Pending Vending

While vending machines have been selling interesting and surprising products for quite some time, the latest trends in vending machine retailing are technology-driven. With new ways of displaying products, keeping perishables fresh, and interacting with consumers, the time is long past when vending machines were just places to grab sodas and stale pretzels.

Interactive: Kraft Foods has partnered with Samsung to create the Diji-Touch vending machine, which has a 46-inch LCD screen powered by a networked computer. The display features pictures of the foods inside in a way that looks quite similar to how apps are shown on iPhones. Inquisitive users can tap on the images to enlarge them and brush the screen with their fingers for a 360 degree view that reveals ingredients and nutritional information. When consumers aren’t browsing the snacks, the machine delivers animated, interactive video advertising in both banner and full screen formats. According to Kraft, the machines will eventually have the ability to target consumers as they pass by, delivering digital coupons directly to their cell phones.

Healthy: As Stephen Colbert recently pointed out, obesity statistics show that many people aren’t eating enough fresh fruits and vegetables. To make produce more readily accessible, Del Monte partnered with national vending company Vistar to create a specialty vending machine that contains two sections: one refrigerated for fresh cut produce and the other at room temperature for bananas. The machines will distribute individual portions of grapes, pineapple chunks, apple slices, baby carrots, celery sticks and grape tomatoes. Each serving will be 4 to 6 ounces, contain 120 calories or less, and cost between $1 and $2.25. Del Monte also created proprietary packaging for the bananas that slows the ripening process to keep them yellow for longer. These vending machines have been tested already in Illinois and Florida, but are now extending into schools, gyms, parks and offices nationwide.

Intelligent: The East Japan Railway Company recently installed the first of many planned vending machines which, outfitted with face and body recognition cameras and software, can recommend drinks according to each customer’s profile. (According to the company, suggestions are based on statistical age and gender data and are 75 percent accurate.) Customers stand in front of the machine to be scanned, upon which recommended drinks are highlighted with a red star. They can then purchase beverages – using cash, credit card or cellphone – by touching the starred products of their choice. When it’s not being used, the vending machine delivers ads, which can also be customized based on customer profiles, on its 47-inch OLED touch screen display. Hopefully, it realizes that, contrary to popular belief, not every woman likes diet soda.?