Blog - Intelligent Vending Ltd

Noodle Idol

Once again, we head over to Japan, to see what’s happening in the Vending world. This time though, it’s a little different to what we have come to expect.

The culture of celebrity is becoming a massive part of our lives, thanks to social media such as twitter and TV shows like the X factor people are now feeling closer to their favourite celebrities than ever with technology bringing them to an accessible level, but seeing them out and about in real, public life still excites most people. Scenes of pandemonium are seen when Justin Bieber or Rihanna walk down the street…

Now, a cafe in Japan has turned this around. Forget walking up to a noodle vending machine and being served your hot cup of noodles straight from the machine. Now you can pop along, buy your noodles and select your favourite ‘idol’ from a vending machine, walk over to the counter and have your Idol fill your cup with water and chat to you for 3 minutes about your day. The idol is actually there, behind the counter in the cafe waiting to serve you!All this, and a drink for just 800 JPY! Different Idols will appear in the cafe on different days to allow for variety and the chance for the customers to meet their favourite.

Personally, I find this slightly odd… I can’t imagine Cheryl Cole or Victoria Beckham working in a cafe, filling noodle pots with water and having a chat unless for charity. But, hey, if it works for the Japanese give it a few years and there might be a few ex-Big Brother stars willing to serve noodles over here in the UK as well!

How do you feel about this? Would you feel comfortable making small talk with a pop star as they make you noodles, or would you rather stick to the usual, anonymous vending machine which does everything for you? As ever, let us know in the comments below, I would love to hear your thoughts on this one!

Original article here.

Posted in: Customised Vending, Intelligent Vending Ltd, Vending Overseas
Tags: bieber, celebrity, culture, idol, japan, noodles, rihanna

Safety First!

Students at MIT have designed a particularly innovative machine for the vending of bicycle helmets, to wok in conjunction with Boston’s “Hubway” bicycle sharing scheme.

Research into the Hubway scheme showed that only around 30% of the users wore helmets, which obviously is not very safety conscious! Despite local retailers selling heavily discounted helmets, users did not seem to embrace them. Enter 12 undergraduates of MIT Mechanical Engineering 2.009 class…Students at the Institute are renowned for innovative design and successfully designed the prototype for the “HelmetHub.” This vending machine is half the size of a regular snack or drinks machine and features a touch screen in line with the design of the Hubway along with solar panels for power. The machine dispenses adjustable helmets for $8 which users can either keep and re-use or return for a partial refund, as helmets are then taken to be inspected and cleaned.

Currently this is a prototype machine, but the students are in talks to build a Beta version which could be put to the test by the summer.

Have you ever used a bike-share scheme, such as Hubway or the so called “Boris Bikes” in London? Of all the bike-shares, only Melbourne, Australia has a helmet vending machine but it is far bulkier than the tight space saving option offered by Hubway. If you use a bike share programme, would you be tempted by the shared helmet as well? Do you ride your own bike with a helmet? Let us know in the comments below!

Posted in: Customised Vending, Public Vending, Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: bicycle, helmets, safety

G-Snack 6 Vending Machine

Yet again, we have new vending machines on the website! Introducing the G-Snack 6 machine:

This is the G-Snack machine already available on the website‘s little sister. Still versatile, flexible, reliable, this machine is able to vend a wide range of snacks, drinks and food products. Similarly to the original larger G-Snack 8, this smaller version is fully customisable to your requirements, and would be a great addition to any small office!

This is sure to be another success from SandenVendo! Would you like this machine for your office? Or perhaps customised for a new buisness venture? Let us know in the comments below.

Posted in: Customised Vending, Intelligent Vending Ltd, Product News
Tags: customisable, g-snack, sandenvendo, vending machine

No shirt, no shoes…

Left the house without your Tee shirt? Gone out for lunch and spilt ketchup down yourself? Has your children run through a water fountain and come out the other side soaking wet through?

Well now thanks to Coinstar (you know – the machine in the supermarkets you throw all the change you’ve had sitting round the house into so you don’t have to count it and take it to the bank) and online tee shirt store Threadless, should any of these predicaments happen to you whilst out and about in Chicago, USA where the machines are in trials in malls, you’re not going to be caught short, nor are you any longer going to have to venture into a store and deal with a sales assistant who will probably just stare at your new ketchup’d tee shirt.

Now, thanks to the Threadless machine you can slide on up to it, pop in your money and pull out a super cool tee shirt before anybody realises how clumsy you are!

Alongside tee shirts printed with the designs currently available on Threadless’ website, there is also the option to purchase tote bags, onesis, hot water bottles and hoodies.

“E-Commerce” is looking like it will become a huge player in the retail market in the not too distant future. As QR codes become more popular, companies are going to see more and more the benefit of having an automated vending machine rather than floods of staff who either mooch around looking sullen and that they can think of a million places they would rather be, or jump and of the shadows and terrify the customers (I’m looking at you, Hollister) not only will it save money on staff costs, but also adds more of a novelty for consumers, a machine they haven’t seen before catches their eye, they buy a great quality product at it, potentially cheaper than its equivalent in a shop (in line with online prices) and without the hassle of queuing, listening to awful, too loud music etc.

We can see this be coming a massive trend throughout the retail market. Have you ever considered vending your product in a similar machine? Let us know in the comments below! And, as ever, if you have any questions regarding what you can and cannot vend, or how we can help you reach your dream of vending your product do not hesitate to get in touch!

Posted in: Customised Vending, Product News, Public Vending
Tags: america, clothes vending, tee shirts, vending

Ahhh, Alcohol.

A bar in New York City’s Meatpacking district has launched an interesting new way of getting a drink during busy periods. Instead of waiting for your bartender to make, shake and serve you a cocktail, whiskey or wine, you can now simply take your glass to a vending machine (or Enomatic machine as this bar calls them) for a top up.

These machines keep the drink at the optimum temperature, just as they would behind the bar and all you have to do is push a button and place your glass!

Big leather couches and a (potentially) fab atmosphere. This is all in Samantha’s (SATC) neighbourhood, but how would the machine cater to specific requests – especially when it comes to whiskey customers can be very picky if there is too much/not enough ice in their glass.

What do you think? Would you rather go into a bar and not have to put up with bartenders? Not have to worry about how much tip you should give or how much they will take upon a “take you’re own love”? Or do you quite like the human interaction and being able to have your drink made exactly to your requirments?

Posted in: Customised Vending, Intelligent Vending Ltd, Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: alcohol, customised, USA, vending, whiskey

I missed you so!

Now this is clever! Ever wanted to greet (or be greeted by) your nearest and dearest with a banner expressing how much you missed them? Hours to prepare a banner of epic proportions from a bed sheet is not something most people have the time to do these days so the clever people over at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport have installed a ‘bannerXpress’ vending machine. Through this machine, you can design your own banner and print it off on canvas in just a matter of minutes, costing between 4 and 15 Euros.

The banners are waterproof and should therefore last a few trips to the airport should your other half be a frequent traveller and you want to act out ‘Love Actually’! The company behind the machines are looking to expand into concert arenas and sports grounds – so you’ll never be far from the opportunity to make an I <3 Justin Bieber banners – along with other airports.

Personally, I think this is a lovely idea. How many times have you been picked up at the airport and heard “oh, I was going to make a banner but I didn’t have time”?! Well, now there is no excuse thanks to this nifty machine! The machine launched yesterday, if you happen to be flying into (or out of) Shriphol Airport let us know if you see – or use- the machine. I’d love to know what the banners actually turn out like!

Happy Friday!

- Saskia

Posted in: Customised Vending, Intelligent Vending Ltd, Public Vending
Tags: airports, bieber, love actually, vending

Pay with potatoes!

Lays Crisps (Walkers in the UK) have introduced a new promotional machine to show how fresh and pure their crisps really are. Instead of paying with spare change, consumers are asked to put a whole potato into the vending machine and then watch as it is washed, peeled, sliced and fried to be turned into the ready salted crisps they know and love, quite the contrast to last weeks post about free crisps when the recession is mentioned!

This is a digital video, but gives a great insight into how the machine will work and could potentially brighten up snack time, especially as it shows the whole process of getting a bag of crisps, right from real potato, to being sealed into their bag for freshness.

Lays Vending Machine

Here at Intelligent Vending, we think this is a fab machine, exciting to watch and also serves as a reminder as to where food actually comes from, the act of putting in a real, possibly field-muddy potato brings the bag of crisps back to earth, especially for children who are perhaps so used to eating from a packet that they wouldn’t even know that crisps are made from potatoes grown in muddy fields.

Posted in: Customised Vending, Public Vending, Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: crisps, Innovation, Lays, vending machines, Walkers

Happy Hour

The Arnold Ad agency in Boston have come up with a delightful way to brighten up their staffs day!

Introducing Arnie, a beer vending machine with a smart, touchscreen interface loaded with an “Alepedia” to give users more information to his customers. Staff have been provided with a fob loaded with credits to allow several free beers a month, which can also be topped up with their own credit should a party break out in the lunch room! The fobs recognise who is using the machine, allowing for a person experiance where Arnie talks them thorugh and explains how to get a cold one!

Of course, no innovation nowadays is free from social media, so Arnie is equiped with what else- his own twitter feed (@arniebeer) where he can tweet his thoughts – generally either begging for company when he hasn’t had many visitors or warning that a party is about to happen once he has sold a few beers that hour! Arnie also retweets mentions from staff to show they are happy. It is also possible for users to tweet directly from the machine to express their delight in popping the cap of nice cool beer!

Arnie was the product of an internal $100,000 initiative called “the Make project” where staff came up with their own ideas of how to improve productivity and happiness within the office. Launched earlier in the month, from the looks of Arnies twitter feed it appears staff seem happy, quite how productive they will be with a 24hour free bar in the office I don’t know!

Arnie currently dispensers 6 different varieties of beer, including his own “Arnold Pilsner” and their are plans to extend the range to include seasonal beer. picture from psfk.com

If you would be interested in a similar machine for your office or function do not hesitate to get in touch with us here at Intelligent Vending Ltd and we will see what we can do for you!

- Saskia

Posted in: Customised Vending, Vending Machine News
Tags: alcohol, beer, drinks vending, vending

There’s no such thing as a free meal…

An artist from Plymouth College of Art, Ellie Harrison, has created an installation names “vending machine.” This, however is not your typical vender, OH NO! Here, you are not given the option of what flavour crisps you would like, nor which spiral you would like them to fall from. You are not even given the chance to pay. Harrison’s installation is instead linked to a computer, and a big screen. The computer feeds the vending machine information directly from the BBC’s RSS feed, and when the word “recession,” or anything recession-related is fed through, BOOM, free crisps! This is where the big screen comes in, as 1ft high letters on the screen announce “FREE FOOD” with the theory that students and visitors to the college will then go running to the installation room.

After a successful run in Plymouth, the installation and it’s sister project- a child’s mechanical car which runs on the same principal- have moved around the country, it’s latest incarnation was at Intelligent Vending Ltd’s local gallery- QUAD Derby, hence it coming to our attention. Vending Machine and the exhibition it is a part of, the Ha Ha Road, is said to be a chance to look at the funny side of life that often gets forgotten with the hard slog of real life. Although appearing as an act of generosity, and could brighten up a customers day, the machine also hints towards a dystopian view of society when eventually we may not have the option of food on demand and is instead controlled by political or environmental events.

We here at Intelligent Vending Ltd, however are choosing to view the installation as a nice way to brighten someones day during the doom and gloom of current economic times. We applaud Harrison’s work on this project although we don’t think that free vending due to what is on the news is something our customers are going to take on anytime in the near future!

- Saskia

Posted in: Customised Vending, Intelligent Vending Ltd, Public Vending, Vending Machine News
Tags: art, crisps, derby, vending

French bread fresh from the vend!

A baker in France has come up with the ingenious idea that he can stock a vending machine with par-baked bread, which once selected is baked in an in-machine oven and delivered to the customer. Featuring a touch pad front plate, the machine promises to at least attempt to stave off France’s hunger pangs for bread in the middle of the night when traditional bakeries are close in a very simple way.

Due to french law, which says you cannot put preservatives into the nations favourite food, french baker Jean-Louis Hecht realised he could stock part baked bread – which stays fresh for up to 3 days – ready to be cooked when customers ordered it from the machine, allowing for fresh bread to be available 24 hours a day.

Hecht is planning on rolling these machines out across France, not to rival traditional bakeries but to compliment them, as he says “bakeries will have to adapt or die” in the current economic climate.

If you’re in France, or planning on visiting soon, keep an eye out for these new machines, which will no doubt be complimented by and installed alongside the wine vending machine we blogged about here!

Posted in: Customised Vending, Public Vending, Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: bread, france, vending, wine