in for cash, gift cards, or charitable donations. The idea came to founder Jens Molbak in 1989 when he stared at a jar of coins in his Stanford dorm room and wished there were an easy way to turn them into spending money. Founded in 1991 in Washington state, the company named itself Coinstar for its core trick: turning pocket change into "cash" in a single automated step.