Cliff Fisher, sales manager of vending management solutions at MEI. Fisher, responds to an operator who, in a podcast on Dec. 17, 2009, questioned the benefits of pre-kitting routes in the warehouse. Fisher said costs will vary among operator, based on what technology the operator has already introduced. Digital data (DEX) collection, for instance, is the first step an operator needs. Fisher said productivity gains of 15 percent are not unusual. Fisher also examines how route and warehouse costs are affected.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, claims cashless vending is economically feasible for vending operators. Agrawal made his comments in response to those by a vending operator that were presented on Jan. 7, 2010.
Agrawal claims cashless is not necessarily all about margin today, but should be considered as a competitive advantage, dedication to good customer service, and a way to drive incremental sales above and beyond just cash.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, claims disruptions in a service schedule won’t cause severe problems for an operation that pre-kits routes in the warehouse. Agrawal makes his comments in response to those by a vending operator that were presented on Jan. 6, 2010.
Agrawal claims that if something happens in between pre-kitting and actually visiting the machine, those bins will have to be re-picked for the next day, but the system will take the anomaly into account.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, claims mixing different products in a spiral won’t result in inaccurate product tracking. Accurate item level tracking is necessary to pre-kit routes in the warehouse. Agrawal makes his comments in response to an operator who said in a podcast on Jan. 4 that mixing products in a spiral will result in inaccurate product tracking.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, argues that pre-kitting, in combination with remote machine monitoring, is an important tool for enabling a vending operator to stock the products that customers want in the machines.
He makes his comments in response to those by a vending operator that were presented in a podcast on Dec. 23, 2009.
Agrawal claims customers recognize good customer service when their supplier shows an aptitude to anticipate customer demands.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, defends tracking individual vending machine sales. He makes his comments in response to those by a vending operator that were presented in a podcast on Dec. 22, 2009.
Agrawal says each location has a unique demographic composition that can only be determined by analyzing sales from specific machines. While this can be done from historical data, it lacks the immediacy available via real-time information.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, defends planogramming vending machines. He makes his comments in response to those by a vending operator that were presented in a podcast on Dec. 21, 2009.
Agrawal says planograms allow management to understand what is actually selling at what location. Otherwise, all a vending operator really knows is total volume that went into the field based on what’s left in the warehouse at the end of the week.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, says pre-kitting routes in the warehouse only works effectively with real time management systems. He makes his comments in response to those by a vending operator that were presented in a podcast on Dec. 18, 2009. Agrawal says dynamic scheduling will ensure machines never go empty for long before a service visit is scheduled.

 

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Anant Agrawal, chief marketing officer at Cantaloupe Systems, defends the benefits of pre-kitting vending routes in the warehouse. Agrawal makes his comments in response to those by a vending operator that were presented in a podcast on Dec. 17, 2009. Agrawal supports pre-kitting primarily for the controls and accuracy it brings to the merchandising process.

 

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Mike Lawlor, vice president of sales and business development at USA Technologies Inc., further defends cashless vending. In his fourth interview with Automatic Merchandiser, he focuses on the rapid growth in cashless payments in all types of retail outlets, which he claims indicate rising demand for cashless vending.

 

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