Tag: vending machines

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

3 Ways to Find the Perfect Vending Location

Whether you are new to the vending business or a veteran, you are likely open to suggestions on how to make your business more profitable. Since a huge part of a vending businesses success is the result of the machine’s location, learning where to put your vending machine is crucial. Read below for three tips from Vending.com on how to do just that:

Go where the people are:
As a vending machine owner, you want to find locations to put your vending machines where there is a great deal of foot traffic. Examples of such places include airports, malls or busy offices. It only stands to reason that the more people who walk by your machines each day, the better your sales will be.

Be the focus:
Although it is wise to put your vending machine where there is lots of foot traffic as listed above, you can also find success when placing your machine in a more subdued environment. Your machine will often times become a source of entertainment when people are bored. Great examples of these locations that are less busy yet highly profitable include doctors’ offices, nail salons, car repair centers or barber shops.

Don’t avoid competition:
Some vending machine owners do not want to place their machines near other peoples’ machines. However, that can be a mistake. If you place a well-stocked, attractive vending machine next to a machine that is poorly maintained or rarely stocked, you will end up doing well even with competition present.

By incorporating the three tips listed above and remembering to match the type of vending machine with your clientele, you can ensure you are placing your machine in the most profitable location possible. After all, just as in real estate, location, location, location is the means to success in the vending business.

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Vending Machines Help “World Hello Day”

Soda Vending MachineNovember 21st is World Hello Day. The goal of this holiday is to promote world peace by getting people to say hello to each other and break down the barriers that are created when we do not know someone else well enough. Introducing yourself, or even just saying “hello” to someone can create a positive and friendly atmosphere that will carry on throughout the entire day.

At Vending.com, we love this idea. People have always talked about “meeting at the water cooler” or the modern day equivalent, drink vending machine. To celebrate this holiday in your office, what places could you meet someone new or say “hello” to someone? Food and drinks are the perfect way to bring people together and casual settings like cafes, dining areas or vending machine areas function perfectly as social gather places.

We challenge you to use this entire week as a time to meet new people and create a more positive environment at your workplace just by saying hello and acknowledging the people around you. Who knows, you might meet a new best friend or learn something you would have never known!

Vending.com
Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

November Activities, All in One Vending Machine!

November is a month of food, lots of food, and shopping thanks to retail calendar highlights such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Vending.com is here to help you keep your vending customers satisfied for both of these things.

Vending machines tie in both of these November pastimes in one place and at the same time! Vending machines are also much more than just a place to get a quick snack. With our food vending machines’s ability to vend cold and frozen food, there are also plenty of fresh and frozen options available to vending patrons that are looking for a quick Thanksgiving meal.

About Vending.com

Vending.com brings together a multitude of vending expertise through our circle of services. Everything you need to start, grow, or manage your vending business is provided through our easy online access. We provide vending services, financing, vending industry news, technical repair, parts and much more. Vending.com is one of the companies under the Wittern Group umbrella. Whether you are an entrepreneur starting your own vending machine business or expanding your current business, Vending.com offers you a full-range of vending machines, financing, location assistance and other services to meet all of your vending needs. As a full-line vending sales company we provide customers nationwide with the right equipment for their client’s location. Our large selection of snack, soda machines, hot beverage, cold and frozen food and other quality vending machines can be configured and customized to fit any size location from small businesses to large factories. Let our network of vending machine companies go to work for you.

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Vending Machine Industry Confidence Index

Vending MarketWatch recently released a new study of the vending industry, the Vending Operator Confidence Index. The aim of this index is to measure the confidence vending operators have in the industry and assign it a positive or negative value. In their first ever index, Vending Market Watch rated the vending industry confidence level at 136.00. The average is 100 so a reading over that indicates various levels of positive outlooks. 136 puts it at a cautiously optimist outlook for the vending industry.

This index will be conducted monthly and give industry members a view of how the overall industry is doing on a more regular basis. The vending industry usually relies on annual reports or smaller studies and the monthly delivery of this survey will certainly give some unique insights into the industry. Having monthly indexes will most likely cause a few unduly high or low points based on industry trends or developments, but it will hopefully draw attention to those developments as well.

With new developments occurring more and more frequently and new vending machines for sale hitting the market, having a way to keep tab on these technological advances and the overall trend of the industry will be very helpful.

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Vending Machines Help Relieve the Heat

Drink vending machines are a mainstay in most vending lineups and can be found year-round in most locations. Vending.com noticed that Coca-Cola recently launched a vending machine in Spain that adjusts its pricing strategy of its drinks depending on the on temperature.

These machines were placed in water parks and theme parks and the surprising vending machine pricing strategy was that the prices of cold beverages actually went down as the temperatures went up. With three different price points depending on how high the thermometer was reading, these machines sold drinks for the least amount of money when the temperature was the hottest.

The reasoning behind this pricing strategy was that hot and busy days at these amusement parks would be a good time to test a new Coke beverage, so decreasing the price on hot and usually busy days meant that the new drink got into more people’s hands.

Most vending machines for sale currently do not offer features to adjust the price based on external conditions such as weather. Adjusting prices based on time of day, number of people around the machine, or weather conditions could open some interesting marketing strategies. What conditions would you have your machines’ prices fluctuate with?

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Break Room Vending Machines

When you have worked in an office for any amount of time that has a break room, it is easy to notice how odd and often gross, they can be. The reason for these oddities is often food brought in by coworkers.

Storing perishable food can often become a challenge as expiration dates become lost in the well-lit abyss that is the back of the communal refrigerator. Once good ideas for lunch may sit, left and forgotten, on tables or in communal microwaves for days on end and pots of coffee made with the best intentions can become caffeinated science projects gone wrong.

An easy way to avoid these break room horrors is with vending machines! Vending.com has a wide variety of vending machines specifically for office break rooms that include, food, snack, drink, coffee, water and more. Break room vending machines are not just for grabbing a candy bar or can of soda anymore; many of our machines can vend enough fresh food to keep employees happy and well-fed every day.

Depending on how your office decides to operate the vending machines at work, profits from them can be donated to charity, reinvested back into the office or a variety of other options that will help out more than your break room’s hygiene!

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Google Play Vending Machine

Another unique vending machine has launched in Tokyo recently. There is definitely no shortage of odd and creative vending machines in Japan, but this one has a very large brand name attached to it. This new machine was launched by Google and does not vend physical products, but it is a brick and mortar interface for Google’s Play market.

This creative vending machine requires that you have a smartphone that is running Android 4.0 and has NFC technology. So not all smartphone users will be able to interface with the machine, but most new Android devices should have no problem. The machine features a large screen that uses the same interface that Android users would regularly see when they visit Google Play on their desktop or mobile devices. Customers can then browse the selections on the screen while they are assisted by two attendants that will be stationed at every Google vending machine.

The purchases on the machine can be paid for with your mobile device and will be downloaded after payment is received. Vending.com has discussed NFC technology and mobile payments for vending machines before, and seeing how Google uses their own technology could lead to some interesting innovations!

About Vending.com

Vending.com brings together a multitude of vending expertise through our circle of services. Everything you need to start, grow, or manage your vending business is provided through our easy online access. We provide vending services, financing, vending industry news, technical repair, parts and much more. Vending.com is one of the companies under the Wittern Group umbrella. Whether you are an entrepreneur starting your own vending machine business or expanding your current business, Vending.com offers you a full-range of vending machines, financing, location assistance and other services to meet all of your vending needs. As a full-line vending sales company we provide customers nationwide with the right equipment for their client’s location. Our large selection of snack, soda machines, hot beverage, cold and frozen food and other quality vending machines can be configured and customized to fit any size location from small businesses to large factories. Let our network of vending machine companies go to work for you.

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Luxury Gift Vending Machine

A vending machine in Berlin is offering a range of items that you might not find in your traditional vending machines. The vending machine was launched by German delicatessen Floris Feinkost and features gourmet selections including luxury items such as prepared food and gift packages.

This luxury vending machine has gifts that anyone would want to receive including pint-sized bottles of champagne, pastries, pralines, flavored salts, chocolates and even bottles of wines. These are just a few of the more than 60 products customers can browse through.

The unit has ten levels of display cases that showcase the wares. Vending.com has seen vending operators benefit from improved displays of vending products through updated machines, captivating graphics on the machine, and well-lit and organized product displays. In this particular luxury vending machine, the gift cases look like miniature storefront displays, with products perfectly packaged and displayed.

About Vending.com

Vending.com brings together a multitude of vending expertise through our circle of services. Everything you need to start, grow, or manage your vending business is provided through our easy online access. We provide vending services, financing, vending industry news, technical repair, parts and much more. Vending.com is one of the companies under the Wittern Group umbrella. Whether you are an entrepreneur starting your own vending machine business or expanding your current business, Vending.com offers you a full range of vending machines, financing, location assistance and other services to meet all of your vending needs. As a full-line vending sales company we provide customers nationwide with the right equipment for their client’s location. Our large selection of snack, soda machines, hot beverage, cold and frozen food and other quality vending machines can be configured and customized to fit any size location from small businesses to large factories. Let our network of vending machine companies go to work for you.

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Easy Mobile Upgrade for Vending Machines

Incorporating mobile technology into vending machines is a popular trend that is creating tons of new possibilities for payments, technical service and customer interaction. A company called LikeUS Network is coming out with a new technology that gives vending machine patrons more options for mobile payments.

This new “plug-and-play” technology is one of the easiest vending machine upgrades available. This solution allows vending machine operators to plug a device into their existing vending machines and immediately be able to use the technology without the need to change any settings. This new mobile technology is a great addition to allow vending machines for sale currently from companies such as Vending.com to accept payments from PayPayl and Google wallet.

There is also a mobile payment option that allows patrons to interact with the machine via social networks such as Facebook and receive free beverages or snacks in exchange for a Like, Retweet or share. This is an interesting new way to promote your vending machines because a branded message is shared on that customer’s social network that tells all of their friends about your vending machine.

This easy vending machine upgrade is also a great way to gain demographic information on your customers that is typically unavailable to machines that accept cash or credit and debit cards.

Posted on | by pmasters@wittern.com

Patent for Crispy Bread Snack from Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay, manufacturers of a variety of vending machine staples such as potato chips, crackers, pretzels and much more, has recently filed a patent for crisp bread snacks that use traditional dough recipes. Frito-Lay, whose sales of its products in 2009 comprised 40% of all “savory snacks” sold in the United States, has developed a new method that would make traditional bread recipes such as Swedish oat bread, Middle Eastern Challah bread, and Torta bread from Spain into crispy bread chip snacks.

The main processes proposed in this patent are aimed to reduce the traditional problems that make bread difficult to turn into a snack. Reducing the baking time and preparation time, reducing moisture and standardizing baking processes. In addition, additions to the traditional recipes have been made to improve the nutritional qualities of these new snacks.

The final products will have a crispy texture due to the baking process that vaporizes water in the dough. The reduced moisture content will help improve the shelf-life of these crispy bread chip snacks. Vending.com can see these snacks hitting vending machines as a new alternative to potato chips, especially for customers looking for a baked alternative.

There has not yet been a review of the taste of these new snacks, but with the variety of bread recipes being used by Frito-Lay, there will undoubtedly be a flavor for everyone.