Vending Machine Facts

In this blog post you will find 13 fun facts about vending machines from around the world!

1. The first vending machine was built in Ancient Egypt in 215 BCE. Reportedly it dispensed holy water. Once the weight of a coin triggered a system of levels, a vessel holding water would tip and pour water our of a spout. The vending machine no longer exists but records of it can be found.
2. The first commercial vending machine was installed in London in the 1880’s and sold postcards.
3. The first vending machines in the USA were introduced by the Thomas Adams Gum company. They installed machines that dispensed chewing gum on New York City subway platforms.
4. The first soda vending machine, introduced in the 1920’s, dispensed into a cup.
5. Bottled soda was introduced in the 1930’s. The only choices available to purchase from vending machines were Coca Cola and Pepsi.
6. In 1965 John Greenwick invented the first vending machine that accepted notes as a form of payment.
7. The first glass front vending machine appeared on the market in 1972.
8. Japan has the highest density of vending machines in the world.
9. In the United Arab Emirates there is a vending machine that dispenses bars of gold.
10. Another name for vending is automated retailing.
11. During the late 2000’s retailers started to get creative by starting to stock vending machines with products other than cold drinks and snacks, such as hot food, toys and everything you can imagine!
12. In the 2010’s many vending machines started to display nutritional information for their products, due to a rise in consumer health interest.
13. Many vending machines now let you pay using a bank card, contactless or smartphone. The days of having to carry around change to use a vending machine has come and gone.

Contact Us

Interested in hiring one of our vending machines for your business, for free? Contact us today to learn more about hiring one of our vending machines for free. You can call us on 01244 638 084. You can also email us at info@premiervend.co.uk and a member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible. We hire out vending machines in Cheshire, Wirral, Liverpool, Chester and North Wales.