VendingMarketWatch Blog

Those of you unfamiliar with the U.S. Mint’s free coin delivery program might be missing out on an opportunity to earn credit card miles to pay for travel expenses.
 There are several Websites that share information about earning frequent flyer miles. One informative Website is www.flyertalk.com.
The Mint offers Presidential dollar coins and Native American dollar coins in 25-coin rolls packaged in quantities of 10 rolls per box with a face value of $250. Customers can order a maximum of two boxes, for a total of 500 Native American dollar coins. The Mint pays the shipping and handling fees on orders delivered via standard shipping methods.
Pat McAfee, director of the Mint’s Office of Dollar Coin programs, told me the vending industry has made good use of the free shipping program, which has been in effect since June of 2008.

The Mint’s concerns about the program
The tactic of ordering large quantities of dollar coins to earn travel miles has become so popular that the Mint is trying to crack down on letting people benefit from the free shipping just to rack up miles. In the meantime, dollar coin availability from the Mint is at an all time low.
Don’t confuse the current shortage of dollar coins with the Mint’s efforts to crack down on people ordering coins to rack up miles.
You may have read recently that credit card companies are going to stop awarding miles on dollar coin purchases.
In his conversation with me, McAfee confirmed that the Mint is working with credit card companies to try to stop people from racking up free miles for dollar coin purchases. At this date, nothing’s been finalized.
He also told me that the Mint wants to continue offering free shipping of dollar coins to vending operators.
As far as the dollar coin supply is concerned, McAfee said he expects dollar coins to be available in two weeks. He noted that inventories do get low periodically.
For information about the program, go to www.usmint.gov.

For years, VendingMarketWatch has observed vending technology is being used to bring consumer products to market more efficiently — Redbox has led the charge.

Redbox and a few others such as Zoom Shops have been implementing cashless transaction capability much faster than the traditional vending industry.
It’s also been noted the growth of these innovations will make consumers more accepting of cashless transactions for small ticket items, which will support cashless vending purchases.
That change is happening faster than many realize.
Redbox has become known as “The Red Menace” in the movie entertainment industry. Three major motion picture studios have tried to block Redbox access to new DVDs. This past year, the number of Redbox machines jumped from about 12,000 to nearly 21,000, and is still growing.
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal featured an interview with Redbox President Mitch Lowe about the company’s explosive growth.
Today, Dec. 1,, Blockbuster announced plans to fight back with its own DVD machines in New York City.

What does this have to do with us?
Redbox has used our industry’s technology to bring a higher level of value to consumers. Redbox machines don’t take cash. Consumers must use a card to rent a DVD. The machines are serviced by a dedicated service organization utilizing remote machine monitoring.
The traditional vending industry deals with different products and has different service issues than Redbox. And being a much older industry, it has significant legacy costs to contend with.
But Redbox has learned how consumers want to shop for certain needs, and it has made it easy and economical for them. Using technology they borrowed from traditional vending.
Are we listening?