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Photo by Bob Pennell Warren Merz, Jacksonville, and Don Boren, Central Point, use automated machines outside the north Fred Meyer. Automation draws mixed reviews in the battle of THE BOTTLE MACHINE By BILL VARBLE A muffled clunking and grinding greets the cans and bottles Warren Merz and Don Boren feed the return machines outside the Fred Meyer store on Highway 62 in Medford. The ritual of the mechanical offering is replacing the old way of taking bottles to a person who counts them, and it has its critics. Merz, of Jacksonville, says that if you don't put a can in just right, the machine spits it back and you don't get the 5-cent credit for it. "Sort of like Las Vegas," he says, demonstrating. He says he'd prefer to deal with real humans. Richard Shave, of Medford, doesn't like the machines one bit. "They reject good bottles," he says. "They're sold in their stores and they won't take them back. I've had them reject a third of the bottles on me." He says the machines seem to be extra picky about Henry Weinhard bottles. Alberton's manager Darrel Taylor says he heard complaints when the machines went in more than a year ago, but few lately. "People seem to have adjusted," Taylor says. "It's for their convenience. The customer doesn't have to go to the back and ring a buzzer and wait." He says store employees will help anybody who has a problem with the machines. Boren, of Central Point, says broken machines aren't a big problem. "I just go get somebody," he says. Shave doesn't like standing in the lines in front of the machines. He says the whole process discourages bottle returns. Taylor rejects the suggestion the machines are intended to cut down on returns. "If they bring their bottles, we know it's because they're shopping here," he says. Shoppers around Medford Wednesday generally give the machines thumbs up. "I like this," says Chuck Francis, of Central Point, at a Fred Meyer store. "You figure it's quite crowded in the store. (Without the machines) they'd have people traipsing through with their bottles." Feeding a machine at an Albertson's is Judy Hill, of Ruch. "I think they're great," she says. "Quick and efficient. At least you don't have to wait a long time." Hill likes being able to haul returns in plastic trash bags, something many stores didn't permit. Feeding a machine at Safeway, Linda Martin, of Medford, says she likes the things. "They're faster," she says. "I might be an oddball, but I like 'em." Nobody questions Oregon's bottle deposit law. Starting in 1972 it put a nickel deposit on beer and soda pop cans and bottles. Efforts to pass similar laws in some states have been defeated after heavy spending by the bottling industry. "It makes a hell of a lot of sense," Merz says. "I'm from Michigan. There's a 10-cent deposit there. Before, cans and bottles were all over. Now kids are picking them up for the dime." A homeless man named Bill, who says he lives in his car, says the machines make his life easier. "They're great," he says, heaving black plastic bags from the trunk of the beat-up car into a shopping cart. "It beats the hell out of panhandling." Bill says he's 57 and originally from Burlington, Iowa. He says in the early '90s he was managing a motel for $400 a week, and his life is his own doing. Store clerks used to hassle him when he returned bottles the old-fashioned way. "Piece of cake," he says of the machines. "They break down a lot, but you just ring the buzzer and they come out and fix them.'' Shave isn't persuaded. "It's a damn nuisance," he says. "It's not worth a nickel. I'm putting them in the trash." Merz has a different take. "I miss the human contact," he says. "It seems like our society is losing that." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA