Keeping up with current trends in vending products and technology will set you up for continued success in this lucrative area of our industry.
a significant source of revenue, the city council felt that such a measure would be important to help combat childhood obesity (In Los Angeles County, over 20 percent of children are obese).
Also, the Maryland State Senate
Changing Trends in Vending
by Scott McCoy I
T IS CRITICALLY important to keep current with societal trends to maximize your business potential. Tis
applies to all areas of ice arena operation, including your vending machines. Keeping up with current trends in vending products and technology will set you up for continued success in this lucrative area of our industry.
Trade associations, including the
National Automated Merchandising Association (NAMA), study these trends and offer helpful information and resources.
Te top three trends impacting the vending industry are as follows:
CURRENT TREND 1: Te obesity epidemic. In case you’ve been hiding in a vending machine for the past decade, there’s an ongoing obesity epidemic*
16 WINT ER 2 017
worldwide, especially among children, which has motivated a closer look at where people, particularly kids, get their food and drink. More and more states and municipalities have been considering policies that will more strongly regulate what is available in vending machines that fall under their jurisdiction.
For example, according to a recent
article in the Los Angeles Times, on March 29, the city council of Glendale, Calif., unanimously voted 5-0 to replace chips and soda with fruits, vegetables and nuts in vending machines on city property when current vending machine contracts expire in two years. Tis new provision would supersede the existing policy that mandates at least 40 percent of vending machine items should be healthy. Despite vending machines being
has been discussing the possibility of a Maryland Healthy Vending Choices Act, which would mandate that 75 percent of products offered by vending machines on state property meet specified minimum healthy food standards
Research that has examined vending
machines has shown that increasing access to healthier foods changes behavior and leads to
increased
consumer purchases of these foods. At the same time, these changes are either profit-neutral or enhance profits for vending machine businesses.
Tere is some evidence that such
regulations may help prevent obesity among children. A study led by Dr. Daniel Taber and published in Pediatrics in 2012 showed an association between state laws that regulate the types of foods available to school children beyond federal school meal programs and less gains in body mass index (BMI) among school children. Te effects were not strong, and it’s unlikely that changing vending machine offerings alone will stem the tide of the childhood obesity epidemic. Nonetheless, movements to change vending machine offerings are afoot.
CURRENT TREND 2: Busy schedules
and laziness. There’s a fine line between being too busy and too lazy to do something. (In a recent survey, 40 percent of millennials believed that
“cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean
*Source: Forbes: “More Evidence that Obesity is a Global Catastrophe in Slow Motion.”
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