It’s 11 pm on a Saturday and you’ve locked yourself out of your house. You’ll have to call a locksmith. Then you’ll wait for him or her to come to your place… and, if you’re a New Yorker, you’ll end up paying about $100 to get back into your house.
But what if you could go a 7-Eleven and get a whole new copy of your key for about $20, instead? A homegrown startup called KeyMe has just installed two kiosks in New York City 7-Elevens to do just that. Three more are coming this week, says the startup’s founder, Greg Marsh. But don’t first go to a kiosk when you’re in trouble. You’ll need to have the foresight to have had a copy of your key scanned digitally beforehand.
Here’s how it works. When you first go to a kiosk, you scan the key you want copied. If you like, you are able to make a copy right then and there for $3.49, for a basic key, or $5.99, for a novelty one.
via PopSci
June 26, 2013