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Cell phone to replace ATM card

It looks like the cell phone is going to be the device of choice in the electronic gadget arena.
I myself prefer my pocket PC with cell phone capability as it fits all my needs.
Here is a link to the story about cell phones replacing ATM cards.

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Where have all the manufactures gone?

It seems everyone is getting bought from someone else and in the vending machine manufacturing business it has been a real whirlwind.
It seem that many choices are now just a few as with the buyouts of Automatic Products and Rumor has it -Dixie Narco as well as the buyout some years ago of Poly-Vend and Lektro-Vend it would seem that a certain manufature has taken most of the competition and dollared them out.
This is great news for manufatures that were 2nd tier lines in many areas of the country.
With such a buyout it has decreased the amount of choices a operator or purchased of vending machines has to choose from.
With today's way of buying habits it is a internet market now so to have a supplier in your back yard is not as needed as from time gone by.
So to cut down the playing field it looks like the head up match could be from the manufatures that play direct to the end user.
Direct marketing is and always has been a very competitive field between two certain companies out there who have been doing direct marketing or multichanel sales companies for quite some time now.
Fawn a leader in the direct to market field has been out front of National for quite some time in our eyes but now with National pushing by buying out the brand names and getting a drink machine company ( Well that is just a rumor as of now but I am pretty sure it is in the cards )
At 1st everyone was unsure of how internet marketing and sales of vending machines was going to play out but now as we see these trendy buyouts by direct market companies I see exactly how it will play out as another cut of inter sales will be done.

Is your federal government taking money from your school?

Is your federal government taking money from your school?

If your school is like so many other schools in America then you know how under funded our schools are. The parents of the schools have had to become fund raiser gurus to help supply many items schools need to operate many under funded programs.

It seems today the Federal Government has a no compete law that says that no one can sell any food or drinks during any lunch hours, well at least that was what I was lead to believe until I started looking into what I was being told.
Yes there is a no compete clause and yes the school lunch program is a Monopoly in the sense that they are the only ones that can prepare food and sell that food in our tax paid cafeterias.

I thought Monopolies were against the law and competition was a good thing for us the consumers as it helps keep prices down.
Now if the government is concerned with our nutrition all of a sudden then they could come up with guidelines that foods must meet but that is as far as it should go with them. The school lunches sold to your kids should be a bid out process and not a monopoly that our government controls.

If my child does not want to buy a cold drink or a slice of pizza that is more like some leftover quick freeze meal then they should have the right to buy what they want from whom has the best prices and service.
School lunches are under fire today and it seems the reason why might be to drive currant operators out of the schools allowing the school nutrition programs to set up vending operations that they have a captive and exclusive audience to service.

The schools do not receive any direct money from the sale of those products to our kids as with the old program our schools were making money that went directly back into the schools. If a bottler wanted to sell a sport drink in the school they had to give the school a commission that the school used directly at that school.
Now companies bid out their service to our school lunch programs and give them a commission that the school does not receive any direct money.
Yes the school nutrition program buys things for the school lunch program to run it at that school but the amount of money being lost in the direct basis of money going to the schools other programs is going way down if not cut out all together.

When did the school nutrician program get into vending? When they found out that there was much money to be made.
Now it is in the works to supply schools with machines that would be run by the school nutrition program that tie directly back into the school’s lunch payment program. So it looks like school vending is big business and the government wants a piece of the action by way of giving an exclusive to school nutrician programs around the country.

Many schools hold BBQ sales and Fish Fry’s to raise money for many under funded programs but it has been told to many that you can not sell those items as it is in competition with the school lunch program. Here is what the rule says so it is best to make sure if you are being told that there is a Federal Law that says that vending machines in schools must be turned off at lunch time, it may be wrong.

Competitive Foods
According to the USDA, competitive foods are foods "sold to children in food service areas during meal periods in competition with the federal meal programs." The USDA divides competitive foods into two categories. The first is foods of minimal nutritional value (FMNV). USDA regulations prohibit the sale of FMNV in school-food service areas during mealtimes. FMVN include carbonated drinks (such as sweetened soft drinks), chewing gum, and candy. These items may be sold in other areas at anytime during the school day.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/default.htm
As you can see it only says that foods can not be sold in the food service areas and that would be the cafeteria and not the vending machines in the hall way or even a BBQ or Fish Fry set up in another area of the school.


As you can see the way it is worded is at the federal level machines can be on anytime as long as they are not in the school cafeteria or food prep areas run by the school nutrition program.
Check with your local laws as many states have put in place laws of their own so they can make schools not operate or sale food during school lunch program times.
This is because the schools have to move so much food to get funding from federal programs or to make sure if they do not receive funds then they have am exclusive on the sale of food and drinks in schools.

I thought that something was fishy with all of the sudden every one on capitol hill was concerned with kids drinking sugar drinks but could not understand why if they were so worried why those items was still in grocery stores. Well it looks like their may be more at stake then our health and maybe they are just after the dollars involved with the sales and do not want any competition.

Please contact your local school nutrition office and see if they are taking money from your school.
Get with you principal and ask how much money are they losing by the sale of the same products out of cafeteria machines as was being sold from the school machines?
If your school nutrition department is selling products from a vending machine you could be giving up much needed money for schools and you need to get it back.
Contact the USDA office and let them know to get out of vending and stop taking local funds from your school.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/default.htm

Whats Important In A Vending Machine?

What are the features in vending machines that you think make one
machine work better for you over another?
How many operators are useing the accounting features such as Dex info?
With all the bells and wistles that now come on many vending machines
do the operators even use them or are they a waste of money added into
the machine cost?

Such items are now available for operators to track their machines
online and see what is doing well that week and needs to be restocked
and what is not and needs to have product changed out.

Happy Vending
Lindel

Vending Machine Way Of The Future

The evolution of the vending machine or the correct name would be Automatic Merchandising system.
Wow so sophisticated of a term for just a vending machine.
Not really as today’s machines are not just for candy bars and drinks anymore.
Many new developments in vending machines today have made the machines of today systems. We can now watch machines as they actually produce sales and deliver products right from the internet. We can change prices and run promotions with a few clicks of the mouse. We can keep little Billy away from products that we do not want or kids to buy from the machines. We can vend everything from a postage stamp to a very expensive tool bit and know who got what and at what time.
So you see the Automatic Merchandising Machines of today are becoming the choice of automatic dispensing tasks.
Custom vending machines as well as promotion video capabilities are just a few task that Vendweb.Com can assist your company with.
If you are looking for a vending machine that can do a custom job for you, we can help with the task.
Happy Vending
Lindel Creed
Vendweb.Com

Junk food or just junk policies

Ok once the machines are out of the schools is that going to stop a child from eating or drinking unhealthy snacks and drinks?
No it is only going to move the money from the schools profits back to the grocery store's profits.
The kids are just going to bring products from the local store to school with them but it will take very much needed money from school programs.
What we have to do is work on educating the kids on what is believed to be good snacks or drinks for them.
It would seem to me that if the so called products that everyone is now saying is bad for us was so bad for us then why is it on the market to begin with?
If the problem of kids being fat is because of products I have been marketed and sold on to consume what is my recourse for having believe these products were not going to harm me and now it has so called been proven in fact they do.
What is fact and what is not?

New-fangled vending machines are more like automated diners

Hot pizza in 90 seconds. Crispy, fragrant fries for a couple of dollars. Ice cream blended to order. Sound like a well-equipped cafeteria? Think again. It's the latest generation of vending machines.
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Schools getting in gear to meet health initiative

Imagine a school where children exercise as part of every class, where only healthy food options are available in the cafeteria and vending machines – a school where nutrition is taught in English and science classes, and where children are encouraged not only to learn about health, but are also practicing healthy behaviors.
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Toilet paper from a vending machine? Here's one hot trend that won't catch on in the United States.

How huge are vending machines in Japan? Forget soda and breath mints: Japanese machines dispense eggs, porn, beer, jewelry, toilet paper (hey, when you need some, you need some), and rhinoceros beetles (uh, ditto, I guess). Need to charge your cell phone or pick up some live bait? Step right up.
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Get an iPod with Your Diet Soda

You want an iPod? It's over there—just beneath the NyQuil and next to the Gatorade. Apple Computer's hot digital music players may be better associated with the company's hip stores, but they've also started popping up next to less exotic products in special vending machines built by Zoom Systems.
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Pricey Coffee Good to the Last Dropping

NEW YORK — Would you pay $175 for a pound of coffee beans which had passed through the backside of a furry mammal in Indonesia? Apparently, some coffee lovers wanting to treat themselves to something special are lapping it up. Kopi Luwak beans from Indonesia are rare and expensive, thanks to a unique taste and aroma enhanced by the digestive system of palm civets, nocturnal tree-climbing creatures about the size of a large house cat.
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School Vending Machines “Dispensing Junk”

School Vending Machines “Dispensing Junk”75 Percent of Drinks and 85 Percent of Snacks Unhealthful, Says CSPI
A nationwide survey of vending machines in middle schools and high schools finds that 75 percent of the drinks and 85 percent of the snacks sold are of poor nutritional value. The study, of 1,420 vending machines in 251 schools, was organized by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and conducted by 120 volunteers. CSPI contends that all foods sold out of vending machines, school stores, and other venues outside of the official school lunch program should make positive contributions to children’s diets and health.
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Vending Machine Burglary Suspects Arrested

Police have put a stop to a string of vending machine burglaries throughout the Low Country. Ridgeland police have charged 22-year-old Dwight Crosby, 27-year-old Kenneth Buskirk and 37-year-old Terri Carter with malicious injury to property and petit larceny for prying open a Coca Cola vending machine and stealing the money earlier this week.
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Vending Machines Sell Prescription Drugs

WASHINGTON -- A few pharmacies now offer customers a faster way to refill their prescriptions -- without waiting in line.
According to an NBC report Thursday, two companies have developed vending machines for medicine.
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Coke Gets The Boot

A cold Coke will be harder to find for University of Michigan students when they return to campuses in Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn after holiday break.
The university on Jan. 1 will suspend more than a dozen contracts worth about $1.4 million with Coca-Cola Co. in response to student complaints alleging human rights violations and hazardous environmental practices by the soft drink giant in its Colombia and India operations.
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School installs healthy eating vending machine

A SCHOOL is filling a vending machine with fruit in a bid to improve children's diets.
Edinburgh Academy hopes it will encourage pupils to abandon sweets and chocolate for healthy alternatives.
Academy Rector John Light said: "We take our nutrition policy extremely seriously."
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