Blog - Intelligent Vending Ltd

The Smart Butcher

A new vending machine in the U S of A has been released recently, selling, of all things, fresh meat! Being labelled the “smart butcher,” this machine is vending all of your favourite meat products, from rib-eye steak to pork chops! The businessmen trialling the idea, Chase Evans and Rob Harrison, are currently vending out of Lil Mart, Alabama but are confident they will find the perfect location for their machine, likely somewhere rural with little to no access to fresh meat markets.

The Smart Butcher is equipped with cell phone technology to inform Rob Harrison when the machine needs to be restocked, and also when a sale is made. Customers are able to pay with credit or debit card or cash, making the machine versatile and accessable to many people, who are also finding that many of the products vended are cheaper than at their local grocery store!

Posted in: Customised Vending, Product News, Public Vending, Vending Machine News
Tags: meat vending machines, Smart Butcher vending machines, vending machines

Luxe Vending in Mumbai:

Just recently launched in Mumbai, are vending machines which vend not only gold and silver, which is sporadically available elsewhere, but also precious jewels and diamonds! This vending machine has been launched with the idea to make jewels accessible to all, but also due to Indians “unquenchable appetite for jewels and precious metals”.

The first machine has now been launched in the exclusive Phoenix Mills shopping mall located in central Mumbai, with a range of 36 different products, and a price range of between 1,000 rupees (about £12.60) to 30,000 rupees, allowing the machine to cater to most pockets of customers in the mall.

The Gitanjali Group, the company responsible for this machine have said they have hopes to expand into at least 75 locations, including more shopping centres, airports and Hindu temples around India. While the Gitanjali group claim there will be no real security problems with the vending machines as they are incredibly robust, and placed in secure locations, men in the local area are seeing a very different problem with the machines. Jammy Gagrat, a local businessman expressed his concern; “this machine is going to be a problem for the gents! Ladies are going to keep on buying more and more every time they come here!”

Posted in: Customised Vending, Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: customised vending, diamond jewellery vending machine, vending

Halloween Sale Such a Success it Continues…

Our Halloween Price Slasher sale was such a huge success that we have decided to continue this into a Bonfire Night Spectacular sale, and through to the New Year with a range of holiday themed promotions.

We at Intelligent Vending are incredibly proud of how successful the Halloween sale turned out to be that we have decided to extend this into a Bonfire Night sale, continuing in various guises’ until January 2012 as a thank you to our loyal customers who have helped us to be successful since the launch of the new website on the 9th of September this year.

Included in the sale are many of our popular products, including a range of drink and snack vending machines, water coolers, ice machines and washroom products. We are enjoying providing this promotion for our customers and we hope, that they love the spectacular savings they are making with us here at Intelligent Vending!

Posted in: Vending Machine News
Tags: Promotion, Sale

Intelligent Vending – Looking Forward to the Future

The vending industry operates in a difficult economic climate and even the largest players have faced tough challenges in recent months. Intelligent Vending has responded energetically to the rapidly changing market conditions by reviewing internal operations and establishing a new strategy that will enable us to deliver services more effectively.

Our most significant change is the launch of our new website, which has been designed to be as intuitive and informative as possible and also features an online shop for UK mainland customers. We hope this will help consumers to quickly and effectively identify and purchase or lease the products which best meet their needs.

Of course, for consumers who require advice and support prior to committing to a purchase, there is still the same access to high quality advice and consultancy as always.

Another great feature of our new website is our unique online ‘lease cart’ finance ordering system. Benefits of this system include a breakdown of projected payments and potential tax savings, while also providing users with the ability to submit, review and track finance orders from their account at any time. As far as we are aware, we are the first vending company on the globe to offer this functionality.

The automated nature of this new approach will reduce company overheads and streamline processes; allowing us to pass on savings to our clients and focus on core business activities such as export and bespoke projects. We are confident these changes will enable us to further improve our service to all customers, whether they are small or overseas businesses, charities or large corporate organisations.

This is a challenging but very exciting time for the vending industry with many possibilities opening up. Intelligent Vending intends to be a significant force in its field and be at the forefront of exploiting new opportunities.

Posted in: Intelligent Vending Ltd, Vending Machine News
Tags: Intelligent Vending

Gold Vending Machines in UK

Developed by a German company, the first gold vending machine appeared over two years ago at Frankfurt airport on a one-day showing. Following this it was permanently sited in Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace hotel around a year later.

Various sizes of gold bar are available from these vending machines, depending on the depth of the customer’s pocket. The vending machines also automatically update their price of gold every 10 minutes, to ensure the rates are aligned with the ever-changing market value.

Security is obviously major consideration with vending machines of this kind. Weighing in at 500 kilograms, the outer casing is constructed from stainless steel and 4cms of molybdenum steel – the machines also feature anti money laundering software to help keep sales legitimate.

The vending machine in Abu Dhabi has shown itself to be a success, and following this initial installation these machines have since been adopted by a number of different countries.

England is the now the latest country to get one of these vending machines. The machine was installed in west London’s Westfield shopping centre late last month.

Posted in: Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: gold vending machines, Vending Machine News, vending machines for sale

New 5p and 10p Coins Delayed – Again

Last year, the government announced plans to introduce new 5p and 10p coins manufactured from alternative, cheaper materials. The motivation – as ever – is financial; and while this may save the government some money(an estimated £10 million per year), it will cost the vending machine industry significantly more.

The new coins will be 0.2mm thicker than the current coins in circulation, and will also be made from nickel-plated stainless steel, as opposed to the presently used nickel and copper alloy (cupro-nickel). This means they will not be compatible with existing vending machine coin mechanisms.

To continue to operate effectively, all vending machines, change machines, parking meters and anything else which accepts coins will need to be fitted with new, updated coin mechanisms.

The cost of this to the vending industry alone has been estimated at £43 million. For the whole coin industry, this estimate increases to £100 million.

Previously, the Automatic Vending Association (AVA) successfully appealed against these plans on the basis that vending operators would need more time to prepare for the change and update their coin mechanisms accordingly.

The introduction date for the new coins was first moved to January 2011. Following this, another successful appeal pushed the date back again, to April 2011. Last March, the AVA won a third delay, with the planned introduction date now pencilled in for January 2012.

Posted in: Vending Machine News
Tags: coin mechanisms, coins, vending news

Egg Vending Machine

German animal rights group NOAH recently set up an ‘egg vending machine‘ in a busy town centre to try and promote awareness of the poor conditions suffered by ‘battery farmed’ chickens. The vending machine contained sixteen live chickens in a compartmentalised version of a typical snack vending machine, with a sticker reading ‘Egg Machine’ affixed across the top in large red letters.

Although the vending machine looks realistic, it doesn’t actually dispense eggs. Instead, the machine dispenses free shopping cart tokens with “CHECK THE EGG” branding. Also printed on the tokens is a quick guide to the country’s egg labelling system. This consists of the numbers 0 to 3 with respective farming methods (0 = organic, 1 = free range, 2 = deep-litter and 3 = cage).

The hope is that this will act as a reminder and handy reference for shoppers when buying eggs, which must all have this number on to show their origin.

NOAH is similar to the UK animal rights group PETA. More information on the group, including pictures and videos of their egg vending machine can be seen on NOAH’s website.

Posted in: Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: chicken vending machine, egg vending machine, vending machines, vending news

Social Media Vending Machines

Earlier this month, Pepsi revealed a prototype of a ‘social media vending machine’. The social media aspect of the vending machine is a feature which allows customers to send drinks voucher codes to their friends, which can then be redeemed on other similar vending machines.

The vending machine is operated with a touch-screen, which initially presents three options to the user. One of these options is ‘Gift or Redeem a Drink’. Once a drink has been selected, an optional video message can be recorded and sent to a friend’s mobile phone, together with a text message which includes a code that can be entered in to any other ‘Pepsi Social Vending Unit’.

Some social media experts have received the concept well; suggesting that it has been long overdue. However, others have voiced concerns over privacy issues.

The vending machine also provides nutritional information for the products, which should help to support the USA’s campaign to improve dietary habits.

Whether or not this particular vending machine will take off is yet to be seen, but it may be a glimpse of the vending machines of the future. It is certainly not likely to be the final attempt at integrating the phenomenon of social media to increase vending machine sales.

For those who are interested, there is a YouTube video of the social media vending machine’s interface in action.

Posted in: Vending Machine News
Tags: social media, vending machines, vending news

New Vending Machine Regulation: Taiwan

Many vending machines in Taiwan will now be subject to a new law following recent regulation changes made by the government. The new regulation comes in to affect this month and states that all public drinks vending machines in Taiwan will now be required to have a recycle-bin situated within 50m of the machine.

As explained by an Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) executive, the new regulation has been implemented in order to close a loophole in their current waste recycling policies. Shopping centres and other shops are already obliged to recycle waste containers and batteries – now there will also be a requirement throughout the country for vending machines and beverage shops to provide recycle bins for customers.

It is reported that vending machine operators who do not comply with the new rule can be fined between $60,000 and $300,000 (Taiwan Dollars). At the time of writing, this works out to approximately &163;1,200 – &163;6,200 (UK Sterling), $2,000 – $10,100 (US Dollars) or €l1,450 – €l7,300 (Euros).

Posted in: Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: drinks vending machines, Vending Machine News, vending machines

Crab Vending Machines: Part 2

In our last post, we spoke about the recently reported live crab vending machines in China. Now another crab vending machine has been brought to our attention; this vending machine is from – you guessed it – Japan.

A video of this vending machine can be seen at the following link:

Crab Vending Machine in Japan

This crab vending machine seems to have been around for a while; and based on the age of the video, predates the crab vending machine in China.

This Japanese vending machine could certainly be considered a little more sinister than the retail service provided by the crab vending machines in China, as it has been incorporated in to a popular arcade claw vending machine game. For those who missed the previous article, the crab vending machine in China was refrigerated to a temperature low enough to send the crabs in to a state of hibernation.

Anyone who has been to a seaside town or games arcade is likely to be familiar with these ‘claw’ vending machine games – for those who aren’t, the aim is to position a mechanical claw above a prize and try to pick it up, and then have it survive the journey back to the collection area.

This vending machine seems to operate under the same principal, the only difference being that live crabs are the prize instead of a nice cuddly toy. It even features retro Mario style music to really help get you in crab hunting mode.

Still… Can’t see these vending machines catching on in the UK anytime soon.

Posted in: Vending Machine News, Vending Overseas
Tags: vending in japan, vending machines