Uncle Sam
Member
The use of a generic glass-front vending machine in the self-serve car wash setting began sometime in the 1980’s with individual operators trying to make these vendors dispense car wash products. The vending machines at that time were designed so the helix (spiral or coil) would make one turn (360 degrees) and stop. Car wash products are difficult to vend with one turn, so customers who didn’t get their product took out their frustrations and loss of money on the machine
In 1998 a salesman for a company where I bought bill validators told me about a new company called AMS that sold a patented vending system called “Guaranteed Delivery”; this new technology solved most of the problems in vending car wash products. Now the only thing that needed to be addressed was the security of the machine without making it look like the vendor was in “jail”. When you are open 24/7/365, with no attendants around most of the time, security of the vendor became the primary concern for operators.
ShurVend showed its first product (a combined vendor/security cage system) at the WCA show in Las Vegas in 1999. I still remember an operator from San Francisco sitting on a chair at that show studying our vending system for at least an hour. He bought one of our first vendor/cage packages for one of his washes and that vendor is still in operation to this day. He eventually bought 5 more vendors to install in various washes he owned.
Most of us who design new equipment are not inclined to “re-invent” the wheel if there is something already built that can be modified to do what we want to do. ShurVend, along with some clever operators, used existing vendors that worked reasonably well and then designed security systems around them. Since 1999 ShurVend has built and offered different versions of multiple product vendors with security systems (as have other companies) to make high security vending centers more reliable, easier to operate, and aesthetically more pleasing.
Cont'd
In 1998 a salesman for a company where I bought bill validators told me about a new company called AMS that sold a patented vending system called “Guaranteed Delivery”; this new technology solved most of the problems in vending car wash products. Now the only thing that needed to be addressed was the security of the machine without making it look like the vendor was in “jail”. When you are open 24/7/365, with no attendants around most of the time, security of the vendor became the primary concern for operators.
ShurVend showed its first product (a combined vendor/security cage system) at the WCA show in Las Vegas in 1999. I still remember an operator from San Francisco sitting on a chair at that show studying our vending system for at least an hour. He bought one of our first vendor/cage packages for one of his washes and that vendor is still in operation to this day. He eventually bought 5 more vendors to install in various washes he owned.
Most of us who design new equipment are not inclined to “re-invent” the wheel if there is something already built that can be modified to do what we want to do. ShurVend, along with some clever operators, used existing vendors that worked reasonably well and then designed security systems around them. Since 1999 ShurVend has built and offered different versions of multiple product vendors with security systems (as have other companies) to make high security vending centers more reliable, easier to operate, and aesthetically more pleasing.
Cont'd
