Uncle Sam
Member
We have traveled this past year installing vendors and visiting different car wash operations showing our product. I am constantly amazed that many older self serve washes and even newly designed washes have only 3-4 drop shelf vendors or have no vending at all offered to their customers. For years vending was thought of as more of a convenience to the customer rather than as a profit center for the operator. The older washes may have fewer vendors because of the limited wall space on the smaller equipment rooms close to the bill changer, but the newly designed washes can plan for a vending center. Since I operated as many as 3 self serve washes, I always thought the drop shelf vending system was a “pain in the butt” that usually didn’t generate enough revenue commensurate with the time spent servicing them-- too many locks to fuss with, the drop shelf had to be near the bill changer for a supply of coins, poor security and vandalism of the vendors, mechanical coin acceptance (which has been replaced with better electronic acceptance), and, most importantly, the customer could not see the product.
The paradigm shift to the “Guaranteed Delivery System” was the key to the success of the modern, computer-operated vending machine for the car wash environment. ShurVend showed the first “Guaranteed Delivery” vending system and security system (cage) to the car wash industry at the WCA Show in 1999. This vending system has these benefits-- allows the customer to see what products are available, guarantees product delivery to the customer or they can get their money back, does not need to be near a bill changer, the security concerns have been addressed with new designs that are very reliable, and customers now have multiple payment options that accept coins, bills, tokens, credit cards, WashCard, Exacta, and Wickets. The computer operation in these machines can frustrate operators (and us) at times as all new technology does, but the computer-controlled vendor is really self-sufficient when installed anywhere on the wash site (preferably in the vacuum area) without security concerns. Indeed the computer-operated vendor has evolved over the past few years into a machine with a small footprint that can be installed at the end of a vacuum island where “impulse” sales can easily be made by the customer. Experience has proven that the “Guaranteed Delivery Systems” make vandalism and theft a non-issue for these new high security vendors.
Cont'd
The paradigm shift to the “Guaranteed Delivery System” was the key to the success of the modern, computer-operated vending machine for the car wash environment. ShurVend showed the first “Guaranteed Delivery” vending system and security system (cage) to the car wash industry at the WCA Show in 1999. This vending system has these benefits-- allows the customer to see what products are available, guarantees product delivery to the customer or they can get their money back, does not need to be near a bill changer, the security concerns have been addressed with new designs that are very reliable, and customers now have multiple payment options that accept coins, bills, tokens, credit cards, WashCard, Exacta, and Wickets. The computer operation in these machines can frustrate operators (and us) at times as all new technology does, but the computer-controlled vendor is really self-sufficient when installed anywhere on the wash site (preferably in the vacuum area) without security concerns. Indeed the computer-operated vendor has evolved over the past few years into a machine with a small footprint that can be installed at the end of a vacuum island where “impulse” sales can easily be made by the customer. Experience has proven that the “Guaranteed Delivery Systems” make vandalism and theft a non-issue for these new high security vendors.
Cont'd
