Category: Business

I was coming out of a restaurant with my girlfriend in a hip part of town and I saw a custom vending machine. It was filled with bike supplies, spare tubes, patch kits, wrenches and the like. How convenient, I wondered, with so many bikes in this part of town, right under the bridge, surely this bike vending machine gets lots of business. What a great idea. I had never seen a custom vending machine like that before.

That you could put anything in a custom vending machine and watch it sell, goodness willing, really blew my mind. If I had my druthers I’d put literature in custom vending machines. I’d place them in airports and train stations and doctors offices — shorts stories and novels by Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Chekhov. Classics, you know. When you give people too much choice, it’s overwhelming. Give them ten or twenty choices and they can eliminate what they don’t like and choose what they do.

In the meanwhile I guess I’ll be on the lookout for other vending machines, ones that are there for me when I need them. And when I really need them, they’ll be there, because that’s how fate works.If not, I’ll take my business elsewhere, and probably be overwhelmed with choices.

A sugar low makes me feel glum. Sleepy and lonely and lazy and I think about caffeine but I don’t want palpitations. It strikes about mid-afternoon, siesta-time. But this is America and we don’t have time for siestas. What we do have time for is a quick trip to the office vending machine. A bite of a candy bar and I’m ready to go again, pounding out paperwork and typing with force.

Fortunately, the office vending machine also manifests as vending in schools, as retail vending and in other places as well. If you think your small business could benefit from a vending machine, but you’re unsure about the products that come with it, think about a custom vending machine. Vending machine manufacturers, such as Intelligent Dispensing Solutions are often more than willing to accommodate you when it comes down to it.

Welcome to the Vending Solutions blog! Here we’ll discuss all kinds of vending machine products, as well as anecdotes and idea as to how to make the best use of a custom vending machine. Check back every Monday when we go live with a new post and feel free to leave comments as you feel necessary. We look forward to hearing from you!