WEBVTT - Vending Machines - Are They The Future? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.080 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:14.360 Forward Thinking and Welcome to Forward Thinking, the podcast that 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.000 looks at the future and says, do you collect coins? Yeah, 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.320 just in case vending machines become the dominant race. I'm 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:25.760 John and Strickland, I'm Lauren Folk, and I'm George Day. Joe, 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:29.360 come on, I'm sorry, don't play with my emotions that way. 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.680 Who are you really okay? I'm Joe McCormick. Today we 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.200 are going to do a listener request episode, and it's 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.159 one of the weirder listener requests we've gotten. Actually, I 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.159 don't know how weird it is. Maybe it's weird that 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.200 it's so mundane. The request is, the request is normal. 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.639 It was the listener who was weird. No, I'm kidding. 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.839 Wonderful listener Dan Dan Yeah, via email, he said, I 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.520 wanted to ask you guys about vending machines and the 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.400 future possibilities. It went from an old coke machine to 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.760 a t M S. I remember that tech Stuff episode 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.720 and run and even vending machines that buy your electronics 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.040 at the mall. I haven't remember seeing an article about 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.399 marijuana vending machines. In Colorado would love to hear back 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.119 from you guys. Dan. Well, thank you for that suggestion, Dan. 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:14.600 And the more I thought about this, the more I 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.480 actually did kind of want to talk about vending machines. 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.160 Where we are now, what's the what's the cutting edge 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.880 of of automated vending? And then the future because the 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.760 main thing that immediately popped into my head was the 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:32.679 role vending machines playing video games, where in video games, 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.480 vending machines are a great place to get guns and 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:41.760 ammunition and foods that magically healed traumatic wounds instantly, buff 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.319 buffers that magically make you better at whatever particular thing 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:48.480 you need to be better at that point of the game. Yeah, 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.200 so are are we trending towards that kind of future? 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:56.040 Like the gu from a vending machine, it's a BioShock 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:02.400 past an the retro future retro fee Um No, I 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.000 don't think Yeah, I certainly hope not. But what is 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.760 the future of vending? And before that, what is the 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.640 past of vending machine? Now, I have to say I 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.120 originally kind of scoffed at this idea, and I apologize 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:16.880 for it because the more we thought about the more 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.240 I was like, you know this is actually a much better, 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.120 much better topic than I gave it credit for. So, Dan, 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:25.760 you have my sincere apologies for the scoffing that you 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.520 did not hear. But uh yeah, let's let's look back 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.720 on the history of vending machines and it goes back 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:35.840 to one of my favorite people in history. I have 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.600 talked about this, dude, Edison. No not, just gotta go 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.400 further back than that. Uh, let's see Ben Franklin. Did 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.119 he create like a vending machine for turkey meat or something? 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.720 Oddly enough? Yes, but no he did not. I I'm 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:54.760 talking about someone else, someonepare I do love myself the bard? 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:56.640 Let me tell you I could rattle off some of 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:02.520 that Shakespeare right now. Is Hero of Alexandria Heron, also 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.840 known you Heron. You guys know who Heron. I know 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:07.919 Lauren knows who Haron is. Yeah. We were just talking 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.840 about this dudea over the other day. Yeah. So, Heron 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:19.320 of Alexandria is known for lots of different inventions, including 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.600 early versions of the steam engine, devices used to open 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:28.480 up temple doors as if by magic, it really was 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.079 by steam. The guy was. The guy was pretty phenomenal. 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:36.240 Well around two b C. He got to inventing a 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:41.480 water dispenser that was coin operated, supposedly for things like 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.200 in Egypt, where you know, he might need some water 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:49.160 after a nice long trip across the hot burning sands 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.480 to pay for water that's barbaric. Well, no, that's civilized. 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.600 It's incredibly civilized. So the way his dispenser worked was 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.680 really pretty ingenious. So imagine, if you will, a cylinder. 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:04.520 So you've got this big cylinder and you fill it 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.560 up with water. Now, on the base of that cylinder, 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.480 inside the cylinder, there's a little tube that projects up 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.400 from the bottom a few inches and at the base 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:16.919 of it is a hole that leads out. This is 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.080 where you would, you know, stick your cup underneath that 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.600 hole to dispense water. There's a plug or a stopper 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.320 of some sort that covers that that hole normally, so 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.200 water doesn't just immediately flow out of the cylinder, which 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.479 would make it far less useful. Uh. This plug is 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.400 attached by a chain or string of some sort to 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:36.920 a lever, so when the lever is in the down 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.720 position on the plug side, the plug is covering the hole. 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.360 On the other side of the lever is a small 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.800 platform which is positioned directly under a coin slot. So 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:48.599 when you put a coin in the coin slot, the 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.920 coin falls, hits the platform, lifts the lever up, which 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.039 raises the plug, which allows water to flow through the hole, 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:01.480 thus dispensing your liquid. And then once the coin slides 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.240 off the platform, because you know the platform keeps tilting downward, 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.719 the platform will raise back up to its normal position. 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.240 The plug will come down and cover the whole again, 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.920 so you won't end up losing all that precious water. Brilliant, Yeah, 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:19.440 until somebody shows up with a few lead disks. Yeah, 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:21.120 and then they end up with a lot of water 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:26.839 and blindness. So that taught them the so and so's. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.679 But there are other examples of ancient or at least 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.080 very very old vending machines, or at least predecessors to them. 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:40.680 Another example dates to ten seventy six Common era in China, 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.880 when Chinese inventors created a device that would dispense pencils 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.919 for money. Pencils, yeah that I read about this in 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.400 several sources. However, I never saw any illustrations of what 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.960 it looked like, so I don't know what mechanism used 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.480 in order to do this, but there are a lot 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:57.360 of people who are very convinced that it actually was 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.880 a thing. So I will say this one is potentially 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.840 apocryphal since I couldn't find definitive resources to show it. 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:11.000 But it's cited lots of places, Okay, But this next 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.440 one is definitely on the record. Yeah. In fact, it 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.080 was another one that I was not sure about until 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.320 Joe found the the an example of it and sent 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.000 it to me, and I was like, oh, awesome, it 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.240 really did exist. Uh. This would be in the eighteen 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.760 centuries seventeen hundreds. Certain English taverns had what we're called 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.000 honor boxes, also sometimes known as trust boxes. It's where 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.760 you store your honor while you're at the tavern. You 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.719 would think, but no, now the honor has no place 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.800 in a tavern. No, that's not that's not true. Honor 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.320 was in fact very important for this box. The way 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.160 it worked was that you had a box that had 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.479 a coin slot in it. You would put a an 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.039 English penny in the coin slot for the English ones anyway, 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.400 and this would activate a mechanism that would unlock the 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.680 box so you can lift the top of the box. Right. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:00.760 The one I saw in the picture had like a button. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.640 So it seems like when you drop a coin into 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:06.240 the slot, it allowed you to press a button that 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.840 would pop the lid open, and that that would give 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.760 you access to the contents inside the box, which happened 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.280 to be tobacco, loose tobacco usually for a pipe. Right, 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.480 And the honor part came in because you were trusted 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.240 upon being able to access the contents of the box 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:23.760 that you wouldn't take the entire contents of the box, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.600 but rather a single serving of tobacco. It's kind of 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:32.560 like those like a newspaper dispensers system. Right, Boy, did 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:38.840 I make out like a Bandit? Absolutely just armfuls of newspapers, 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:41.800 except I always did the free weekly one, so I 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.880 don't know that that anyway. Alright, So the concept of 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:52.679 the modern vending creative creative loafing circulation is my house. 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:55.800 The concept of modern vedding machines really dates to the 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:01.160 nineteenth century late nineteenth century Victorian era of in London, England, really, 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.440 and there are a couple of different examples that the 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:06.920 earliest one, or at least the mentioned. I kept finding 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.240 sites that said the earliest vending machine of this era 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.080 was for postcards in London that you would use some 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.400 coins to get a postcard from it. But there was 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.240 also a shopkeeper, a bookshop owner named Richard Carlyle, who 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:24.480 created a vending machine that sold books, and soon you 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.320 had ones that would sell food you could put you know, 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.440 the people who own the vending machine would put food 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.320 in it, and business people who are really on their 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.080 way to work doing important business things who don't have 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:37.920 time to pop into a pub for a pint or 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.080 three would end up putting some money in one of 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:41.960 these pull out some foods they can eat on the 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.960 run um. And meanwhile, if you look over at the 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.760 United States that around the same time there were also 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.959 inventions that fell into the vending machine category, including one 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:57.560 from the Adams Gum Company. They built chewing gum vending 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.360 machines that would dispense two dy fruity gum for the 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.520 princely sum of one pinning. Unfortunately it was already chewed. 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.800 It was not already chewed. By eighteen ninety, the U. S. 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.240 Patent Office would begin granting patents for vending machines as 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.280 off to the races at that point, and obviously, vending 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.319 machines have been used for lots of different things. I mean, 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.760 I remember as a kid going to restaurants and seeing 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.960 lots of cigarette vending machines, the old like the old 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.040 kind where you put in coins and pull a handle 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.680 and then the carton of cigarettes, well pack of cigarettes 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.720 that carton would pop out. Yeah. Yeah, they're still in 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:36.040 use in some states in the United States in businesses 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.000 that are twenty one and up I believe, or at 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.520 least eight. That would make sense, Yeah, that would make sense. 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.000 So it used to be that you could find them 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.480 all over the darn place, because I remember as a 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.240 child running across them all the time. I also had 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.760 them in red lobster and stuff. Oh yeah, sure. My 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:59.240 personal favorite was vending machines because I am Georgia boy. 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:04.080 We're the old old coke glass bottle vending machines have 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.240 a have a little it's almost like a fridge door. 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:07.920 You would put a coin in, it would unlatch the 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.720 fridge door, and then you could pull the bottle of 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:13.760 coke out from one of the little dispensary units, and 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.280 then you would drink your coke and then return the 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:20.160 bottle for a small deposit. And that was my childhood 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.920 summed up right there. In that experience. Um, I always 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.560 liked all the little rubber bouncy ball vending machines, like 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.400 the quarter vending machines at a publix or whatever. And 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.160 now they have the ones where it's like the gumballs 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.679 or whatever. They have the long almost like cork screw 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:37.040 slide things. So not only only is it did did 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.800 you get some gum? You get to watch it roll 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:44.679 down this kind of almost Rube Goldberg like pathway. You know, 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.800 the cork screws that I remember, the ones you've probably 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.600 seen in most of the like you know, food candy 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.600 bar kind of machines have chips and all that stuff 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.040 in them where they've got the cork screw that unwinds 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.280 to drop your thing and just enough hypothetically to drop 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.439 a single product and advance the ones behind it up 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.080 to dropping position for the next person, right, unless something 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.920 is slightly off and then nothing drops out or more 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.280 than one thing drops out, in which case Jack. But now, 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:16.320 also going back to the history of vending machines, there 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:21.800 were entire restaurants that used vending machines as automats. I've 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:23.280 been to those. Have you either of you been to 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.920 an automatic? Yeah? Yeah, they're them in movies, really novel 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:31.760 and not very cool. They're not very practice sandwiches, like 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.160 because obviously you know it's it's food that's been prepared 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:38.120 well ahead of time. Obviously, you know you wanna you 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.360 want to pick your battles. I would not go for 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.120 an egg sil at sandwich and an automat for example. Well, 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.640 I mean they are refrigerated, yeah, but still or slightly 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.040 heated maybe, depending on the one. Usually the ones I 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:53.880 encountered were normally um sandwiches, so they were just kind 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.520 of refrigerated and slices of pie. I specifically remember hospitals. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.760 A lot of hospitals in Georgia had automats for their cafeterias. 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.199 Oh yeah, yeah, I remember seeing a lot of this 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.000 when I was a kid. Yeah. And if you have 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.240 not seen an example of an automat, this is a 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.400 thing where it's sort of like a like a wall 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.280 of little cubbies of food and you put a coin 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.079 into a machine and either you know, select a series 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.400 of buttons the way that you would on a dropity 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.400 food vending machine that Joe is just talking about. I'm 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.280 sure there's a word for that that's better than dropity food. Um, 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.480 but we'll call it a gravity Well, it's a it's 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:31.480 an arm trap where you're like, I'm going to get 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.319 that snickers, whether whether this machine wants me to or not, 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.520 or you would drop a coin into a specific cubby 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.920 slot and then it allows you to releases a mechanism 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:43.800 that allows you to open the door and take your 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:49.400 your sandwicher, can of soda or pie, your ideally delicious food. Yes, 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.440 in practice, maybe not so much so. Those are actually 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.480 kind of died out mostly in the in the nineteen eighties. Um, 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.280 they haven't. There's still places where you can find and 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.960 sometimes they're kitchy kind of uh popular spots because of 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.520 the novelty factor. Sure well, and that that nostalgia factor 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.439 of them being from the fifties or sixties. Okay, Well, 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:15.000 what's going on with vending machines today? Is there really 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.400 anything to say about them on the technological front as 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.559 they stand? There's tons of stuff to say about them, actually, 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:23.760 and some of them some of it's technological and some 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.720 of it's more of a policy issue. For example, on 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.160 the policy side, in the United States, the FDA has 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.960 ruled that vending machine operators will have to provide a 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.520 sticker or placard detailing the calorie count of food items 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.960 sold within vending machines. Clearly, that only applies to vending 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.440 machines that sell food. If you're talking about the vending 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:47.079 machines at your airport that sell like electronics contains ninety 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.560 two calories, and well, if you're going to eat it, 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.080 you should know. I like, I like the way you think. 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:57.240 But there have been critics who said, hey, this is 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:02.400 putting in an unnecessary uh burden upon the people the 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.559 companies that own the vending machines because they have to 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:10.240 spend the money to sticker. Although we are also seeing 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.720 new smart vending machines which don't even have necessarily a 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.000 window for you to see the products. It may have 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.800 a screen and interactive screen that shows you what products 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.640 are inside of it, and that same screen could show 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.640 things like nutritional information without having any additional placards or 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:31.239 stickers necessary. I generally think that adding the nutritional information 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:35.479 to in a way that's easily accessible by the consumer 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.920 is terrific in all cases. All the time. I think 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:40.720 so too. I would like to I would like to 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.280 at least have that moment of regret before I put 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.240 my money in and choose the thing. I'll still do it, 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.360 but at least I have the moment of regret um. 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.120 So another feature with smart vending machines. They are quite 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.160 a few, actually, and we'll talk about some of the 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:58.400 the the kind of on the brink ones a little bit. 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.000 But one of them is that you usually have connectivity 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.800 to a home base. So, in other words, the smart 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.200 vending machine is connected back to whatever company is in 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.680 charge of that vending machine. And that way, whenever a 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.760 particular item starts running low, it alerts the company. It 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.440 goes through the WiFi or cellular or whatever whatever it is, 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.160 right right, it sends a message back and says, guys, 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.840 we're running really low on moonpies. We need moonpie stats. Yes, 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.480 critical moonpie situation. R c cola machine next to us 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:32.640 is laughing at us if we do not get more 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:36.720 moonpies and uh. And so then you would have someone 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:41.520 come out and bring moonpies and and replenish the machine. Now, 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:43.240 in the old days, the way this worked was that 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.720 you would just have a technician, like someone who actually 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.240 stocks these things, come out you know, once every so often, right, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.640 and then they would look at the machine and then 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:57.440 restock it based upon what was already you know, depleted. 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.640 But this way you could one meet and priest demand 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.920 whenever there was increased demand, and to not send anyone 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.440 out if for some reason traffic had slowed down. So 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.040 let's say, for example, the vending machine is at a 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:13.360 college campus and you're talking about the summer session. It's 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.480 probably gonna have a lot lower traffic than it would 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.040 through the rest of the year and fewer people drinking. 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:22.040 You who, right, So therefore you don't need to have 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:23.960 someone go out as frequently, And this way you would 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.240 actually know when you needed to send someone out, and 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.840 you could you could uh be more efficient. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:32.880 you know, maybe you had only scheduled a technician to 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.280 come out once every three weeks instead of once every 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.280 two weeks in those situations. But then all of a sudden, 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.480 there was a big football game or something, and yeah, 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:41.400 the moon pies. I don't know why that would happened 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.720 in the summer, but neither but hey, you know, I 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.680 don't know how the summer football games. Maybe it's a 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.440 big football practice and everyone wanted to go in there rest. 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.520 But the other one is that if the machine breaks down, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.960 it could end up sending a signal, or the lack 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.320 of signal could be an alert to the home base 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:02.440 to say, all right, we need to send someone out 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:04.439 there to look at this and to service it so 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.960 that it comes back online. I wonder if there's a 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.120 special function for like a kid got his arm stuck 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:13.040 in the machine. Again, maybe maybe it could even be that, 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.760 like the it just says that the trap door has 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.080 been opened and an ordinately long amount of time, you 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.199 may want to send somebody to check it out. But again, 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.440 the cool thing about this is that they can send 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.560 someone right away. You reduce the downtime of that vending machine, 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.400 which is a benefit for everybody, the people who frequent 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.439 the vending machine and the company that services it, plus 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.960 all the products that are actually being shown in that one. Right, 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:38.879 I mean, it means that you have the least amount 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:44.600 of downtime possible ideally, So that's one thing that's happening 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.159 right now. Of course, you've got credit cards, which for 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:52.800 the longest time, vending machines did not, except right, you 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.440 had to have coins or dollars. Man, do you have 0:17:55.480 --> 0:18:00.680 any quarters? Yeah? And that boy, especially as especially if 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:05.280 you all you had were really wrinkly bills and the 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:10.119 bill accept or was not taking them, Like you're cramming 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.760 the bill into the into the machine and it's just 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.760 not taking it. How many times have we been there? 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.240 Many many times in my case. So we're seeing a 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.879 lot more machines now that do accept credit cards, although 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.960 even that is almost an outdated technology at this point, 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.000 particularly if you're outside the United States and you're using 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.880 something like a chip and pin system everywhere else. Right, 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.200 So there, we really got to be talking about near 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.119 field communication. Yeah. Yeah, near field communication is becoming a 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.560 new kind of standard that we're starting to see on 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.800 a lot of vending machines that are being produced today. 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:47.879 And NFC technology is one that's similar to other wireless 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.680 radio transmissions. In this case, it's one that takes place 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.480 over a very short distance, so you have to be 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.760 very close to whatever you're communicating with in order for 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.119 this to happen. That's why you see like devices that 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.880 are allowed to share contact information, you put the two 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.679 phones right up next to each other. That's why, because 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.280 the communication distance is only effective at a very short range. 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.000 But you can have like an online wallet sort of 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.800 situation like Google wallet or the the I pay the 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:19.760 Apple version or one of a thousand other ones that 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:21.800 is on your phone in some sort of app, and 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:25.400 assuming that the vending machine can accept that, you would 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.520 hold your phone up and do your purchase through your phone, 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.479 never having to actually pull out any kind of cash 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:35.879 or credit card in order to complete that transaction. So 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.639 we're starting to see that in newer vending machines um, 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:42.520 which is great because for the longest time, NFC technology, 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.440 particularly in the US, was one of those things we 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.520 talked about a lot, but didn't really see them frequently, 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.480 and it's starting to finally change, which is kind of cool. Uh. 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.800 There's some other ones that have interesting features to them, 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:59.359 like the eat Wave. What eat wave? It is a 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.560 vending machine SENE that can have both refrigerated items and 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.560 microwavable items in the same vending machine, and for your 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:10.840 microwavable goods, it will microwave them for you and then 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.359 dispense them for you, so you would pick your thing. 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.199 Let's say you want a nice hot apple turnover and 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:21.120 also known as the skald Er. Yeah, obviously you want 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.440 this to be really precise and and not to overheat 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.879 things to the point where you're going to uh, suffer 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.200 in a fate like the bad guys and raiders have 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.000 lost arc at the end of your face just melts 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.959 off as you take a bite out of your apple turnover. Um. 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.880 But yeah, it has a microwave incorporated into the vending machine, 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:42.879 and it quote unquote knows which items are which, So 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.360 your cold items are delivered cold, your microwave items are 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.280 are either defrosted or heated up whatever it needs to 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.800 happen so that you can consume them right there in 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:54.560 the machine before it dispenses it to you, which is 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.960 pretty neat. That's kind of cool. Yeah, does it do 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.560 hot pockets, because I'm sure that's question Ben Bowland would 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.640 want answer. I'm sure it could. I don't know if 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.239 that's one of the things that you commonly find. I 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.240 have never personally set eyes upon an eat wave machine. 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.920 I've only read about them and dreamed kind of like 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.159 a uh wester roast. Those are the two things I 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:19.800 dream about, is the wester Ross and eat waves. Yeah. 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:23.040 You know, even when you're standing there in front of 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:24.360 the vending machine, you have to think in the back 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.639 of your mind winter is coming. And even when you're 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:28.800 writing a dragon you have to think where's my hot pop? 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.680 That's right, I mean it goes both ways, so I'm 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:33.560 sure George R. R. Martin will get on that in 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:39.360 the next novel anyway, one of the other elements. Oh 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.600 my gosh, now I want to hear a full version 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:44.760 of the Game of Thrones theme with all those all 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:49.040 the notes just replaced by someone singing hot pockets. At 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:51.520 any rate. You may have also heard some stories back 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:55.240 in December about the amazing vending machines in the future 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.840 that use facial recognition software and hardware. Except here's the thing. 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:02.360 All of the articles I was reading was like, it's 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:04.120 the first vitting machine to use that, and I said, 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:09.280 shenanigans because I specifically remember covering this for tech stuff, 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.720