Vending machines come in all shapes and sizes and hold all sorts of merchandise, from food and drink to capsule toys to gum. Helen Fletcher spoke to a handful of companies to find out what's currently hot and what's not in the world of vending merchandise...

It is believed Hero of Alexandria, a first century inventor, came up with the very first vending machine, which accepted a coin and then dispensed a fixed amount of holy water.

When the coin was deposited, it fell onto a pan attached to a level, which opened a valve, which then let water flow out.

The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counter-weight would snap the level back up and turn off the valve.

However, it was during the Industrial Age that vending machines really became prominent and the first modern coin-operated vending machines were introduced in London, in the early 1880s, dispensing post cards.

In 1888, in the US, the Thomas Adams Gum Company built the first vending machine and sold chewing gum on train station platforms.

By 1897 the Pulver Manufacturing Company had added simple games to machines as a further incentive to buy and small figures would move around whenever someone bought some gum from its machines.

This idea generated a whole new type of mechanical device known as trade stimulators and it has been suggested by some that the birth of slot machines and pinball is rooted in these early devices.

The possibilities are endless


Traditionally vending machines have been used for dispensing food, drink and in a lot of countries, cigarettes.

However, as times changed so did the vending machine and now you would be hard pushed to find a product that can’t be vended.

From individual sweets and chocolates to capsule toys, to personal hygiene products to newspapers, the list is endless and opens up a world of opportunity for operators in the vending business.

In Japan, for example, there seems to be no limit to what is sold in vending machines and while the majority are stocked with the usual food, drinks and cigarettes there are a number of machines that sell anything from cans of beer to fried food, potted plants and adult entertainment.

The location of a vending machine will influence heavily the merchandise that is put within it.

The focus of this feature will look at how novelty capsule merchandise and gumballs, in particular, can work for operators.

Suitable locations for vending machines are wide and varied and according to Heidi Schwarzli of Beaver Machine Corporation in the US, operators need to think outside the box when looking at locations.

“Once the location is established, operators must base the dispensed product on the demographics of the patrons to the location,” she said.

“There are many factors involved with establishing an ideal location but all it takes is a little research and some imagination.”

Beaver Machine Corporation has been established since 1963 and provides vending machines at an international level.

Technological advances


“Vending has changed in so many ways over the years,” added Schwarzli. “Even more so over the past few years. The introduction of the euro meant vending became easier and a larger assortment of products became available to dispense from the machines as a result.

“Vending is becoming more efficient and technological, especially with the introduction of products such as SmartMech, which are able to track every type of data an operator would want.

“As general costs of doing business rise, systems such as SmartMech are becoming a requirement in order to become more efficient to be able to turn a profit. Machines are also now changing to provide for a larger capacity in order to require less frequent visits to the location by the operator.”

SmartMech is a tamper-proof revenue tracking system that can provide detailed route management information to maximise the efficiency of vending route operations.

Its features include transaction logging, collection, storage and analysis.

So, where has the technological change in vending machines and the systems used taken the merchandise put inside them?

For gumball supplier Fordgum, which has been established since 1934 and provides gumballs to markets including Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Canada and the UK, not much has changed; the market is still as strong and consistent as it has always been and continues to grow in strength.

“The last 12 months have been very successful for us and we have had particular success with our sugar free and sour ranges,” said Barbara DeLeon, of the company.

“Vending is still popular in all sorts of locations and its popularity is growing particularly in Europe, as it is appropriately positioned because of coinage.”

When asked why vending works so well, DeLeon said: “It is an efficient alternative to hiring personnel to man stations as there are no labour laws, no sick days and no workman compensation.

“There is a market for both food and novelty products within vending but it is up to the operator to match the product to the population of that particular area. For example, if the machine is located in a factory, then food products are better placed. Whereas locations frequented by children would require more candy and toy orientated products.”

Licensed Vs Generic


As a general rule vending machines will perform well in any busy location, places such as shopping malls, restaurants, outside supermarkets, even bars and pubs.

There are no rules or guidelines to where they should be located; all you need is people passing by.

The amount of novelty capsule products that are now on the market has grown significantly and is divided into two sectors – licensed and generic products.

According to Mike Applebaum of Cutting Edge Industries in the US, which has been involved in the vending business since 1995, whether a product is licensed or not, does not necessarily make a difference to how popular or successful it is.

“The most popular items we deal with are tattoos and capsule toys; licensing seems to ride in waves,” he said.

“Sometimes it is the only thing that sells and other times generic products will outsell licensed products.”

Applebaum also commented that the market, for them at least, is currently transitioning away from licensed items back to generic, especially in capsule toys.

However, for David Merle of Eurogift based in France, licensed products tend to be the “super sellers” of vending, showing the diversity of this sector, as children buy into famous brands such as Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and Spiderman.

‘There is much more competition in the vending market now so companies have to be different and provide merchandise of high quality, with different designs and put an emphasis on innovation and creativity,” said Merle.

“Children will tend to ignore low quality toys over the interesting licences, collector items and innovation driven items.”

Eurogift has been involved in the vending business for the past 10 years and has a permanent team in China to overlook production and quality control of its products.

An Cool Things spokesperson agreed that licensed products tend to outperform generic merchandise, saying that they can become fashionable and are usually a higher quality of product.

“Licensed products are also usually associated with some sort of cartoon character, which is part of the attraction to people,” they said.

“But it is not just children that are attracted to the merchandise; adults will sometimes also buy the products as they have the ability to cheer the person up and satisfy the need of having something new right away, plus at one or two euros they don’t cost much at all.”

Customer demands

Customers are becoming more demanding in every market and this is no different for the vending market.

According to Cool Things, customers using vending machines have become more selective and demanding, and simple toys such as balls or low quality gadgets are not good enough for them - they want stylish, fashionable and original products.

Vending products and machines are a well-established product worldwide but as with most products and markets, there are always going to be opportunities to expand.

Cool Things for example is looking to expand further into Europe, where it is currently present, as is Cutting Edge Industries and for Eurogift countries such as Romania, Poland and Turkey look like promising markets.

The vending business is a long established and stable one and there is always going to be the need to provide people with products quickly and in convenient locations, whether it be a novelty capsule to reward a well behaved child after a trip around the supermarket, or a bottle of water after a good workout at the gym, or a newspaper to catch up on the day’s events.

Technology will advance naturally, making the vending machines themselves more efficient, reliable and durable.

When it comes to novelty capsules it is the merchandise kept inside that is going to have to pull out all the stops to keep those customers coming back.

“Operators are going to have to be selective in their merchandise choices to meet the demands of ethnic neighbourhoods and localised tastes,” said Applebaum.

“It is going to take all our creative juices to compete in the world of video games and street savvy children. The demands for interactivity and edgy subject matter is going to challenge suppliers and operators alike.”