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A vending machine is a machine that dispenses merchandise when a customer deposits sufficient money into a slot or vent to purchase the desired item (as opposed to a shop, where the presence of personnel is required for every purchase). The money (usually coins) is validated by a currency detector. It is believed to have been first invented by Hero of Alexandria, a 1st century inventor. His machine accepted a coin and then dispensed a fixed amount of holy water. * Introduction In the United States, vending machines generally serve the purpose of selling snacks and beverages, but are also common in busy locations to sell newspapers. Another common class of vending machines are photo booths. Items sold via vending machine vary by country. For example, some countries sell alcoholic beverages such as beer through vending machines, while other countries do not allow this (usually because of dram shop laws). Cigarettes were commonly sold in the U.S. through these machines, but this practice is increasingly rare due to concerns about underaged buyers. Sometimes a pass has to be inserted in the machine to prove one's age. In some European countries, by contrast, cigarette machines remain common. Oddly, during the 1950s, life insurance policies were sold through vending machines at airports, but this practice disappeared due to the tendency of American courts to strictly construe such policies against their sellers *. Vending Times, a publication covering the entire vending industry, is the most popular trade magazine for U.S. vendors. Mechanism After paying, a product may become available by: Sometimes the product is not just released, but prepared; this may be the case e.g. in the case of coffee, French fries, or a ticket that is printed after paying. Vending machine giving access to all merchandise The main example of a vending machine giving access to all merchandise after paying for one item is a newspaper vending machine (also called vending box). It contains a pile of identical newspapers. After a sale the door automatically returns to a locked position. A customer could open the box and take all of the newspapers or, for the benefit of other customers, leave all of the newspapers outside of the box, slowly return the door to an unlatched position, or block the door from fully closing. The success of such machines is predicated on the assumption that the customer will be honest (hence the nickname "honor box"), which is helped by the fact that having more than one newspaper is not often useful. Compare a coin-operated pay toilet. Japanese vending machines In Japan, with a high population density, limited space, a preference for shopping on foot or by bicycle, and low rates of vandalism and petty crime, there seems to be no limit to what is sold by vending machines. While the majority of machines in Japan are stocked with drinks, snacks, and cigarettes, one occasionally finds vending machines selling items such as bottles of liquor, cans of beer, and potted plants. Japan has the highest number of vending machines per capita, with about one machine for every 23 people. The first vending machine in Japan was made of wood and sold postage stamps and post cards. About 80 years ago, there were vending machines that sold sweets called "Guriko". In 1967, the 100-yen note was distributed for the first time, and vending machine sales skyrocketed overnight, selling a vast variety of items everywhere. In Japan, vending machines are known as jidōhanbaiki (from jidoō', or "automatic"; hanbai, or "vending"; and ki, or "machine"). The type of article sold from the machine is used as an adjective to further define or describe a particular vending machine, a cigarette vending machine being identified as a "tabako no jidō-hanbaiki". In 1999, the estimated 5.6 million coin- and card-operated Japanese vending machines generated $53.28 billion in sales. Besides the items mentioned previously, Japanese vending machines sell or have sold in the past: In Japan, vending machine goods and services cost as little as 80 and as much as 3,000 yen. Scheduled for introduction in 2008, the Tobacco Card will restrict sales of cigarettes from vending machines. An embedded integrated circuit will contain information about the age of the cardholder. Automatiek A common type of snack bar in the Netherlands is called automatiek and is similar to an automat. It has a wall lined with coin-operated machines. Each has a vertical row of little windows, with a (usually hot) snack behind each, e.g. a croquette, a frikandel or a hamburger. After inserting a coin in a slot, you can open one of the windows and take your snack. The machine is heated so that the snacks stay hot. Behind the machine is the kitchen where the snacks are prepared, with the little windows being re-supplied from the back. In addition there is a counter for snacks less suitable for vending in this way, in particular French fries. Automatieks may or may not provide chairs for customers. Sometimes the vending machines are in an outside wall, and no shelter is provided. Automatieks are often located at railway stations or in busy shopping streets. One large chain of these automatieks is FEBO (see the picture on the right). History There is a legend that the first vending machine dates to 215 B.C. in Alexandria, where the ancient Greek mathematician Hero devised a machine to dispense holy water to worshippers for ritual cleansing when they deposited a coin. When a coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened up a valve which let some 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 lever back up and turn off the valve. Despite this early precedent, vending machines had to wait for the Industrial Age before they came to prominence. The first modern coin-operating devices were vending machines that dispensed post cards introduced into London, England, in the early 1880s. The idea was exported to the U.S., and by 1888 the Thomas Adams Gum Company introduced the first gumball vending machine. The idea of adding simple games to these machines as a further incentive to entice people to buy came in 1897 when the Pulver Manufacturing Company added small figures which would move around whenever somebody bought some gum from their machines. This simple idea spawned a whole new type of mechanical device known as the "trade stimulators", and the birth of pinball is ultimately rooted in these early devices. A vending machine business
Bulk candy and gumball vending Bulk candy machines are entirely mechanical machines that vend a handful of candy, a bouncy ball, or perhaps a capsule with a small toy or jewelry, for one or two coins. The items may be unsorted; in that case what the customer exactly gets is subject to chance. The gross margins in the bulk candy business can be quite high — gumballs, for instance, can be purchased in bulk for 2 cents apiece and sold for 25 cents. In addition, the machines are typically inexpensive compared to soft drink or snack machines. Many operators donate a percentage of the profits to charity so that locations will allow them to place the machines for free. Bulk vending may be a more practical choice than soft drink/snack vending for an individual who also works a full-time job, since the restaurants, retail stores, and other locations suitable for bulk vending may be more likely to be open during the evening and on weekends than venues such as offices that host soft drink and snack machines. Full line vending A full line vending company may set up several types of vending machines that sell a wide range of products. The types of products include candy, cookies, chips, fresh fruit, milk, cold food, coffee, bottles and/or cans of soda, and even frozen products like ice cream. These products can be sold from various types of vending machines that include coffee, snack, cold food, 20-oz. bottle machines, and glass-front bottle machines. Almost all machines accept bills with more and more machines accepting $5 bills. This is a great advantage to the vendor because it virtually eliminates the need for a bill changer. Larger corporations with cafeterias will often request full line vending with food service. Vending companies that offer both have a competitive advantage in acquiring accounts because it makes it much easier to deal with one company for both services. Specialized Vending One of the more controversial types of vending machines are those that dispense personal products, typically in public toilet facilities. The machines in ladies' restrooms typically sell some form of absorbent device for menstruation such as a pad or tampon. The machines in men's rooms, when they are present, are most commonly used for the sale of condoms, though in some locations they may be found dispensing cologne or even medicine. These are often found at toilets used by transient persons in high traffic locations, such as bus stations, malls, airports and truck stops. Safety Most modern vending machines have been extensively tested and designed to inhibit theft. Many of these machines are designed essentially as large safes. Every year, a few people are killed when machines topple over on them, either while trying to steal from them, or venting frustration on them, especially when a malfunction causes the machine to fail to dispense the purchased item or the proper change (leading to the humorous saying, "change is inevitable, except from a vending machine"). An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Nov. 11, 1988, p. 2697) documents 15 cases in which men trying to get a can out of the machine were crushed. Three died, the other 12 required hospitalization for injuries such as fractures of the skull, toe, ankle, tibia, femur, and pelvis; intercerebral bleeding; knee contusion; and one punctured bladder. The article states that because the soft drinks are located in the upper half of the machine (so that they can fall into the dispensing slot), the center of gravity of the machine is abnormally high, and the machine will fall after it has been tipped only 20 degrees, a deceptively small angle. A large, fully loaded soft drink machine can weigh over 1000 lbs. (or 400 kg). Malfunctions The actual causes of vending machine malfunction are usually many-fold. Coin acceptors often jam up, especially if a bill or other foreign object is inserted into the coin slot. Certain vending machines use a spiral kind of mechanism to separate and to hold the products. When the machine vends, the spiral turns, thus pushing the product forward and falling down to be vended. If the products and the spiral are misaligned, the spiral may turn but not fully release the product, leaving the spiral snagged on the product and having it hang there. This may cause repercussions to the alignment of the products behind it if someone knocks the hanging product down, as the spiral must move a fixed distance. Vending machines usually have a phone number that users can call to report malfunctions or request assistance. Additional sources of failure can include machines not being supplied the proper power (in some cases because they are on the same overloaded circuit with other machines), damage due to vandalism, and insufficient maintenance or upkeep by the operator. Bill validators are also a source of frustration for many customers, especially when they falsely reject a legal tender bill that happens to be crumpled, ripped, or dirty. U.S. vendors, realizing they were losing sales because of validator malfunctions, formed the Coin Coalition to support the United States dollar coin. Their efforts to completely replace the dollar bill with the Sacagawea Dollar have been unsuccessful so far. Also some machines may not accept quarters and other coins on the first pass though the coin slot, causing the customer to have to collect the coins from the change return and reinsert them. Innovations
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