Next Generation Technology for Vending Machines

The ubiquitous vending machine. They have become an integral part of our busy schedules, providing snacks and drinks for countless people on the go. In fact, a single vending machine will often handle thousands of transactions a week, constantly needing to be refilled and maintained. And as their popularity continues to increase, so do peoples expectations of and sometimes frustrations with the machines. Who hasn't been there - you put the dollar bill in and it spits it back out 10 or 15 times, or you put your quarter in and it just falls straight through, and you continue to put that same quarter in and or you put your quarter in and it disappears and you never receive your drink or candy bar or anything like that. Maybe its ten-o-clock at night, you are the only one left working late and there's nowhere else to get change and you go to that vending machine and it takes your money, that happens way too often.

But technology is giving a face-lift to the venerable vending machine. So called smart machines have recently been developed that are able to accept credit cards and debit cards, count on their own and make change for bills as large as 50 dollars. There are some that will even deduct payments from your cell phone. According to design engineers these cash flow systems are changing the way people buy snacks and operators collect money. For the vending machine route owner or manager, these new machines offer an opportunity to revive machines that have been all but dormant. According to Mike Gallagar, a service Manager with Coca Cola USA "We are testing new coin mechanisms as we speak, the information we're getting from that is increasing sales, increasing the amount of time the machine is up, and the customers are getting their soda's cold and on time. What we end up doing is going around and finding out how many times a machine been hit, which is how many times a machine is used. In one location we were doing about 140 hits a day, and what would end up happening after we put in the new technology, we increased it by about 33%."