Have to advice and extend my remarks. My wife just reminded me the last trip we took to Indiana, we tried to return a few cans from there, the return machines wouldn’t take them.
I lived in Brighton, then moved to Indiana. My FIL owns a convenience store between Brighton and Howell, and he doesn’t have a return machine, he still counts them out and gives you the money. He then puts them in a big bag, when it fills up to a line it is worth $100, so the delivery driver pays him the money and takes the bags away for him. Larger stores use the barcode machines, but a couple of small independent less scrupulous store owners could and would gladly take them all back knowing they were from Indiana for a cut off the top.