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Unique ideas standing out in vending machine industry
All-you-can-buy from vending machines in Japan
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All-you-can-buy from vending machines in Japan.
Vending machines play a higher-profile economic and social role in Japan than in most other countries.
New types of vending machines are appearing all the time, with some of the newest including mini convenience stores, personal seal dispensers and disaster-ready machines.
FamilyMart in a machine
FamilyMart Co. has been rolling out miniaturised versions of its convenience stores in vending machine form since 2010.
These machines stock up to 60 items ranging from rice balls, sandwiches and bento lunch boxes to basic everyday items such as stockings, at prices broadly similar to those in-store.
There are 1,520 such machines dotted around 1,086 locations ' including hospitals, office staff rooms and highway rest areas ' mainly in the Kanto region.
According to a FamilyMart official, the company is 'enjoying booming sales and expects to add another 500 units per year.'
Kobe-based fruit and vegetable trading company M.V.M. Shoji Co. started offering freshly sliced apples in vending machines in 2011. The slices, amounting to roughly half an apple (about 80 grams), are sealed in bags and cost 200 yen (US$1.61).
They are available either peeled or unpeeled, retain their color due to being soaked in a solution that includes vitamin C, and last up to 11 days after processing.
Currently there are 17 machines installed in Tokyo subway stations and also at Umeda Station on the Hankyu line in Osaka.
They are apparently well-patronised by female office workers on their way to work.
Even personal seals can now be bought from vending machines. Since 2012, retailer Uchio Will Inc. in Okayama Prefecture has been developing a vending machine that creates seals in 5-10 minutes.
Customers enter their name on a touchscreen and the machine carves it into their choice of material.
The seals fit up to eight characters and range between 500 yen and 4,000 yen.
The first unit was installed in a supermarket in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, out of a desire to provide victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake a ready source of identification.
There are now 86 machines in homeware stores across the country.
From convenience to crisis
An increasing number of vending machines are being built to cope with emergency situations.
They have been designed in response to local government requests for ways to distribute beverages for free during disasters and can be operated either manually or via remote control.
Major beverage makers such as Kirin Beverage Co. and Coca-Cola (Japan) Co. have been behind the rollout of these machines.
Coca-Cola (Japan) has installed around 7,800 units across the country.
They provide items free of charge during disasters and also relay emergency information via their display screens.
Meanwhile, an increase in foreign visitors has prompted the introduction of vending machines featuring Wi-Fi in tourist hot spots. Anyone within a 30-meter radius of such a machine can use their Wi-Fi-enabled device to access the Internet for free.
TelWel East Japan Corp., an affiliate of NTT East Corp., has introduced these vending machines at around 200 locations, mainly in eastern Japan, and plans to bring out more in the coming years.
Competition heats up
According to the Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association in Tokyo, which comprises 30 manufacturers, vending machines have a surprisingly long history.
The concept is thought to date back to 215 B.C., when Egyptians devised a plan for a machine that dispensed water in response to the weight of an inserted coin.
Japan's oldest intact vending machine is a dispenser of postcards and stamps from 1904, making it over a century since the country began using them.
However, it was only in the 1960s that they truly took off. In 1962, Coca-Cola began installing beverage vending machines in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Following the government's move to circulate 100 yen coins in large quantities in 1967, they began to spread like wildfire.
As demonstrated by the introduction in 1974 of machines capable of dispensing both hot and cold drinks ' well before the rest of the world ' Japan has long embraced technology in the industry.
The association said that 5.03 million units of vending machines were spread across the nation as of the end of 2014.
The figure is exceeded only by the United States, which had 6.45 million units as of 2013.
Beverage-dispensing machines comprised 51 per cent of the total, followed by machines for automated services (coin lockers, money changers and others) at 25 per cent, and miscellaneous items at 17.1 per cent.
Japan's 2014 sales of vending machine products, at 4.95 trillion yen, were the highest in the world.
Beverages made up 44.3 per cent of sales, followed by food and train tickets and other types of coupons at 35.7 per cent, and miscellaneous items at 9.4 per cent.
The year 2000 saw the highest numbers in both vending machine units and sales from them.
At the time there were 5.6 million machines that generated 7.11 yen trillion in sales.
However, due to factors including the introduction of mandatory ID checks for cigarette dispensers in 2008, the global financial crisis and competition with convenience stores, the number of vending machines and sales from them have been on a continuous downward trend.(+++)
