Express Business News

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — It's a sign of the times. Crouching there in an entry hallway to Chapel Hills Mall, just a few steps down from the Dippin' Dots machine and the Portrait Studio photo booth, is an industrial-strength self-serve shredding machine.

RealTime Shredding Inc., a family-run business from Monument, Colo., has just started renting the space from the mall, providing security-conscious consumers with a convenient way to turn all their personal documents into mulch.

This 5-foot-high document eater is the first of its kind nationwide, according to the company's research.

"We see this as something that could take the industry by storm, like ATM machines," said RealTime president Amanda Verrie. "Eventually we see these machines being all over — in shopping malls, grocery stores, banks, apartments, smaller business and medical centers."

Such optimism is supported by a 2005 survey released jointly by the Better Business Bureau and Javelin Strategy and Research, which shows 9.3 million American adults were victims of identity fraud during the past 12 months at a cost of $56.2 billion...

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