Video: How Cantaloupe is expanding the operator growth playbook

Cantaloupe used the 2026 NAMA Show to demonstrate how its expanding ecosystem is helping operators grow beyond traditional vending and micro markets. From theft-resistant smart stores and hot food merchandising to route optimization, AI-powered reporting and new amusement offerings, company leaders highlighted a range of tools aimed at driving sales, improving operations and creating new revenue opportunities.

Watch the full video to learn more.

Video transcript:

Bob Tullio: Bob Tullio, Automatic Merchandiser and VendingMarketWatch.com. And I'm at the 2026 NAMA show in Los Angeles. Excited to be here in the Cantaloupe exhibit. It is a big booth. We have to call it an exhibit. And I'm with Adrian Austin and Tony Dana. Adrian, you've got a lot going on in this booth. So please tell me, what are you most excited about and how is that going to generate impact for operators in terms of growth?

Adrian Austin: Yeah, we're really excited to show off all the new equipment and the tools that our team has been working on this year and really let people get their hands on to demo it in the booth. We're going to be showing everything from new advancements in our smart stores, new ways that operators can start offering hot food to their customers, and then even getting into the amusement space and then kind of finishing back around on what we're going to be doing on the software and the marketing services side.

Bob Tullio: Wow, a lot of new things, but of course, we all know that the centerpiece of your program, smart stores. So let's talk about that.

Adrian Austin: Awesome. Yeah, I'm going to let Tony handle that.

Bob Tullio: Tony, I can see why you're excited about smart stores. Tell us a little bit about the 600 series.

Tony Danna: Yeah, so what we've got here, Bob, this is, like you said, our 600 series. We've got both a 600 and we've got a 700 series. Biggest difference is going to be capacity of the two units. But the smart store from when we introduced it about August of last year to where we are today, it's been tremendous to see the amount of sales that have happened out there from customers purchasing it once. But I think what makes me more excited is the repeat customers, because that means the product works and consumers are seeing a lot of benefit with it. So what I'll demo for you here is how this works. So again, with the 600 or 700 series, you can do a single You can do a duo, which we're seeing here. You can also do a trio and you can do a quad. You can also make one of those doors a freezer. You can also make it an ambient unit. So there's a lot of flexibility to everything here. But to get started on the transaction, doors are completely locked. So you're not dealing with theft anymore. Consumer will walk up and they can either tap the screen or just get going with the transaction by putting their card on the reader. Doors will unlock. And Bob, if you want to just grab a product off the shelf. Sure. And then you can see it adds it right to your shopping cart. So very important for a consumer. They want to see what they're purchasing versus some of the other products in the market. And then yeah, perfect.

Bob Tullio: Put it back in the wrong place.

Tony Danna: Put it in the wrong place and the machine's going to scream at you, Bob. And it's going to say, hey, we're going to charge you for that.

Bob Tullio: Oh, it's barking at you.

Tony Danna: Yeah, unless you put that product back in the right spot here.

Bob Tullio: Yeah.

Tony Danna: And then once you put it back in the right spot, it's going to clear out your shopping cart. Right now you have nothing in your shopping cart. But if you did grab that, it will automatically charge you for once you walk away. So no theft anymore. Sure. Weighted shelves is going to give you the exact amount of products that are in there at all times.

Bob Tullio: Wow.

Tony Danna: Okay, so there's no reviews that you need to do at the end of a day or a week. The machine knows exactly how many products are in there.

Bob Tullio: Wow. So your customers are enjoying success. And what does that say to you about the momentum of this type of product going forward?

Tony Danna: Yeah, so I mean, I talk to a lot of operators all the time. And one of the biggest concerns with micro markets as they've evolved over time is now they're paying a lot of attention to the theft numbers out there. And how do I curb that theft number? But maintain that same top line revenue that they were getting out of those micro markets, which made them great. So now you get the best of both worlds. There's no theft. Plus you're going to get that increased revenue that you got out of those micro markets.

Bob Tullio: Talk to me about these screens up top.

Tony Danna: Yeah, so it's super important to us and our operators that consumers see the deals that are available, see the products that are available. So adding these screens, it dynamically ties into the system and those advertisements will change based on consumer buying habits.

Bob Tullio: Now one of the things I know I've seen in your materials is the campus card. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Tony Danna: Yeah, that's probably what makes me most excited about our solution because of the opportunity. that operators have on college campuses and hospitals. And what we did is we integrated our Engage Reader to the Smart Store, which is the Honor 700 series here at the show. And that opens up all of the campus cards that we have available. It also opens up to Quick Charge, which is a hospital campus card. So now operators can install a theft-proof micro-market solution into these very high-volume locations. and they're going to see a wealth of success from it.

Bob Tullio: So a lot of new stuff this year, but one of them that I'm really interested in is hot hold. What is that all about?

Tony Danna: Bob, I can't tell you. Let's I want to show you. OK, let's take a look.

Bob Tullio: So this is hot hold. Looks to me like a hot meal solution.

Tony Danna: Yeah, you're spot on, Bob. It's exactly what it is. What we did with this hot hold unit is Same technology on our 600 and 700 series. So it gives the operators 1 ecosystem to run all these different products. But it's going to work the exact same way. So with the hot hold, you can front load the products. You can also back load. So there's a door on the back. So you could have it loading it up from the kitchen and then consumers can approach everything from the front here. This unit can get up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. So it keeps the products nice and warm and fresh. And then like I said, it is the same consumer experience where they're able to tap their card and that's going to unlock the door just like our 600, 700 series. Once the door is unlocked, you open it up and just like we did on the 600, Bob, you can grab any product on the shelf here and it will automatically add it to your shopping cart.

Bob Tullio: Wow, that's fantastic. So Hot Hold is new and I know you've got another new product and it's called Shaffle. Tell me what Shaffle is all about.

Tony Danna: Yeah, I'm really excited to show you that one. Let's go over there, Bob.

Bob Tullio: All right. So this is Shaffle. This does not look like a vending machine that I've ever seen before.

Tony Danna: Yeah, that's about right. What this shaffle unit does is, our idea with it is operators have great residential locations or they may have warehouses. How can we add additional revenue at locations that they already have? And we think this shaffle opens up a lot of those doors. Again, same ecosystem as the smart store, as the hot hold. Now the shaffle, it sits on that same dashboard. And now what consumers can do, it's all through the mobile app. Okay, they will scan the QR code. So think about this at a residential location. You're there every day. And let's say I don't have a Phillips screwdriver in my apartment, or a hammer is a better example. So now I can take the hammer, okay, and it's going to reserve this hammer for me. And on the back end here, I can determine how long I want to reserve that for. So one hour is going to cost me $6.60. So once I close that out, you can do it on the mobile app, or you can do it on the screen, and then I can have it for my one hour. But when I'm ready to return it, the same exact process here. Door opens, and then the slot is labeled for where the hammer goes. Now I return it, and the next patron can rent out that item. So for an operator, you think about it, It's basically you put the investment in to stock the products up once.

Bob Tullio: Right.

Tony Danna: And then they never have to stock it again.

Bob Tullio: What a great concept, especially for a large residential. I mean, it's phenomenal.

Tony Danna: Yeah, absolutely. It's a concept that took off in Sweden and it got a lot of traction. And what I learned from my time being over in the UK and Europe for five years is stuff works there and then it comes over to the US. Stuff works in the US and it works over there. So we're just trying to bring a product that's already proven success over in Europe.
Bob Tullio: I understand not only do you have this new product out, you've also made a move into the amusement industry with Cantaloupe Play. Tell us about that.

Tony Danna: I can't wait. I love the amusement industry. Let me walk you over there and I'll show you.

Bob Tullio: Okay, great. I started out in the amusement business many, many years ago, so I'm excited about this cantaloupe clay. Tell me about it.

Tony Danna: Yeah, I share the same excitement for it. But I've learned being out there with our vending operators, they have an amusement on their business, a lot of them. Or a lot of them don't know how simple an amusement side of their business could be. So what this is allowing operators to do is if there's bars, restaurants, or if they even want to open a small arcade within a strip mall, completely self-service, we're offering that solution. And what the solution is, it's going to be a closed loop player's card that they can purchase at the kiosk and they can give it to their kids, to their grandkids, to their nephews. Instead of giving them a credit card and they go a little crazy in there, at least you can limit it to $20, $50, whatever you want. And a lot of parents, when they go to these bars and restaurants, it's a time for them to relax while their kids go and play in the arcade. Sure. So that's what we're opening up here. And What the consumer will be able to do is they can pay with cash or credit, debit, and then they can select the amount that they want to purchase. So if they want to purchase a $5 card here, they would just need to tap their card. And then once they tap their card, like I said, it's going to dispense a player's card. And that player's card can be used on any machines that are in that arcade there. And then what you can also do is you can reload that player's card. from your phone. So if the parents are enjoying their meal at the restaurant, the kid comes back, there's no money on it. Hey, let me go ahead and put some more money and send you back into that arcade. So it's a really, really simple solution. And you think about it on the amusement side, you only need to visit those locations about once a month compared to the vending side where you've got to go three times a week in some cases.

Bob Tullio: Yeah, that's great. That's great. Should we take a look at the crane machine that's associated with it?

Tony Danna: Absolutely. So Again, with the player's card, you'll be able to bring it right and tap it on the reader. Okay, but with our solution and us being a payment processing company, what you can also do is you can use a normal credit or debit card as well. So you're getting best of both worlds. Closed loop. to hand to the kids. Or if you're in there as a parent with the kids, hey, you want to play one more and try to win a little plushie here? You can just tap your card and continue to play.

Bob Tullio: Boy, that's great. That's great stuff.

Tony Danna: Yeah, we're just trying to unlock additional areas that our operators can grow revenues. And that's what we're trying to do with the solution like this.

Bob Tullio: Fantastic. Adrian, beyond all the wonderful products that Tony showed us, what is Cantaloupe doing to drive growth for operators additionally?

Adrian Austin: A lot of it is around our new software. So what we're demoing in the booth this year is our new AI reporting tool, Seed Copilot. So a lot of what people are doing now with reports is they're having to pull these manually and build these. It takes a lot of time. What we're doing is really kind of utilizing new technology with our AI models, and people are able to then go into a very similar to ChatGPT interface and then look up things like reports on their daily sales or information on their inventory by simply putting in like basic Browsers, so you don't need to be an engineer, like a big technology guy, to go and do this. It's really simple, and we try to make that as easy and seamless as possible, and that's built right into Seed Pro. What we've also done is Seed Navigator. So, Seed Navigator is our new route optimization tool. So if you think of the change when people went from static routes into dynamic routes, Seed Navigator is going to be able to take those routes and really be able to sequence them in the most optimal order. So as opposed to handing your drivers just a list of 75 locations to show up for the day, with Seed Navigator, we're taking into account the open and close time of the locations. We're taking into account traffic. And we're able to provide this in a way that the drivers don't have to guess or plug things in different tools. It gives them a seamless way of just going and getting more out of their day and more things done faster. A lot of excitement here at Cantaloupe, but it sounds like a lot of it really is around operator growth. Yep, absolutely. The other thing that we're really showing people what we have here is through our Vine Digital Studio, our marketing agency. So with a lot of operations, they're really getting into the day-to-day and that's taking the majority of their time. Sure. But they're not able to do a lot of the important things on making sure that their business shows up online. They have a website that is going to appear on Google and just being able to be visible to their potential customers before they're kind of picking up the phone and reaching out to them. And so that's where Vine can really come in and help a lot of operators is take, get expertise in marketing, get their online presence really built out, expand into the other areas of marketing maybe they haven't had time for, such as social or e-mail or even digital ads on Google. And really at the end of the day, the goal is to bring in more leads and more business to operators. And that's what we're showing people a lot this week.

Bob Tullio: Wow, great stuff. Thanks to you, Adrian, and thanks to Tony as well.

Adrian Austin: Thanks, Bob. Appreciate it.