EDITOR'S
NOTE
BY
EMILY
REFERMAT
Non-traditional vending
Is the business of vending non-food items a
potential sideline or different business model?
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LIST RENTAL
M
ore and more vending machines are
being used for purposes other than
refreshment dispensing. Users see
bright red machines delivering DVDs in
most grocery stores. At airports, electronics and related accessories are routinely
sold from big, glassfront machines. Gold,
fowers, cosmetics, library books — they
are all being offered from automatic
merchandisers. And none of them are
food. It makes me
wonder what the
future will look like.
Is there an opportunity for traditional
vending operators
to think outside the
'kitchen?'
COULD
dispensing
offce
supplies
be in your
company's
future?
Reconfgured
vending machines
Specifcally when
VendingMarketWatch.com ran the
news item about
Facebook, which customized a vending
machine in its headquarters to dispense
(and control quantities of) computer
related supplies to
employees, operators
in the industry commented that it was
nothing new. They had the expertise to
reconfgure the inside of a machine to dispense multiple types of products (within
certain package limits) for years. Indeed,
in some public markets where sundries
are part of the average machine plan-o-
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6
Automatic Merchandiser
@VendingMagazine
VendingMarketWatch.com
gram, they already do this. However, it's
never been taken further — to meet more
needs of the workplace, and I've always
wondered why?
Fastenall machine success
Fastenall is making money using
machines to dispense employee supplies.
The company's last quarterly report
showed a 7.7 percent increase in earnings, and sales had grown 5.3 percent —
much of it fueled by installing the more
than 8,400 new vending machines during
the frst six months of 2013. While Fastenall runs on a different business model
than the traditional vendor, I wonder why
an outdated vending machine in the warehouse couldn't be retroftted to dispense
pens, pads of paper, etc.
I asked a larger operator once and
he just didn't seem interested in the
concept. He indicated there would be a
supply problem. Where would vending
operators get these supplies, he asked.
And he didn't think the logistics would
work. He's certainly out there, in the
feld with frst hand knowledge that I
admittedly lack. But I put it to a larger
group of vending operators? Do you
agree? Are there too many supply and
logistical problems with offering a location a machine that could regulate offce
supplies? Is it a different business model?
Or are some of you quietly investigating
this sideline for yourselves and having
success with automatically merchandising what boils down to ancillary products
at locations you are already visiting?
Please drop me a line and share your
thoughts on non-traditional vending.
http://linkd.in/VendingMarketWatch
August 2013
Monique Terrazas
Elizabeth Jackson
Account Executive
Merit Direct LLC
Telephone: (847) 492-1350, ext. 18
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Emily Refermat
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