Tag: vending machines

Boston Now Dispensing Bicycle Helmets

Posted on by John Van Horn

Intelligent Dispensing Solutions aren’t the only ones coming up with clever custom vending machines that dispense more than just candy bars and soda. Last summer the city of Boston introduced the Hubway, a bicycle sharing system with 60 solar-powered stations and 600 bikes. Both tourists and local residents loved the idea, with over 140,000 trips in just four months. However, the city soon realized that only 30% of riders wore helmets.

Now cue some super smart undergrads at MIT who created a prototype product known as the HelmetHub which is a vending machine that dispenses bicycle helmets. It also features a touchscreen similar to the ones at the other kiosks available at the Hubway. It even draws power from solar panels and occupies half the space of typical vending machines. The helmets are fairly standard and will fit most head sizes.

The students are hoping they can be both sale and rental kiosks for around $8 and riders will be able to return them for a partial refund. A beta version should be ready for testing as early as next summer. The vending machine is a convenient and great way to promote safety. Maybe we’ll one day see these vending machines popping up in other cities where people prefer a bike over a car.

Free Wi-fi at Vending Machines

Posted on by John Van Horn

custom vending machinesJapan has developed quite a reputation for their vending machines. They just seem to have the weirdest and most random things available for purchase. And that is not a bad thing, by any means. On the contrary, it’s innovative and refreshing. But besides purchasing fresh fish and bicycles from a vending machine, you can now enjoy free Wi-fi! Asahi Soft Drinks developed a vending machine that not only dispenses soft drinks, but a wireless signal at absolutely no cost to the consumer.

The signal is good within a 50 meter radius and you can use it on your smartphone, tablet computer, laptop, or any other gadget that you have in tow. However, you can only be continuously connected to the signal for 30 minutes at a time. Once you get kicked off though, you can log right back on. All you have to do is handle an onset of annoying ads from local businesses after the initial login.

Asahi is hoping these nifty free wi-fi vending machines will expand their business by drawing in customers. I mean if you’re going to be sitting there for quite some time surfing the web, you might work up a thirst. They plan on releasing 1,000 machines within the next year and 10,000 within the next 5.

Studying Shoppers with the iSample

Posted on by John Van Horn

custom vending machinesIt seems vending machines are doing a lot more than just selling candy bars and soda these days. Kraft is taking their vending machines to a whole new level by using them to study how consumers shop. The iSample’s goal is to tailor the product to the shopper in mind. Kraft teamed up with Intel on this project using an optical sensor to view the shape of the face. It then performs calculations based on the measurements of a person’s face, such as the distance between the eyes and nose.

All this information is used to determine the gender of the shopper and to place them in an age bracket. It’s done within a matter of seconds. Currently they are using these sales studying smart vending machines to do a trial of Temptations, a jelly-based dessert. There are only two machines right now, one in Chicago and another in New York. A director at Kraft stated, “Our ultimate goal is to bring value to both our retailers and our brands by better understanding consumer engagement with our products.”

It’s always cool to see new technology being implemented in what was once a simple snack machine. This is the kind of focus that IDS loves to see in custom vending machines!

Vending Machines for the Gym

Posted on by John Van Horn

The wonderful aspect of Intelligent Dispensing Solutions is that they are not solely focused on food and drink vending machines. While that’s still a popular design here in America, they realize that there are more items people need readily available other than food. The company has already developed a custom vending machine that can be used in gyms which allows members to simply swipe their membership cards to receive beverages, snacks, and equipment. Anything they purchase is then billed on their monthly statement from the gym.

Besides offering sports drinks and healthy snacks like protein bars, you can purchase goggles and swimming caps for the pool, replacement shoelaces, and other items you may need while working out. That’s incredibly convenient, especially if the gym isn’t close by your home. Now you don’t have to turn around and go back home for these items. They are right at your disposal.

These gym vending machines are already being used at 123 Fit, Anytime Fitness, World Gym, and Snap Fitness. But this certainly isn’t the end. They are working with more gyms to let this fantastic idea be at everyone’s fingertips. What would you like to see in a fitness vending machine? Anything is possible with Intelligent Dispensing Solutions.

Tapping Vending Machine Soda Cans

Posted on by John Van Horn

vending machinesWhen I get a can of Coke from the office vending machine and it’s cool with condensation and I can just imagine the taste of that caramely sweet brown drink running down my throat refreshing me for all time, I give it a little tap with my fingernail on the top. But, people have pointed out to me that this does nothing. They’re right.

I like the way it sounds though. And, it’s easy to believe that it will prevent the soda can from fizzing uncontrollably and spilling over the sides and getting my hands all sticky. But, it’s an old wives’ tale. It doesn’t do a gosh-darned thing.

But, that doesn’t keep me from doing it. And when people tell me, why do you do that, it doesn’t make a difference, I say I don’t care. I like to hear it. And I’ll tap it for them to hear, making sure it’s really quiet and the only sound is my fingernail going tin-tin-tin. And, I’ll crack it open and take a long slug and give a refreshed ahhh and they’ll look at me and I’ll look back with a crazy eye that says don’t tell me how to drink my vending machines soda.

My Feelings on Vending Machines

Posted on by John Van Horn

vending machinesIn my office vending machines there is so much to taste. I try not to taste the same things every day because I don’t like getting into habits of eating the same thing all the time, although it is relatively easy to do so. I wish that I had my own private vending machines that I could use my own currency for, with a picture of my own face on the front and an eagle on the back, since my last name means eagle in German and I still take pride in being an American.

The first vending machines were built to dispense holy water by Heron of Alexandria. He was a famous engineer of his time, back in the first century AD. If only he knew what his invention would become two thousand years later.

I love hearing the machine work, the way it releases its products onto its floor and the little doggy door that allows me to reach in and take. When I was little I always tried to get my arm up into the vending machine to take an extra candy bar for free — I was trying to steal — but thankfully I hurt my arm once and I learned my lesson.

The Freedom of Custom Vending Machines

Posted on by John Van Horn

custom vending machinescustom vending machinesCustom vending machines have a lot to offer. I’ve seen packets of organic jerky selling for $9 in vending machines in an artist’s loft. Hard to believe that artists can afford to pay so much for dried meat but they are stubborn and you can bet that when they get a craving nothing will stop them.

It makes me wish that custom vending machines sold filet mignon and buttered mashed potatoes, ready for the microwave, but it would be impossible (wouldn’t it?) to keep filet mignon in a vending machine nice and hot. Although, don’t they have those custom vending machines with a kitchen in back, serving out fresh food each time someone chooses an item? They’re especially good for late-night dining, because honestly, who wants to have a service transaction when you’re six beers deep and it’s four o’clock in the morning?

Custom vending machines offer versatile retail options. I would put ping pong balls and crabcakes and bandannas and peanuts and salt and vinegar potato chips and sushi and cherry Coke and bicycle grease and lip balm and apples and gum in my vending machine, if I had my own. But, you know most people prefer the traditional stuff.

Healthy Vending Machines

Posted on by John Van Horn
vending machines
Hard boiled eggs in vending machines.

Public schools in New York have added a new healthy item to their vending machines: carrots.

But if you were eleven years old again and were going to spend a dollar on an after school snack, you probably wouldn’t want to eat carrots. You’d probably choose a Coke or a Snickers bar. These efforts to fight childhood obesity and begin children and adolescents on a healthier course early in life have been backed by legislation. Last year the federal Agriculture Department passed a law to set dietary standards by the end of 2012.

Some complain that the healthier options such as the $3 hummus or the $2 yogurt parfait, are too expensive when compared to the $1 bag of chips or candy bars found in most machines. Still this marks a vast departure from the vending machines of the past. About 6% of the nations vending machines are school vending machines found in high school and middle schools. Another 6% are found in colleges. I would have thought the percentage higher. And with these healthy trends continuing, it may be hard to find vending machines with the junk foods we were used to seeing while growing up.

But if it makes for a healthier nation, so be it.

Coke in Vending Machines

Posted on by John Van Horn

vending machinesEvery morning I hear the crack of a Coke can being popped by my cubicle neighbor. Some people like orange juice in the morning, some people like milk, he likes Coke. I look over and jeer at him; we laugh it off. But deep down, I can’t blame him. I know that Coke is a product that will stand the test of time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Coke exists in vending machines in five hundred years.

Unless they change it a little. Or tax it into oblivion, an idea which Michael Bloomberg and Michelle Obama have kicked around in the past. But I doubt that will happen. Sure, they might make it more “natural” if you can’t taste the difference, but chances are Coke will be in vending machines of the future as it is today.

Coca-Cola has had a rich history since it’s invention. Back in 1886 it was believed that carbonated water was good for health, which is why Coca-Cola was found in pharmacies and soda fountains. When they tried changing the formula in 1985, to make New Coke in custom vending machines, the backlash was incredible. Southerners especially felt as though part of their regional identity had changed. By the early ’90s when the name changed to Coke II, it was already too late. People preferred their Coca-Cola Classic. This year, they dropped the Classic, because everybody knows there’s only one Coca-Cola.

Cheetos, Fritos and Vending Machines

Posted on by John Van Horn

vending machinesCheetos are a variety of potato chip- a corn chip, really. They are made with corn and cheese and are one of the more individual and delicious styles of chip. Chester Cheetah is the mascot for Cheetos. He speaks in a mid-Atlantic accent. Before Chester was the Cheetos Mouse who spoke the slogan, “Hail Chee-sar.” Pretty cheesy, right? The interpunct, the little dot that existed between Chee and tos, was dropped in the mid aughties. Because of a pork enzyme in these chips, Cheetos are tref. The crunchy ones are fried, the puffed are not, and as a result are less delicious.

Frito-Lay created Cheetos in the late ’40s. Fritos began in the ’30s, when Elmer Doolin paid $100 for the recipe after trying a bag of corn chips while eating lunch in San Antonio. He expanded his business hugely over the next ten years. The original ingredients are corn oil, whole corn, and salt. Today PepsiCo owns Fritos and Frito-Lay after a 1965 merger. Today Fritos corn chips are one of the more original chips you can find in automated retail vending machines. The barbecue ones are especially tasty.

Both Cheetos and Fritos are corn snacks, but they are very different from each other. The ingenuity of Americans, such as Mr. Doolin,  contributed to these delicious snacks we find in custom vending machines everywhere.