Well I’m here to wipe the silly look of confusion off of everyone’s face, because healthy vending machines DO exist.  But I can definitely see why the phrase would seem contradictory, after all: vending machines are traditionally unhealthy in more ways than one…

Let’s step back in time to the first vending machines that dispensed food products: In 1888 the Thomas Adams Gum Company introduced machines that dispensed gum balls for coins on New York City subway platforms.  A revolutionary concept: create miniature automatic retailers that required no supervision and that conveniently placed products that people wanted where they happen to be walking by! Brilliant!

The vending machine evolved through the late 1800s and early 1900s to offer everything from cigars to stamps.  Did you know that there was even a completely coin operated restaurant called Horn and Hadart in Philadelphia from 1902 to 1962??? Customers would come in and place coins in slots below windows that displayed cold food, then they’d turn a chrome knob and the food would be revealed through technological magic (ok, not that magic, a slot opened up).

By the 1920s vending machines evolved into just soda and candy dispensers.  This is where I think the industry flat-lined in terms of its product offering. Sure, the machines themselves advanced along with the breakthroughs in related technology (lights, compressors, etc.), but the food and drink type basically stayed the same….why?

I think its because vending machine operators bought into a model that worked. And like my pappy used to say “if it ain’t broke, then get a beer from the fridge and hide in the garage from your mother so that she thinks you’re busy fixing it when you’re actually trying to get out of helping make dinner!”  Or something like that. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that people were provided with what they thought they wanted when they’re on the go and don’t have time to sit down and eat: sugary foods that “give them energy”.

So since 1920 the vending machine industry has been about as innovative as my brother, who just the other day decided to start wearing pants in public. Doesn’t that baffle you? Not about my brother’s daily indecent exposure, but that for 90 years vending machines have almost exclusively offered candy, soda, and cigarettes? Through all the health revolutions and nutrition awareness campaigns….these big brown boxes sat there displaying “tasty” crap for all the world to eat?

Well, thankfully its 2010 and there are healthy vending machines that dispense ONLY 100% healthy food and beverages.  No, they don’t dispense healthy cigarettes. There’s no such thing.

Do you know any funny oxymorons? I’d love to hear about them!

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful. – Warren Buffett

I JUST DROPPED A WARREN BUFFETT QUOTE ON  YOU.  That means things are about to get heavy.  If you are looking into starting up your own business or buying into a franchise model, the choices are endless.  The demands for initial investment vary from a few thousand dollars to millions.  The time, expertise, and knowledge capital requirements vary equally as much.  An often overlooked option is a vending machine business.

PROS: Vending operators who are successful often revel in how sweet of a set-up this business is for a variety of reasons:

1. Low Cost of Labor: The machines do all the work.  No clerk is required to execute each transaction. Filling the machines and handling maintenance are the main human-required components once the machine is placed.  This is a business you can do in your spare time which keeping the stable income of your day job.
2. Customer Accessibility: Your business is open for as long as people have access to the machine. In many locations, such as hospitals, this can be 24 hours a day.
3. Mobility: Location starts to get low traffic? Sales are suffering? Pop that baby on a dolly and wheel it on across the street to a better one!
4. Relatively low initial investment: Compared to other franchises, these machines are a minimal investment.  $10k for a premium high-tech vending machine, and a little as $2k for a plain ugly brown box traditional vending machine.

CONS: If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I’m sure this is no surprise to you. Just like any business, there are risks involved:

1. Location, location, location. Location is obviously important in ANY business.  With vending machines it is THE most important factor (assuming your machines work and have product in them).  Just buying a machine and trying to find a location on your own is difficult.  Turnkey-model vending businesses exist that will help you acquire premium locations, though, but you must be sure to use an established and reputable one.
2. The traditional vending industry is in a decline. The industry that everyone knows best, traditional junk food and soda vending, has become stagnant.  Sales have flat-lined for soda, candy, and chips.  However: Certain niches within the vending industry are exploding.  Healthy vending is poised to become a long lasting trend with legislation emerging from the Obama administration demanding healthier food and snack options in schools.  Wellness programs at office buildings and hospitals are also becoming increasingly interested in provided premium amenities for their employees and customers rather than the typical junk.
3. You could be contributing to the declining health of Americans. If you are interested in being as socially responsible as you are financially successful, then you need to consider the real effects that investing in a traditional vending machine company will have.  Over 33% of Americans are now obese, and obesity costs our country $150 billion per year in health care costs. Childhood obesity is on the rise at an alarming pace as well.  You should consider how your business will fit in to this mess. Will it make the problem worse by providing junk food and soda to people? Or will it provide healthier choices for people?

So do your homework.  Warren Buffett would agree, and I’ll verify this with him if he ever returns my phone calls.  The Oracle of Omaha says DON’T BE SCARED of taking a risk…but do your homework first.

After holding my breath since June 10th, today I am proud to say that a MONUMENTAL bill has passed in the House of Representatives.  H.R. 5504 “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act” was passed yesterday, and parents across the country are saying: “It’s about TIME.” This is a huge milestone in the promotion of healthy eating in the nation’s schools, as part of the war on childhood obesity (not-so-fun-fact: one out of five children are obese!  Next step is getting it approved in the Senate…

If this is news to you, then let me give you an overview of how fantastically awesome the bill is:

Summary: Amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to revise the school lunch and breakfast programs, the summer food service program, the child and adult care food program (CACFP), and the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children (WIC program). Reauthorizes appropriations for such programs through FY2015. Includes among such revisions:
(1) encouraging the direct certification of children who receive other public assistance as eligible for free meals under the school lunch and breakfast programs;
(2) establishing new mechanisms by which schools or local educational agencies (LEAs) with very high proportions of low-income children can receive federal reimbursement for free or reduced price meals under such programs without collecting individual paper applications from households;
(3) establishing a program awarding competitive grants to states and, through them, competitive subgrants to LEAs to establish or expand the school breakfast program at low-income schools;
(4) expanding the access of low-income rural areas to the summer food service program;
(5) requiring updates to meal patterns and nutrition standards for the school lunch and breakfast programs based on recommendations made by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS);
(6) requiring the establishment of science-based nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools outside the school lunch and breakfast programs;
(7) requiring LEAs participating in the school lunch and breakfast programs to establish local school wellness policies for their schools that include goals for nutrition promotion and education, physical activity and education, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness;
(8) requiring reimbursable meals and snacks provided under the CACFP to meet the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans and certain authoritative scientific recommendations;
(9) encouraging WIC program participants to breastfeed; and
(10) requiring WIC electronic benefit transfer (EBT) systems to be implemented nationwide by October 1, 2020.

Right here we have a trifecta of health, affordability, and efficiency to combat the current trifecta: few healthy options, low-income families, and inefficient bureaucracy. Sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), this bill is accordance with Michelle Obama’s mission of ending childhood obesity.

So what comes next? Implementation! Schools now have their work cut out for them.  It starts with baby steps: setting goals in regards to nutrition and physical activity programs, replacing junk food vending machines with healthier options, and competing for grants with other schools.  Revamping their school lunch program will be no easy task, but the clock is ticking as waistlines steadily expand.

Vending machines are generally overlooked as something detrimental to a workplace,  school, or gym.  After all, the store is too far away and these people need to snack! Heck, we’ll just plug it in, sign the contract, and everyone will be happy! This is the kind of short-sighted thinking that can have negative long term effects.

Let’s take a look at some of the negative impacts the traditional junk food vending machines have:

• Energy consumption: A refrigerated vending machine can consume between 2,500 and 4,000 kilowatt-hours  per year.  To give you some perspective, in 2008 the average home consumed around 11,000 kilowatt-hours.  So if those 3-4 vending machines at work could power your home for a year! The good news: new eco-friendly vending machines now use 50% less electricity!
• Product mix: traditional vending machines contain nothing but junk food.  Its no news flash to anyone that the U.S. and the world as a whole is struggling with the rise of obesity and its associated negative health impact.  28 out of 50 states have reported an increase in the percentage of obese people, and childhood obesity is one of the greatest threats to the next generation. The good news: healthy vending machines are steadily being placed in schools, gyms, and office buildings worldwide!
• Education: traditional vending machines give no indication as to the nutritional content of their foods.  You can’t bust the glass and read the label! Consumers then rely on what tastes good, which to the average person is unfortunately some type of sugary or salty snack with little to no nutritional value.  The good news: New, high-tech vending machines with large LCD displays and on-board personal computers power an interactive snack buying experience for the consumer.  Nutritional content is now at the touch of a button!

Maybe that’s what the Cubs need: healthy vending machines in their training facility! It would explain a lot…Don’t hate on me, Chicago, I’m just trying to help.

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.
Albert Einstein

I don’t bust out Albert Einstein quotes lightly.  I only use them when I really need to drive a point home, and that point is this: everything you do as a company, down to the smallest choices you make, has an impact.  Its often the little things that get overlooked, too.  For example, how many companies out there claim to be socially responsible and yet still only provide their employees with unhealthy snack and drink options from vending machines that also have a huge carbon footprint?  While these companies may be socially responsible on a large scale, what about the health of its employees and the health of the planet?

I know what you’re thinking: “Is this guy serious? Vending machines? We have bigger fish to fry!” Well, what I’m saying is how are you going to expect your employees to perform at their peak when they are putting crap in their bodies throughout the workday? And how can you really say you’re a “green” company when you won’t replace your traditional, energy-sucking vending machines with modern eco-friendly vending machines stocked with health food?

Let me hit you with hard numbers if you’re still not convinced:

A study led by University of Cincinnati on obesity’s effects on productivity on 341 manufacturing workers indicated that health-related losses in productivity were 4.2% for moderate to obese workers, costing the company $1,800 per year in absenteeism related costs!

So let’s say your company is made up of the average distribution of people in the U.S. (30% obese).  If you have 1,000 employees then 300 are obese.  300 x $1,800 = $540,000 per year.

That’s half a million greenbacks!

While you can’t be responsible for the lifestyle decisions your employees make, the least you could do is provide them with healthy snack options while they work.

These aren’t your typical big brown boxes with coils just outfitted with a different product mix, either.  These healthy vending machines are high-tech!  Here’s what I’m talking about:

An LCD Screen: If I could afford it, every wall in my house would be an LCD screen.  A vending machine should be no different.  Plus, how cool is it to have nutrition facts displayed on screen of the food products you’re about to buy? Its not like you can open the machine up and read the labels. If you have to put guesswork into your healthy snack options, then you’re probably not eating as healthy as you could be.

Cashless payment options: Like most of us, I am horrible at keeping cash around.  And nothing is worse than walking by a vending machine hoping for a healthy snack and coming up with lint.  Plastic money rules, plain and simple.

Sensors that guarantee that the machine vends correctly: This is as refreshing as the natural and organic options in these machines.   You know the diagram on vending machines showing what NOT to do? (i.e. tipping the machines towards you?) Yep, I’ve been THAT guy.   Because when I get ripped off by an ugly brown box, I feel stupid. And when I feel stupid, I get angry. Angry + Stupid = I am the guy in the diagram.

Eco-Friendly Design: We all love Mother Earth.  (By “we” I am not including British Petroleum). These healthy vending machines use up to 50% less energy than standard vending machines.  This means that when you use a traditional vending machine, you are actually harming your body and the environment.  Whether you buy organic, natural, or simply healthier food from a healthy vending machine its a double-whammy of positive impact for your body and for the earth.

The bottom line is that while we still may not be able to swallow a complete steak dinner the size of an aspirin, the convenience of a high-tech healthy vending machine is a pretty cool substitute.

Obesity and malnutrition would rather step into the ring with these boxing greats than the Boys & Girls Club of Ada County, Idaho.

The mission of the Boys & Girls Club is “to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.”

Gotta love ‘em.

On July 20th, the Garden City and Meridian clubs joined the fight to promote health for its kids by implementing a state of the art healthy vending program through H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Vending.  With a high tech machine installed at each club, the positive and measurable impact on the kids’ health has begun.

Star athletes from Boise State and nutrition experts participated in an educational event before unveiling the machines, speaking to the children about the importance of nutrition and exercise at the Moseley Center.

CHECK OUT THE NEWS COVERAGE OF THE EVENT!

Local H.U.M.A.N. operators Amy and John Hobbing are excited to be the first exclusive healthy vending operators in Idaho: “As leaders in the Treasure Valley have come to realize, poor nutrition and obesity are not just bad for kids, but its bad for business.  One out of every three adults and children are now classified as overweight or obese.  The cost of poor health is well documented: lost productivity, higher healthcare costs and a lower quality of life.  We have decided to take a stand against poor health and help innovative organizations and leaders like the Boys & Girls Club bring the right kind of tools to help kids and adults with better nutritional choices.  Lastly, we want people to know that good health can taste good!”

When I was a kid, I couldn’t tell you the difference between sodium and simple carbohydrates.  Heck, most of the time I couldn’t even match my socks.  Not surprisingly, not much has changed.  In Garden City, the kids crowded around the colorful and high-tech machine feeding it quarters and excitedly retrieving their snacks as reporters quizzed them on what the basic ingredients were.  The look on the kids’ faces said it all: “I don’t know, lady, I just know it tastes good!”

With a customized array of snacks chosen for both taste and nutritional content, kids and parents were not disappointed.

I have to say that nothing warms my heart more than seeing a kid chugging Hansen’s soda instead of Pepsi.  My wife was offended by this because apparently our wedding video should take precedence, but that’s neither here nor there.

And as childhood obesity rates soar throughout the country, the Boys & Girls Club in Ada County, Idaho has scored a first round knockout.

Health Club Membership Tips: 5 Simple Ways to Get More Members from Andy Mackensen on Vimeo.

This machine is custom built for vending success. Not only will you make your standard margin on product sales, but you now have access to a completely new revenue stream by taking part in the booming digital advertising industry!

Through the H.U.M.A.N. Ad Network, ads can be uploaded remotely and customized towards any machine location. The Media Mogul comes with a 23″ HD LCD screen that looks great. It is such an eye catcher that product sales go up simply because people want to check out the machine.

This machine does not come with your standard coil trays either. It is equipped with the most sophisticated vending technology to date — a conveyor belt style delivery system. What does that mean for you? Higher capacity (meaning less work for you) and product versatility (you can vend anything that fits!). It is an entrepreneurs dream.