Blog Archives
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Winning The Workplace War
By Emily Refermat - Thursday June 13, 2013
During a recent conversation, I was reminded of the fact that vending has always been tied to labor. If you read the news, you know that the employment statistics aren’t great. Unemployment has gone down, but the percentage of people working hasn’t increased. Companies just aren’t growing their staffs. Yet, the upcoming Automatic Merchandiser/VendingMarketWatch State of the Vending Industry report shows positive growth in 2012 operator revenues (yes, I’m leaking that news). But how? The best explanation is that vending operators have adjusted to the new workplace. It has fewer people and many aren’t even at the location. An estimated 3.1 million employees primarily work from home and a total of 20 to 30 million telecommute at... -
Healthy Vending Rules Make Niche Vending A Problem
By Emily Refermat - Thursday June 6, 2013
We’ve all seen the headlines, “Such and Such Place Considers Healthy Vending Requirements.” A quick search shows more than 60 news items in the past 90 days concerning healthy vending on VendingMarketWatch.com alone. While a number of them involve taxing traditional items to encourage different vending product choices, most involve some kind of healthy vending rule. The news reports are of local governments or school districts mandating that half or more of the products sold in vending machines in their buildings must meet a nutritional guideline. Announcements abound of organizations awarding schools or businesses for making changes in vending fare. And many items include the national “calories count” program enacted by the... -
A Great Team Starts With Different Skills
By Emily Refermat - Thursday May 30, 2013
Whenever I write operation profiles, the owners/operators always do the same thing – they all thank their staff. It seemed like lip service to me, until I actually became a manager. Then it all became clear. I understood the grateful tone used to pay tribute to staff’s hard work. I realized why operators take the time to fill out the route driver of the year nomination forms. A great team is too hard to find to be taken for granted. I’ve been lucky enough to find a great team of individuals whose skills complement each other, but I know plenty of people who aren’t so fortuitous. I was just reading a post from a past head of Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney about one of the most common hiring mistakes – hiring a person just like... -
Memorial Day: Remembering Our Heroes And Their Sacrifice
By Alfonso Flores - Thursday May 23, 2013
With Memorial Day around the corner, it’s important that we salute the veterans who have risked and are currently risking their lives for our freedom. Memorial Day is a celebration and a reminder of the sacrifices these men and women have made, but there are other ways to honor veterans as well. Veterans coming back from overseas have historically struggled transitioning back to everyday life. In fact, according to a March 2013 report by Time Magazine, of a randomly surveyed 4,000 veterans 16 percent said they were unemployed. The same article reported that 60 percent of veterans have stated that transitioning their military service to civilian employment was a significant challenge. It is important that we as a society do... -
Ode To The Family Business
By Emily Refermat - Thursday May 16, 2013
Many people feel nostalgic about a family business. They dream of spending time with their loved ones everyday while also providing for them financially. They believe it will cement relationships, foster a positive sense of morale and produce a strong organization with people who all have the same goal. Not to mention lead to a legacy that can be passed on to the next generation. For some, this is the case. However, my experience with a family business has taught me that relatives and employment shouldn’t mix. For one thing there are the holiday dinners. Over turkey, three individuals are discussing the day’s sales, the problem customers and arguing about marketing strategies. They do this while other members sip wine and try... -
Slender Vender Criticism Uncalled For
By Alfonso Flores - Thursday May 9, 2013
Recently Coca-Cola released a 7-inch width Diet Coke vending machine cleverly named the “Slender Vender.” The ad accompanying the ultra-thin machine depicted it in places such as between treadmills at gyms and between lanes at bowling alleys, among others. The first thing that came to mind when seeing the “Slender Vender” was its unique design. The design of a soda machine has been the same for a number of years. Sure, things have been added for convenience and they have been modified to look more modern, but the size has pretty much been the same forever. When I saw the Slender Vender, I thought a machine like this could really benefit the vending industry. It could lead to a more versatile machine that is sleek and eye-catching... -
Just What We Need – More Competition!
By Paul Schlossberg - Tuesday May 7, 2013
The Columbus Dispatch featured an article “ Drugstores become shopping ‘destinations,’ with fresh food and more ” about this relatively new development. According to Rite Aid’s chief operating officer, Ken Martindale, “Drugstores are trying to figure out what their role is. We’re in a new environment where everyone is selling everything.” Walgreens, including their Duane Reade chain, is creating destination drug stores offering a wide array of product and services. They have six flagship stores across the country. I’ve been to the Duane Reade store at 40 Wall Street in New York’s Financial District. It is a retail wonder. You can see what they’ve accomplished from a video report of their grand opening reception... -
A Point Of No Return
By Emily Refermat - Thursday May 2, 2013
This year’s NAMA OneShow was filled with optimism. As I walked around and talked to attendees, I got the sense that we’ve reached a turning point as an industry. Gone are the days when an operator would stop, and during our discussion about payment systems, say: “Cashless is stupid, these young people just need to learn to carry cash.” An operator actually did say this to me at one of my first tradeshows. Instead, operators filled the room at the V-engineering session to learn about the technological innovations in the vending industry. I spoke with a number of operators who came to the show to investigate telemetry units, the return on investment for cashless, micro market systems and several other vending industry... -
Don't Give Up On Vending
By Emily Refermat - Thursday April 18, 2013
Fact of life No. 71: everyone likes new and exciting. Because of that fact, we hear (or in my case report) a lot on the new stuff in the industry. Lately, it has been micro markets, and don't get me wrong -- they are terrific. In the right location with the right service, they can really increase revenues. And they are nothing but new and exciting for operators and locations alike. But in my opinion, micro markets will never take over the quintessential vending machine -- the hero of the late night cramming college student or starving office worker who has 10 minutes before the next meeting. Why won't vending machines fade to be some obscure piece of equipment we see in reruns – like the rotary landline telephone? First and foremost... -
Food Is Our Future
By Paul Schlossberg - Thursday April 11, 2013
Our industry is changing as micro markets take a bigger share of the deployments at locations we serve. Food has become even more important to those companies operating micro-markets. How many vending locations offer food versus only offering cold drinks and snacks? That snack lineup is usually limited to confections, salty snacks, cookies, crackers, gums, mints and, maybe, pastries. An excellent article from Convenience Store Decisions – posted through their daily email newsletter supports my point. The article explores how convenience store foodservice is adapting “to meet the latest food trends.” One critical data point popped out in the story Grab-and-Go Continues to Grow . Market research about pricing, from a study by...
