# How Much Money in a Self-Checkout Kiosk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2020, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073 "2020-07-02T16:06:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073/1 "2020-07-02T16:06:41Z")
Prompted by [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/national-shortage-of-coins/913982/29) , how much physical money is typically kept in a self-checkout kiosk that handles cash? The person in the thread said that each one of theirs typically contains around $5000, and someone else thought that was really high. I honestly have no idea what a reasonable amount of cash is for one, and a quick google only gave me the typical price for one, not how much cash it would hold. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073/2 "2020-07-03T09:15:10Z")
As a participant in that thread, let me clarify that at my particular store the machines start out with about $1500 in cash to allow it to make change for several denominations. This is much like a traditional cash register, which also starts the day with a set amount of money. After a couple days of business they might contain $5k. They store lets more money accumulate in the machines than it would an old-fashioned human-run cash register because they self-serve machines are a little harder to rob. Different machines are going to vary due to the needs of different customers, by which I mean retailers who own/rent the machines. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073/3 "2020-07-03T18:23:21Z")
Is the money that a customer deposits stored in a way it can later be disbursed. Or is it in a separate place. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073/4 "2020-07-03T18:42:17Z")
I didn’t even know self serve checkouts allow a cash option. I always pay virtually everything by CC or debit including on the rare occasions I’ve used a self serve checkout anyway. (now I’m going to have to make a point of checking that out) ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073/5 "2020-07-03T20:57:26Z")
Its interesting to me because I always thought of the machines as having hundreds of dollars, not thousands. But it makes sense that if people are paying with cash they would accumulate money, and it’s generally going to be easy and safe to leave it in place for longer than a cash drawer in a register. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073/6 "2020-07-03T21:51:02Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > I didn’t even know self serve checkouts allow a cash option. Same…the ones around here don’t. (At least the ones in WalMart…I haven’t tried the ones in NoFrills, yet.) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-money-in-a-self-checkout-kiosk/914073/7 "2020-07-03T22:11:11Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Is the money that a customer deposits stored in a way it can later be disbursed. Or is it in a separate place. Up to a certain amount it is available for disbursement, but over that it goes into a sort of reservoir that needs to be emptied by a human. Also, all 100’s, 50’s, and 2’s go into the reservoir. I think the dollar coins can recirculate. too, but I’m not sure.