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MAR K E T I N G money is actually sent to the loca- tion. "I closed an account just last week with this," he added. Even when he's using SCMMs to sell an account, coffee becomes a great value added. Within the SCMM, he suggests the addition of a single-cup brewer where premium coffee can be purchased by the employee. Elsewhere, the location still offers free, regular brewed coffee. Employees appreci- ate the two options presented by the location. The coffee can also make a difference. Alpine Roastery works directly with farmers in Africa to grow coffee beans. There's a mill in Cameroon that grinds the beans, after which it is shipped directly to Alpine Roastery. "There's no middle man," said Yost. That allows Alpine to control the quality, while keeping the price lower, both of which Yost considers important added value to locations. When Yost sells SCMMs, he adds more than just coffee to make it work for a location. "You need to dress the market up to the white collar atmosphere — display salads and fruits — and it will succeed," he said. "If you treat the market like a vending machine, it won't do well." Yost has even seen SCMMs used to help locations control supply costs, such as replacement safety glasses in a factory setting. Health and wellness are a must "The added value of micro mar- kets is vast to customers," said Ray Friedrich, CEO of Sterling Services in Canton, Mich. And for these col- lege educated customers of SCMMs, Friedrich focuses on health and wellness products as added value. "We have a pretty strong (health and wellness) program in both vending and convenience stores," he said. The products in the health 44 Richard Harvey, A & R Services, Monument, Colo., pairs value added options/ser- vices with the needs and desires of a location. Alan Drazen of Midlantic Vend- ing, Moore- stown, N.J., uses cashless and remote machine monitoring to provide added value. Scott Meskin, Black Tie Services Inc., Baltimore, Md., provides more efficient service using technology, such as GPS systems on ser- vice vehicles. and wellness program have less fat, lower sodium and no trans fats. SCMMs specifi cally allow Fried- rich to offer more healthy product variety, such as salads, fresh fruit, yogurt, cheese, etc. Friedrich also customizes machines and offers customers credit card acceptance. "Added value is always part of our approach," he said. For Mike Bunt, general manager of corporate marketing equipment at Buffalo Rock Co. in Birmingham, Ala., bill recyclers often make more sense for adding value to vending machines than cashless. Added value, for him, isn't so much about snacks and service as it is about making his products easy for the consumer to purchase. "By adding $5, $10 or even $20 acceptance on venders, as well as Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com May 2012 credit/debit acceptance in certain situations, it's just another added value," he said. Because of the processing and connectivity fees of cashless, he feels they only make sense in about 10 percent of accounts, where bill recyclers make sense in 50 to 70 percent of locations. Bunt has even removed bill changers and replaced them with recyclers. He argues the $300 in change that would be needed to keep the bill changer filled buys a lot of recyclers. "I'm a firm believer in recyclers," he said. And as for end users, they see the value because they prefer to get bills back instead of pockets full of quarters. Technology wows locations Alan Drazen, vice president of Midlantic Vending in Moorestown, N.J., uses cashless, and even telemetry as added value for many accounts. "We started cashless fi ve or six years ago. Now, 300 of our machines are cashless," he said. "They take credit cards, Google Wallet, etc." He believes a good payment system gives his business an edge, especially because the bulk of his business is in public ven- ues. And it allows him to charge a higher price point. More recently, the company began using remote machine moni- toring (RMM), which is another thing that impresses his clients. "We're able to monitor that our machines are fi lled and function- ing at a high level," he said. Drazen believes his clients and end users really value the investment his company makes in technology, and it gains him business. As for products, Drazen offers branded products, and even branded machines, as added value to accounts as well. Scott Meskin, president, Black Tie Services, in Baltimore, Md.,