THE MACHINE AGE

摘要

On an average day, Tri-State Iron & Metal Co. might buy-scrap from hundreds of retail customers at its Texarkana, Ark., yard, says Howard Glick, the company's president. Transactions range from "a housewife with a bag of cans," which have a scrap value of a few dollars, to a van full of construction odds and ends that could be worth several thousand dollars. In the past, these customers would get a receipt from the scale house and take that to a cashier, who would open the cash drawer, count out the payment, and hand it over. The potential risks of such transactions are clear, however. First, the cashier and the customers are vulnerable to robbery.