More vandalism - Vending Machine Break Ins that could be avoided

Another news article about how a vending machine was broke into.

http://www.walkermessenger.com/view/full_story/23934617/article-LaFayette-police-seeking-suspects-in-thefts-from-vending-machines-?instance=home_news_lead_story

Vending operators need to secure the outside vending machines with vending machine security cages.  With a security cage it will at least deter the vandal from breaking into the machine and many times help prevent damage to your machines. With vending machine break ins on the rise it is important for the vending operator to provide better security such as cameras and vending cages to help slow down and stop vending machine vandalism.
Check out our complete line of vending machine security cages and cameras at
http://www.vendweb.com/vending-machine-security-cages.htm

Are you rolling the dice on food with Micro Markets

Are you rolling the dice on food items in Micro Markets?

With Micro Markets and fresh food items on the menu and more accessible than ever are you the operator taking a chance by selling food from coolers with no health safety?

Many operators are using the coolers provided by the bottlers to display and keep their Micro Market fresh foods in but the problem with this is that many of those coolers are designed for drink products and not food. Operators of Micro Markets need to be aware that when fresh or frozen food is being offered that you need to only use a cooler with a health safety feature build in so as not to run the risk of someone getting a food item that has been subjected to higher temperatures then would be needed to maintain a safe serving environment for such a product.

Getting coolers from the bottlers to use their products in the market is one option to keep equipment cost to a minimum but they should only be used for the drink products and even then Milk or any other drink product that is subject to temperature serving needs should only being offered from a cooler with a health safety lock out feature.

The health safety feature of the cooler is designed to lock the door of the cooler should the temperature inside the cooler where the food is held raises above a set temperature. Let’s say the power goes out over night at the location where the food is and the cooler warms up above ow let’s say 47 degrees,
and worst yet it is over the weekend because a storm or power outage. Now let’s say that before the place of the market opens power comes back on but the food inside the cooler had reached a temperature in excess of what it should have been and is now not fit to serve, but no one would know it because the cooler and product may cool back down below 40 degrees when the power came back on.
Not a situation you want to be liable for is it?

Solution is only use a reach in cooler with a health safety feature for any product that has to be keep a certain cold point or could be dangerous to eat or drink if not.
Check out our coolers with Health Safety Features on our website.
http://www.vendweb.com/reach-in-cooler-with-health-safety.htm

 

Water sales strong - But can we get them to work in vending machines?

Why are the bottles at the discount clubs so flimsy made?
Vending machines vend water bottles but the ones found at discount clubs are so flimsy they jam many times.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-food-summit-nestle-idUSBRE82B1BG20120313

Getting Gym Back In The Program

I believe that if the school system really wants to help stop the overweight problem in the kids they need to get them back into gym as a workout and exercise class and not a social hour.
The gym class today is not about exercise it is more about social hour and it needs to be a time when activities include exercise and fitness.. Also health class should be focused more on teaching good eating habits to educate the kids on the subject.
Eating right starts at home and if you do not have parent involvement at the home level to teach kids and provide to the kids a healthy life style, well the vending machine at school is not going to make any difference.


Winston-Salem mayor launches campaign against childhood obesity

Vending Plastic Bottles Of Water - BAN on college campus

Is it just the fact that it is water being sold or is it the fact that it is in a plastic bottle? It looks like the ban is just because it is water and that is absurd If people want to choose to drink water and other flavor waters or different brands of water because they like one taste over tap water they should have the right to buy those and drink them where they want..
Click Here For Story

Are Vending Machines The Cause Of The Overweight problem In America?

I do not think so.
I think all the talk about how the school vending machines are the source of the growing problem of america being over weight is unfairly aimed at the vending machine as the culprite.
Ones choices of what they eat is not influanced by buzz words like healthy or good for ya as consumers are catching on to these as just that buzz or marketing words.
It has come back time and time again to bite us on someone saying something is unhealthy for you only later to find out they were wrong. Now if a product is so unhealthy for you and is killing us then why is it even offered to us in the 1st place?
It is not the products that make you fat, it is the lack of excersise and higher levels of stress are major contributors to the problem also.
Why if government is so concerned with these so called bad for you products sold out of vending machines, you can go and buy the same products off the store shelves with an EBT card?
According to the USDA website artical or publication labeled
 IMPLICATIONS OF RESTRICTING THE USE OF FOOD STAMP BENEFITS - SUMMARY
And I copy from them this wording:
(No clear standards exist for defining foods as good or bad, or healthy or not healthy.)
So then how are you now saying well these foods in the vending machine that meet these criteries are bad for you? I thought you ahd no way of determing or defining good from bad?
If you say you can not have standards for the EBT program then how can you now say you will have standards for vending machines?
Here is the link to the
 IMPLICATIONS OF RESTRICTING THE USE OF FOOD STAMP BENEFITS - SUMMARY
It reads like the government is saying that the vending machine industry is selling products that are bad for our kids but it is allowing parents to buy the same products and use government funded funds to do so from the grocerie stores.
How is it fair that our tax dollars are being used to campain against our industry and agencies are saying that the products being sold are unhealthy and need to be taken out of the vending machines but we as an agency do not feel it is worth the cost to also monitor what products are being sold and apply the same restricions on the EBT systems as on the vending machines?
You can not say in one breath that certain products are unhealth and have to be removed from vending machines but in the print say
No clear standards exist for defining foods as good or bad, or healthy or not healthy.If it is ok for the stores to sell these same products on their shelves and even have the people tax dollars pay for these products by use of a federal government issued payment system how is it not ok to sell the same products out of a vending machine without being singled out as a bad industry?
The problem I have here is our industry being made out to look like this epidimic of overweight people in the US is the vending machines fault and it is not.
Vendweb.Com
We need to understand that it is not fair for any type of

Vending Machines and How They Are Changing

The time I have spend in the vending industry I have seen some major changes in the vending machine.
I watched as the dollar bill acceptor was fine tuned for vending machine applications, and yes there was a time that the bill acceptor was a proto type device for the vending machine.
I have seen the passing of the hanging tab and the rebirth of it also. I have seen drink machines go from a few selections to a full view 45 selection showcase machine. I have seen a grand gourmet food machine die and then the rebirth of the elevator system come back to life to deliver drinks in a elevator device that well was just not all that great. So here we go again with a change that I do not believe will benefit the vending operator or at least in for the most part the vending machine operator that places vending machines in work locations. The change I speak of is the displays that are making their way into the vending industry and are getting bigger and bigger in size. Now do not get me wrong, in the right place these advertising suggestions may work but I do not believe they will benefit the vending operator of the factories and lunch rooms across America.
The cost factor alone driving up the cost of replacing a clear see thru glass with a mega display is just not what I see as a good move. Some smaller displays are ok for displaying information about the products but these full front displays I just do not see the need.
Who has time to stand in a line waiting to use the vending machine at work and watch a ad?
Let me know your thoughts on the subject
Lindel
http://www.vendweb.com