Author: GokulAnandM@wittern.com

Successful Retail Kiosks

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

Intelligent Dispensing Solutions has manufactured a wide range of customized vending machines for various businesses in many different industries. One of our most popular forms of vending machines is an automated retail kiosks that vend products to customers or provide information and customer service services.

You may not think that kiosks will fit with your business, but these vending machines often tap into markets and demographics that you might have had less success with in the past. Automated retail kiosks are a great way to show off new technology and create buzz about your business by installing something people have not seen before. They are also an extra point of contact for customers to engage with your company, especially if the machine is located in a different area than your stores.

Kiosks, self-checkout and mobile shopping are becoming increasingly popular with younger shoppers and as their shopping habits develop more, they will expect stores to meet their needs. Even traditional products like clothing, jewelry or small electronics can see success in retail kiosk self-checkout machines because younger shoppers like the autonomy of the machine and the ability to avoid stores they might not shop in.

Customized and Healthy Vending

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

Healthy vending machines have been steadily rising in popularity over the past few years. Machines that offer snack and beverage choices that have less than 200 calories and are either chock full of whole grains or primarily contain fruits, vegetables, dairy or protein are already required in schools and this trend is trickling into the vending industry in other locations.

For vending machine operators, this increased interest in healthy vending options presents a great opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition. While customers are still having a difficult time finding nutritious snacks on the go, they will be seeking out machines that can provide what they want.

From all of our experience, Intelligent Dispensing Solutions has also seen that machines that are technologically advanced and impressive attract more business than standard machines. Custom healthy vending machines are an ideal way to create an attractive and innovative machine to vend healthier snacks and beverages and increase your sales. Especially with fresh fruits and vegetables, vending these objects efficiently can be difficult due to irregular shapes, products that can be easily damaged, or specialized storage requirements.

Set the new trend at your vending locations and start with an exciting new vending machine!

New York Fashion Week’s Recycling Machine

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

New York Fashion Week is one of the fashion industry’s largest events of the year and there is no shortage of cutting edge clothing and designers pushing the limits and boundaries of fashion. For three days during the week-long celebration, a unique vending machine made an appearance, dispensing t-shirts that are definitely more than what meets the eye.

The organization Plastics Make it Possible arrived at fashion week with a truly unique custom vending machine that dispensed a free t-shirt to anyone that “paid” by putting a plastic bottle into the machine. While a creative way to encourage recycling, this may seem like an odd exchange for a t-shirt. The differences between the plastic bottle that patrons inserted into the machine and the t-shirt they received from it aren’t that different though.

The t-shirts from this machine were designed by Allison Parris and were made from recycled plastic fabric! Intelligent Dispensing Solutions loves to see creative vending machines used to promote great causes like this. The t-shirts are made with recycled plastic bottles that are cleaned, melted and stretched into a fine thread. The result is a soft, woven fabric that can be made into lots of different kinds of clothing, including stylish graphic t-shirts!

Smart Subway Vending Machines

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

If you have ever traveled or lived in New York City, you have most likely experienced the city’s famous subway system. The MTA, the organization responsible for public transportation in New York, is constantly trying to come up with ways to improve commuting for the millions of people that use the subway system daily.

Since 1993, commuters have used custom vending machines to purchase a plastic or paper MetroCard in order to ride the subway. Until now, scanning credit cards and debit cards in the machine or paying with cash and coin were the only options available to pay for your MetroCard.  The MTA is now testing a new method of payment in which customers are able to press their card against a Smart Card reader on the machine and wirelessly. This form of credit card scanning has been used in retail stores for a while now, but the technology is still widely unused due to concerns about credit card security and slow adaptation by credit card companies and consumers.

Intelligent Dispensing Solutions sees this version of credit card payment slowly replacing traditional credit card scanners because of its ease and ability to process thousands of vending transactions without any physical wear on the machine.

Work Out Convenience

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

Staying in shape requires a lot of dedication and hard work, as well as the right gear and equipment. Many of us join gyms in order to gain access to all of the equipment and facilities we need to practice our favorite sports or perform our exercise routines. In addition to having all of the right equipment at the gym, we often require proper gear and clothing to work out comfortably, safely and stylishly.

Companies such as Speedo have capitalized on this very need by creating custom Speedo vending machines that are branded with their logos and graphics and vend everything from swimming goggles to swimwear and flip flop sandals. Intelligent Dispensing Solutions has the ability to create these custom Speedo vending machines that can vend almost any product you would need to exercise at the gym.

Our machines use advanced technology to vend almost any items in a machine that is perfect for your facility. From what the machine vends to how it looks and functions, we will work with you to create a profitable vending solution. Since most gyms and workout facilities function with a membership program for customers, we can design a machine that utilizes those memberships as methods of payment so patrons won’t have to be carrying cash or cards with them during their workout to use the machine.

Retail Vending Technologies

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

Vending machines are much more versatile than they were in the past. With new technologies that are becoming more widespread and compact, vending services are evolving from traditional snack and drink vending with coin payment systems to sophisticated POS, or point of sale, systems and retail vending machines that create new interaction, marketing and sales opportunities for businesses. This is especially true in the retail industry, where traditional brick-and-mortar stores are trying to find more ways to connect with digitally-connected customers and online e-commerce sites are attempting to create physical footprints and ways to interact with customers in tangible ways.

A technology that is helping this process along is the use of QR, short for Quick Response, codes. These matrix bar-codes can already be found on anything from business cards to billboards and even on the packages of many items sold in vending machines. For retailers, these QR code vending machines give consumers with smart-phones an easy opportunity to connect with their websites, send text messages to enter contests, or even contact vending machine operators about service issues or questions.

By scanning the code with their phones, customers are immediately directed to take an action with their phone and these actions are often simple and very valuable to businesses. Intelligent Dispensing Solutions, as a vending machine manufacturer is always looking for new and innovative ways to incorporate these technologies to help your vending business.

Freshly Fried French Fry Machine

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

The sight or smell of french fries for most people starts their mouths salivating at the thought of the warm, salty, fried taste of these pieces of potato perfection. A custom vending machine manufacturer in Belgium has designed Belgium’s first frite, or French fry, vending machine that uses beef fat to fry the fries.

For €2.50, french fry fans can enjoy a hot, freshly fried cup of frites that are served with a fork, salt and your choice of ketchup or mayonnaise. While this isn’t the first machine to manufacture fries for customers on the go, this is the first one that uses beef tallow to create what many fry fanatics claim is ingredient that creates the most delicious french fries. Intelligent Dispensing Solutions, and most of you are probably thinking the same thing, wouldn’t mind one of these in our offices!

Belgium is the historical birthplace of this world-wide snack phenomenon and claims to produce the best fries anywhere in the world. A Belgian journalist claimed that a family manuscript from 1781 describes consuming deep-fried potatoes prior to 1680. Since then, fries have become a staple for fast food restaurants and the ideal pair for many traditional and favorite dishes of diners around the globe.

Even in the US, french fries have a lengthy history with records of Thomas Jefferson enjoying “potatoes served in the French manner” at the White House in 1802.

30-Year-Old Custom Vending Machine

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

To most of our readers, it is not a secret that Japan is home to many of the world’s greatest and oddest vending machines. With over 5 million machines currently operating in the country, there are bound to be interesting innovations and unique machines.

Custom vending machines usually incorporate cutting-edge new technology or new mechanisms that allow them to do things your average vending machine would not be able to. Sometimes though, the simplest solutions are the best and a great idea is all you need to make something average stand out.

A very popular Japanese dish is curry and rice. This isn’t something your average snack machine could vend, but a small, red machine in a vending machine establishment in Japan dispenses hot servings of ready-to-eat curry and rice. The interesting thing about it is that this great vending “innovation” has been operating for almost 30 years!

The Japanese curry and rice vending machine serves vacuum-sealed packages of curry and rice that are kept warm inside the machine and the machine is operated by the man that personally grows the rice used in the machine. To ensure its freshness, the operator replaces the rice in this Japanese dispenser several times per day. Intelligent Dispensing Solutions applauds this vending entrepreneur for his commitment to delivering a unique and quality product!

Earning Your Vending Treat

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

There have been a lot of new marketing campaigns that feature custom vending machines lately. The latest entry into the vending-for-marketing game is Strongbow, an English cider company. Strongbow’s new campaign, entitled “Earn It.” is all about earning your tasty beverage. The campaign focuses on people performing difficult tasks and competing in difficult sporting events, such as tough mudder competitions, cricket, football and stand up comedy.

To translate this sense of competition and the requirement of earning your can of cider to their vending machine, Strongbow created an interactive machine that uses kinetic monitoring systems to track users’ movements as they aim their bow and arrows at a target down a field on the screen. The machine was placed in one of the UK’s busiest train stations and attracted a large number of participants that often were so excited about the motion-tracking technology or hitting the target with their virtual arrow that they forgot to pick up their prize: a free can of Strongbow.

Kinetic software and motion-tracking technology has become popular with a lot of consumer products within recent years. Video game systems have incorporated the technology and made it a fairly common thing in many households. Intelligent Dispensing Solutions has seen some pretty great uses of this technology in interactive vending machines lately and is excited to see what is next!

Last-Minute Makeup Machine

Posted on by GokulAnandM@wittern.com

Custom Vending MachinesYou’ve made it through the airport’s security, miraculously arrived at your gate on time, and even have enough spare time to enjoy your victory with some relaxing. After visiting the nearest cafe for the largest container of coffee they can legally sell, you rummage through your carry-on bag to triple-check that you have everything you need.

While searching for your favorite magazine, you start noticing all the things you forgot to pack in your early-morning rush! Luckily, airports are well-equipped with custom vending machines that stock just about everything you could need on your flight.

Recently, San Francisco cosmetics company, Benefit, launched a new vending machine to help travelers that grabbed everything but their lipstick, eye-liner or almost anything else you’d find in a makeup bag. Their new “Glam Up & Away” machines have makeup on-the-go available at JFK airport and airports in Austin and Las Vegas. These beautifully bright-pink makeup vending machines vend 30 of their most popular products to help travelers look their best.

These machines are a great blend of creative design, marketing gimmick and very useful products!

Have you seen any creative vending machines lately? Intelligent Dispensing Solutions is always on the lookout for new and innovative uses of vending technology!