Pandemic safety question: Vending machines versus micro markets?

What type of self-service dispensing mechanism offers the best protection against COVID-19 in a break room, vending machines or micro markets?

Within the convenience services industry, some have questioned the safety of micro markets since they allow customers to touch products without having to buy them. After all, when micro markets came on the scene more than a decade ago, one of the customer benefits cited was being able to examine products before making a purchase decision.

Unlike a vending machine, which requires the customer to buy the product before dispensing it, micro markets display products in open containers.

With the advent of COVID-19, has the risk of airborne disease turned this customer benefit into a liability?

Vending equipment supplier raises the issue

U-Select-It Inc., a vending equipment manufacturer, raised this concern in a recent white paper with the heading: "Why vending is the ultimate controlled dispensing solution for the convenience services industry."

"The risks in these (unattended market) applications is that the food and beverage products are accessible in a way that consumers can pick up products and return them to the shelves for the next consumer to handle," the paper noted. "With COVID-19 having up to a three-day lifespan on items such as bottled beverages and clamshell salad containers, unattended retail applications may pose a risk of spreading within organizations."

In addition, when consumers access products in micro markets, they often come in contact with shelving holding the product, the white paper stated. "You have risk of direct exposure on the shelf itself, as well as transfer exposure from the product," the paper said.

"Vending offers the ultimate secured access solution and allows organizations to safely provide employees and consumers with food and beverage products, with little to no risk of contamination from numerous other individuals handling the product," the paper said. 

Operators weigh in

Convenience service operators interviewed at random have not reported customer inquiries about any specific risk associated with micro markets. Operators are quick to point out they have initiated safety measures for all services provided — be it vending, micro markets, coffee service, pantry service and manual foodservice — and have advised customers about their safety practices.

"A vending machine does limit the number of people that can touch the product," Jim Sutherland, vice president of sales at Crickler Vending, a Canteen franchisee based in Rochester, New York, said. "The benefit of a vending machine is your co-workers aren't handling the product and then putting it back."

Most break room purchases, however, be they from vending machines or micro markets, are "grab and go" purchases, he said. People don't usually forage through the products before selecting one.

Sutherland further noted that coolers and freezers will soon be available with foot pedals that will allow customers to open the containers without touching them, and they can pay using a smart phone.

"You don't actually have to physically touch the kiosk," he said.

Nor are vending machine purchases completely touchless.

"You have to interface with the vending machine; everybody's touching the same pin pad and everybody's reaching into the same delivery door. It doesn't strike me as arguably safer," Sutherland said. "There's nothing that's 100% foolproof."

Todd Laferriere, micro market manager at Prestige Services Inc. in Clifton Park, New York, said that micro markets give customers the opportunity to touch products and return them to the shelf or container, but so far, his customers have not raised any concerns about it.

"It's a good point; I'm not sure of the solution," Laferriere said. If a customer were concerned about this posing a risk, vending machines could be used in place of a micro market.

Customers ask about sanitation practices

Customers have asked how they can keep the kiosk clean after the service person leaves, Laferriere said. Prestige Services provides customers with information on cleaning solutions to wipe the kiosk with. Some accounts take it upon themselves to clean the kiosk on a regular basis.

Long-term, Laferriere expects that manual cafeterias are more likely to be discontinued than either vending or micro markets on account of social distancing requirements. Prestige Services has actually fielded calls from companies that want to replace manual cafeterias with micro markets.

"Most people at this point don't want people congregating in a cafeteria," he said.

Customers at Kwik Kafe Company Inc. in Bluefield, Virginia have inquired about the company's sanitation practices, but none have raised concerns about micro markets in particular, said D.J. Campion, systems administrator.

The company claims that its sanitation practices, which include requiring both service and warehouse personnel to wear gloves and masks, are sufficiently protecting employees from risks, Campion said, and it has not considered switching to vending machines from micro markets.

"It hasn't come up yet," he said. "The more we get it (micro markets) out there, the more customers seem to want it."

Kwik Kafe's business mix between micro markets, vending and coffee service has not changed since the COVID-19 pandemic, Campion said. Micro markets have been expanding in recent years, and he expects this will continue. The company has installed new micro markets since the coronavirus began.

Greg Breland, president of Gulf Coast Canteen, based in Mobile, Alabama, said the level of risk will have more to do with customer sanitation practices.

"The customers have yet to tell me, ‘I want to go back to vending,' but I think that's a possibility based on who's got clean hands before they go to the (micro) market," said Breland. "There's a possibility that their employees could contaminate the market if somebody came in sick."

Breland has advised his customers that he places hand sanitizer dispensers near every micro market kiosk with a sign instructing them to wash their hands. He has also left instructions to have the kiosk wiped at least once an hour.

"If in fact somebody should get something on a pack of Lay's plain potato chips, the health department tells me the virus will be dead within 12 hours," Breland said. 

Part two in this two-part series will explore what micro market providers are doing to ensure safety.