Over and over again, we at VendStream hear from our clients that vending providers seem unwilling to stick with their requests for healthy products in the vending machines.

Vending providers traditionally decide what to offer in the vending machines based on what sells.  (That's not surprising, of course; we're all in business to make a living.) And what’s happening is that employee/consumers are not purchasing the new healthy items that the vending provider puts in the machines.  Why would that be?  They said they wanted them, right? 

What happens is, when the vending provider adds healthier items to the vending machines, they often price them higher than the unhealthy items.  Why would they do that?  It's not that vending operators are conspiring against people who would like to purchase healthier products; it's simply that the healthier items often cost more.  In other words, the vending provider is trying to maintain his or her profit margin by marking up the prices.

Here's the cycle:

1. Either you or your employees ask the vending provider to put healthier products in the vending machines.

2. The vending provider puts some healthier items in the vending machines – usually at a price higher than the unhealthy items.

3. Employees, especially those who are more price-sensitive, are turned off by the higher prices of the healthy items and so they don't purchase them.  In other words, most employees continue their pattern of purchasing the unhealthy items because they don’t see any reason to do otherwise.

4. The healthier products in the machines do not sell and, in some cases, they spoil or expire so the vending provider has to throw them away.

5. The vending provider concludes that the employee-consumers really do not want the healthier vending products and replaces the healthier items with the better selling unhealthy items.

6. You conclude that the vending provider is simply being obstinate and you may even decide to hire a new provider. 

In our experience, it is possible to create a win-win relationship with the vending provider around healthy vending.  What it takes is reworking the pricing of the products in the vending machines.  For example, you may decide to ask the vending provider to markup the prices of the unhealthy items in order to make room for markdowns on the healthy items. 

In effect, the unhealthy items are subsidizing the healthy items.

Most vending providers know that, even if you mark up the prices of the unhealthy items, consumers will continue to purchase more of them than they do the unhealthy items.  What this means is that the vending provider will often come out ahead under this arrangement.  Yes, the sales of the unhealthy items will fall but not so much that the economics are not sound.

In some cases, it may also take reworking the commission or rebate agreement between you and the vending provider.  For example, if you are hesitant to markup the prices of the unhealthy items to offset the markdowns of the healthy items, you may instead offer to the vending provider to forego your commission or rebate in return for the vending provider marking down the prices of the healthy items.