BELLEVUE, Wash. - Don??t know what to do with an unwanted gift card? A new kiosk from Coinstar called Alula will allow customers to turn it into cash on the spot, the Columbus Dispatch reports. The National Retail Federation estimated that nationwide sales of gift cards would reach $28 billion this year.

Giant Eagle is piloting the self-service kiosk at 21 Ohio stores. Alula verifies customer identities by asking for a credit-card number. Consumers can only conduct a certain amount of transactions per day to help limit criminal activity. Alula accepts more than 170 different gift cards, and gives between 60% and 85% of the card??s value. Customers receive a voucher, which can be redeemed at a checkout register for cash.

"It??s like a currency exchange rate," said Lindemulder. Alula in turn resells the gift cards on online exchanges and reseller websites.

"When you think about one-stop shopping, you think of some of the things we do, from our chef-prepared meals, to dry cleaning in the store, to the sheer volume of gift cards that we sell," said Brian Ferrier, Giant Eagle??s regional director of operations for central Ohio.

For supermarkets, offering kiosks like Alula "make even small grocers that all-in-one shop for consumers so they can compete with the larger retailers that have wandered into the food world," said Nate Filler, CEO of the Ohio Grocers Association.