Combo Vending

A full-line vending business sets up several types of vending machines that sell a wide range of products, such as soft drinks and snacks. Soda is usually sold in 12 fl. oz. (355 ml) and 20 oz. (591 ml) in the United States and some times Australia, or 330ml and 500ml in Europe, Canada, and other areas. Snacks, bags of chips and similar edibles are usually about 1-3 oz.

In most cases, managers and staff of individual stores objected to this, because the national vending companies were not necessarily responsive when making the product choices for the machines. As a result, this trend began to reverse. Most full line vending operators are independent and are small operations.

Often, they can have the existing vending machines removed and get permission to install their own machines by promising to lower prices, stock the machine with the manager’s favorite candies, or provide better service (e.g. servicing the machine the same day if a coin jam or bill validator becomes jammed). There are many types of machines available. One type is the combo machine that sells both sodas and snacks. These combo machines have the disadvantage of not holding much of any product, and therefore requiring frequent servicing. Most operators use separate snack and soda machines.