自動販賣機
维基百科，自由的百科全书
自動販賣機是一部藉由鈔票智能測檢機 能與顧客交易的機器，能夠幫助顧客購買商品（與需要結帳人員的商店不同）。 第一個發明的人，一般相信是生於一世紀的亞歷山大港的希羅(Hero of Alexandria)，他製造的機器接受了硬幣後會給顧客一定數量的聖水。
目录 |
[编辑] 介紹
美國的自動販賣機主要售賣零食和飲料，亦會在繁忙街頭售賣報紙。另外一種自動販賣機就是自助攝影機。
在每個國家，自動販賣機所售賣的產品是不同的。例如，有些國家售賣酒精飲料 (如；啤酒，但有些國家因為法例而禁止於自動販賣機銷售酒精飲料)。美國亦有自動販賣機售賣香菸，但由於未成年人士購買香煙情況嚴重，導致這類自動販賣機數目大幅減小。有些時候，購買者需插入通行證來證明其年齡。在一些歐洲城市，售賣香煙的自動販賣機是隨處可見
奇怪的是, 在1950年代, life insurance policies were sold through vending machines at 機場s, but this practice disappeared due to the tendency of American courts to strictly construe such policies against their sellers [1].
來看看報紙自動販賣機,消費者可以付一份報紙的錢來打開販賣機並且偷光所有報紙,(或者把報紙丟在販賣機外). 此販賣機能成功是建立在消費者都是誠實的假設上(因此又稱為"榮譽箱"), which is helped by the fact that having more than one newspaper is not often useful.
Vending Times, a publication covering the entire vending industry, is the most popular trade magazine for U.S. vendors.
In Japan, with a high population density and low rates of vandalism and petty crime, there seems to be no limit to what is sold by vending machines. While the majority of machines 在日本 are stocked with drinks, snacks, and cigarettes, one occasionally finds vending machines selling items such as bottles of 液體, cartons of 啤酒, potted plants, and pairs of underwear. 日本has 數量最多的 of vending machines per capita, with about one machine for every 23 people.
[编辑] 自動販賣機產業
在美國,大部分的販賣機是由商店或個人營運機器都是買或租的儲存商品並且賺取利潤. Other machines, such as U.S. Postal Service machines are maintained by governmental or quasi-governmental entities. An independent vending machine business attracts people who have never been in business before. These vending machine businesses operated by these individuals can be divided into two broad categories: bulk candy and soda/snack vending.
Any type of independent vending operation requires the entrepreneur to be willing to act as a salesman in persuading locations to accept the machine. Operators typically report high rejection rates, in the order of 9 times of 10. Bryon Krug's book Vending Business-in-a-Box advises:
The key is not being discouraged when people tell you no. Unless you are a natural-born salesman, you'll get turned down many more times than you are told yes – . . . 90% of the time, people tell me no or I find out that the person with decision-making authority isn't there. However, that's okay, because there are thousands of businesses within forty minutes of me and each location that says yes is worth $50 to $1,000 or more to me. So, even if I only get five or ten good locations per day (and a large number of "no's" to go with them), it's still well worth my time to find locations.
販賣機會因放置地點的不同而產生銷售上的差異. Krug列出幾個可能性:
- 入口處旁
- 出口處旁
- Next to the water fountain
- In front of the restroom
- In the break room
- By the coffee maker
- Next to the other vending machines
- 接待員旁
- 收銀員旁
- Next to the listening station at a music store
- Next to the change machine
- In the waiting area (e.g. at oil change places).
[编辑] Bulk candy and gumball vending
- Main article: Bulk vending
Bulk candy machines are entirely mechanical machines that vend a handful of candy, a bouncy ball, or perhaps a capsule with a small toy or jewelry, for one or two coins. The gross margins in the bulk candy business can be quite high — gumballs, for instance, can be purchased in bulk for 2 cents apiece and sold for 25 cents. 另外, the machines are typically inexpensive compared to soda or snack machines. Many operators donate a percentage of the profits to charity so that locations will allow them to place the machines for free.
Bulk vending may be a more practical choice than soda/snack vending for an individual who also works a full-time job, since the restaurants, retail stores, and other locations suitable for bulk vending may be more likely to be open during the evening and on weekends than venues such as offices that host soda and snack machines.
[编辑] Full line vending
- Main article: Full line vending
Full line vending machines are soda and snack machines that sell cans or bottles of soda and/or small packages of snacks. For operators, soda/snack machines have the advantage that many locations recognize their need for such machines. Many locations will, in fact, take the initiative to contact a vending company to request installation of a machine. Moreover, companies recognize the difficulty in moving these machines and are less likely to request removal, unless the operator does a poor job of servicing the machine.
[编辑] Specialized Vending
One of the more controversial types of vending machines are those that dispense personal products, typically in public toilet facilities. The machines in ladies' restrooms typically sell some form of absorbent device for menstruation such as a pad or tampon. The machines in men's rooms, when they are present, are almost exclusively used for 保險套的販買. These are often found at toilets used by transient persons in high traffic locations, such as bus stations, airports and truck stops.
[编辑] 安全性
Most 大多數現代的自動販賣機皆經過精密的測試與設計來防範竊盜. Many of these machines are designed essentially as large safes. 每年, 都有不少人死於販賣機的傾倒 either while trying to steal from them, or venting frustration on them, especially when a malfunction causes the machine to fail to dispense the purchased item or the proper change (leading to the humorous saying, "change is inevitable, except from a 自動販賣機"). An article in the 美國醫學學會雜誌 (Nov. 11, 1988, p. 2697) documents 15 cases in which men trying to get a can out of the machine were crushed. Three died, the other 12 required hospitalization for injuries such as fractures of the skull, toe, ankle, tibia, femur, and pelvis; intercerebral bleeding; knee contusion; and one punctured bladder. The article states that because the sodas are located in the upper half of the machine (so that they can fall into the dispensing slot), 機器的重心 is abnormally high and the machine will fall after it has been tipped only 20 degrees, a deceptively small angle. A large, fully loaded soda machine can weigh 超過一千磅
[编辑] 制造
The actual causes of vending machine malfunction are usually 是有多個層面的 Coin acceptors often jam up, especially if a bill or other foreign object is inserted into the coin slot. Certain vending machines use a spiral kind of mechanism to separate and to hold the products. When the machine vends, the spiral turns, thus pushing the product forward and falling down to be vended. If the products and the spiral are misaligned, the spiral may turn but not fully release the product, leaving the spiral snagged on the product and having it hang there. This may cause repercussions to the alignment of the 產品behind it if someone knocks the hanging product down, as the spiral must move a fixed distance. Vending machines usually have a phone number that users can call to report malfunctions or request assistance.
Bill validators are also a source of frustration for many customers, especially when they falsely reject a legal tender bill that happens to be crumpled, ripped, or dirty. U.S. vendors, realizing they were losing sales because of validator malfunctions, formed the Coin Coalition to support the United States dollar coin. Their efforts to completely replace the dollar bill with the Sacagawea were unsuccessful.
[编辑] 創新
Vending has gone through significant changes 數十年來. Tim Sanford of Vending Times notes, "many vendors today do not remember the urgency with which industry leaders called on their peers to install coin mechanisms that held the patron’s money in escrow until the vend was made; to post a telephone number that a 顧客could call to report a failure and request a refund; to make sure their drivers were cleaning the machines adequately and replacing burnt-out lamps; and so on and on." More recent innovations include improved coin and bill validation and the rapid adoption of sense-and-feedback systems to verify that the vend was made[2].
One of the newest vending innovations is 遙測技術. According to Michael Kasavana, National Automatic Merchandising Association Endowed Professor at The School for Hospitality Business, Michigan State University, the advent of reliable, affordable wireless technology has made telemetry practical and provided the medium through which cashless payments can be authenticated. This is important because research shows that 50% of consumers will not make a purchase from a vending machine if its ‘只收真幣’ light is on. Machines equipped with telemetry can transmit 銷售and inventory 資料to a route truck in the parking lot so that the 司機knows exactly what products to bring in for restocking. Or the data can be transmitted to a remote 總部for use in scheduling a route stop, detecting component failure or verifying collection information. Telemetry could be one of the most 販賣科技上顯著的成就since the invention of the bill changer[3].
[编辑] 制造厂商和销售公司
- Automatic Products
- Beaver Machine Corporation
- Crane Co., under the brand Crane National
- Dixie-Narco Inc.
- Northwestern Corporation
- Oak Manufacturing
- Royal Vendors
- North American Vending
- Savamco
- Vendo
- The Wittern Group, manufacturers of U Select It
[编辑] 参见
- Claw vending machine
- Free vending
- Ticket machine
[编辑] 外部链接
- VendingDirectory.Com - Vending Manufacturers, Distributors, Locators...
- A look at some of Japan's wackier vending machines and much more
- Japan-Guide's guide to vending machines
- Vending Machine Help Business guide to help you avoid vending scams.
[编辑] 參考文獻
- Krug, Bryon: Vending Business-in-a-Box, BooksOnStuff, 2003.
- Sanford, Tim:
