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Media reports on the state of the economy over the past three months have been very depressing. The reported forecast and outlook on the future is equally grim, with the result that many businesses and individuals are significantly cutting back on spending.
This will regrettably have an effect on new machine sales in the short term, as customers delay ordering new machines, preferring to maintain their old equipment. However it does mean that the vending industry now has a massive opportunity to re-capture lost customers who may have moved away from the traditional vending machine to buying their speciality drinks and snacks from the coffee houses and retail outlets.
Our industry has long seen a decline in hot drink sales but has over the past two years woken up to the fact that our customers want real quality and are prepared to pay for it. We now have the technology and the ingredients to deliver superb drinks at a fraction of the price charged by the high street, so I see the credit crunch as a fantastic opportunity for operators, providing they are able to offer a credible alternative.
The vast majority of people want to cut back on the daily expenditure, so if this means going without two coffee shop drinks a day then this may well save a fiver a day. Those lucky enough to have free vend at their workplace will benefit most, but even if the vending machine is priced at 50p a vend, they will still save significantly over the course of the year.
Accolade, Caffe Carezza and Pour Moi have led the way in creating a truly credible alternative to the coffee shops. Enjoying the coffee house experience through vending in the workplace is now perfectly possible. By continuing to improve on standards of cleanliness, increased machine reliability and fast response times will bring the consumer back to vending and away from expensive coffee houses and retail outlets as recent vend volumes and customer surveys have clearly demonstrated.
By including glass fronted bottle and snack machines, selling higher priced premium speciality snack and confectionary lines alongside traditional best sellers also provides great opportunities for sales during an economic downturn. Vending operators should be thinking very positively about their future, at this stage of the economic downturn.
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