Vending Machines

A little-known example of human-machine interaction

8 min readMay 13, 2021

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Vending machines are extremely convenient, and they provide fast, affordable goods and services to billions of people all over the world. They are popular in offices, airports, streets with heavy foot traffic and many more places. What makes them attractive is their convenience. They also don’t require attendants so it's also more cost effective from a business standpoint. They are a great business opportunity in metropolitan cities.

Vending machines are a common sight in public spaces.

Types of Vending Machines

Gumball Vending Machine

A gumball machine dispenses gumballs usually for a few coins. It is quite common to find these in malls, parks and other places frequented by children. They are also popular for dispensing candies and toy balls with candies and toys inside.

The coin mechanism is designed to only accept specific coins. It achieves this by limiting the size of the hole in which the coins are to be placed. Only when the right coin is inserted the mechanism is free to rotate clockwise and dispense a gumball.

It also has additional guards in place to prevent people from tampering with the machine and getting those free gumballs.

The separator and dispenser disk separate the gumballs and then transfer them to the chute when gear is being rotated.

Food and Snack Vending Machine

The vending device for the vending machine comprises of a spiral coil which can be rotated when it detects that the right amount of money has been received. The metal coil is shaped in a spiral with products inserted between each ridge. As a motor spins the coil, the rotation pushes products forward in much the same way as a screw pulls debris out of a hole.

The machine can be coin operated or can use more modern payment methods such as cash, credit or debit cards, phone payments, and so on. The stock in the vending machine is restocked regularly to prevent expiring of food and to continue providing service. The coins or cash collected are safely stored inside the machine in case of cash or coin payment. The money is then collected at regular intervals by the owner or the supervisor of the vending machines.

The inside of a cold vending machine housing the refrigeration unit.

Cold food vending machines are automatic vending machines that sell cold or frozen foods, termed as frozen vending machines or frozen food vending machines as well. Cold food vending machines are popular since the twentieth century as there are many spots all around the county areas where people have no access to convenient food sources.

A chilled product vending machine has a refrigeration compressor and a temperature sensor to detect the temperature of the products. The temperature sensor controls the ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ of the refrigeration compressor. The system also contains evaporator coils and evaporator fans for the purpose of circulating cold air throughout the vending machine. The evaporator fans work when the refrigeration compressor is ‘ON’. The system is designed and functions in a way the reduces power consumption.

Hot Food Vending Machine

Hot food vending machines are vending machines which do exactly that — dispense hot food to customers who wish to purchase something more than a cold snack like chips, candies or soft drinks. A hot food vending machine is a powerful addition to have in a variety of different settings. Hot food vending machines are an ideal way of providing people with a quick alternative to restaurant or cafe eating which also come with a higher price tag. In just a few minutes, hot food can be dispensed from vending machines which is far quicker than restaurants and cafes can manage. It also offers the flexibility of on-the-move eating which is becoming more necessary in current society. Hot food vending machines are not a replacement for restaurants, instead they are an alternative for those people who wish to enjoy a hot snack or meal but without the long wait. They don’t require people to be operated and can therefore function 24/7 and can be extremely convenient in petrol pumps on highways and other remote places. It can also include healthier options such as soups, pastas, sandwiches, and more.

An automated pre-packaged hot food vending machine is equipped with an unattended microwave cooking and vending system that is capable of quickly cooking a large variety of frozen or refrigerated pre-packaged food items that utilizes a gravity delivery system, which reduces the number of parts needed to operate the vending machine thereby reducing the overall machines malfunction and repair. The overall invention of the automated, pre-packaged hot food vending machine achieves its objectives by automatically cooking and delivering a variety of pre-packaged food items, such as pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches, desserts, etc. that were previously frozen or refrigerated within the vending machine, to users of the machine that purchase and select such items.

The internal heating mechanism of a hot vending machine.

The vending machine stores the frozen pre packaged food that only requires heating up to be ready. The packaged food is prepared and frozen in a different location and transported to the location of the vending machine and placed inside. When a dish is selected, the frozen dish inside the machine is transported into a microwave oven designed for the vending machine, where the food is heated. The heating time varies depending on the food item in focus. The cooked item is then deposited so that the customer can collect their snack.

Payment Methods

Machines use a digital camera along with magnetic sensors, ultraviolet sensors to verify the notes used for payment. Internal lights illuminate the bill, allowing a digital camera to scan it and look for specific patterns unique to each note. The notes also have magnetic ink in specific locations which are verified by the magnetic sensor. Coins are verified based on their size, and metal type which is verified using an electromagnetic sensor.

Most of us have had the experience of putting a bill into a vending machine and having it spat back out. There are multiple reasons for this. Crumpled notes distort the pattern, making it hard for the machine to read it as real. Money picks up a lot of dirt as it travels around, and the dirt rubs off inside the vending machine. After a certain point, the detector is too dirty to scan the bills properly. The machine also declines a higher denomination note when it doesn’t have enough change.

More modern vending machines have better interfaces and flexibility in payment methods. Payment can be done through credit or debit cards and through online payment services such as Paytm, Google Pay, and so on.

Challenges

Vending machines are widely popular in India but their popularity is mostly limited to offices and similar places in mostly metropolitan cities. They are not quite common in public. There are several reasons for this:

Vandalism: A lot of people take advantage of vending machines being unmanned and damage them to either pass time or to steal the items.
Business models: A proper business model and strategy is required for the business to be a success.
Cost: Currently, vending machines have high manufacturing costs which discourages people from buying them. When they are rented, the prices are higher than in local shops which also discourages people from using them.

Future Scope

The products that can be sold through vending machines are only limited by the imagination. This is obvious when we see the status of vending machines in Japan. Vending machines are very popular in Japan, and they sell everything from food to toys and even clothes along with other bizarre products. A lot of people even sell their homemade food items in vending machines.

An assortment of vending machines in Japan.

Vending machines are a growing industry with untapped potential in India. They could be a popular hit in college campuses, parks and other public places. The vending machines can include touch interfaces and cashless payment methods for convenience. They can also have trackers so that people can find the nearest vending machine through online maps or even through a dedicated app. A reward system such as those in supermarkets and restaurant chains, can also be implemented to increase the customer base.

Hot food vending machines are not common in India, but they have the potential to break it big. Fast food items like pizzas, French fries, etc. are loved by a lot of people. With proper implementation and planning, these vending machines can easily be made popular and can be a successful business. Even snacks like Golgappas, which in normal stalls raise sanitary concerns, can be served through vending machines, along with many other Indian snacks like Vada Pavs, Samosas, to name a few.

The products sold don’t have to be limited to only food items. Many items which are essential to people in their daily life can also be sold in these vending machines. For example, in South Indian where there’s a lot of rain, there could be vending machines for umbrellas in bus stops, schools, etc. Another initiative would be machines which reward you for depositing recyclable trash like cans or bottles.

The possibilities with vending machines are endless. All it requires is simple research, planning and implementation for it to be a successful business venture.

Written by Aiman Bayezeed