Steaks, pizza and more: Vending machines in new era
Touchless, prepackaged grocery shopping has become more popular
The pandemic has rocketed vending machines into new territory. Light-years beyond dispensers of Funyuns and Snickers, vending machines, robotic kiosks and other grab-and-go technology now broadly called “unattended retail” are putting artisanal pizza, hot bowls of ramen and prime cuts of beef into the hands of consumers 24/7.
Carla Balakgie, chief executive of the National Automatic Merchandising Association, the trade group representing the vending machine industry, said coronavirus pandemic fears and social distancing have accelerated vending machine adoption.
“It’s touchless, it’s considered safe and it’s prepackaged so products haven’t been fondled and breathed on,” she said. “And technology has made it even safer: Some machines have a hover feature so you don’t have to touch the buttons and you can use an app on your phone or use mobile ordering.”
She said adoption in the past year has been swiftest by first responders needing sustenance on the go, but what might have previously been novelty “stunt” vending machines at trade shows are becoming normalized as regular avenues of commerce: bread-baking machines, customize-your-yogurt machines, even machines that dispense slippers, mascara and sundries at airports.
Deglin Kenealy, chief executive of gourmet pizza vending machine startup Basil Street, has seen both additional challenges and successes due to the pandemic. Raising $10 million in an initial round of funding, the business started with a pilot program of five machines early in 2020 with a focus on university dorms and airports.
After those two markets saw massive contraction because of the pandemic, the company pivoted to what Kenealy called “closed environments” like manufacturing plants or military sites. He said Basil Street will have 50 units by midsummer and 200 by end of year, mostly in Texas and California.
He said the success of the units represents an evolution in consumer thinking.
“People are spending more time thinking about how their food came to the table. Consumers are demanding — they want fast, convenient and high-quality, and COVID has accelerated that,” he said.
Joshua Applestone, whose meat company, Fleisher’s, in New York was at the vanguard of artisanal butchery about a decade ago, began selling locally sourced and sustainably raised meats vacuum-packed and dispensed by vending machines in 2015. Applestone Meat Company now has three locations.
“COVID helped, I’m not going to lie. We don’t live in a 9-to-5 world anymore, people have different schedules,” he said. And while he declines to share sales figures, he said, “We’re doing more in sales than I have in other businesses, and we’ve surpassed the numbers that we needed to be at.”
He says that for years the vending machine world was fairly static, but new technology, coupled with changing consumer desires, has supercharged innovation in the industry.
“It’s fascinating to me that COVID has driven this. Of course we’re going back to ‘normal’ post-pandemic, but these things will stay because they make a lot of sense. If you sell a great product, you can expand it now with 24-hour sales,” Applestone said. He says he sees utility for restaurants to expand their operating hours and minimize waste, and for industries like CBD or pharmaceuticals to enhance the convenience of their services.