Innovations take food vending to more locations

ELLIOT MARAS, EDITOR

'The food machine business is getting so refined that we've got no set load plan. No two accounts are the same. We keep our route people in tune with being flexible. You might have a location where frozen pizza is God's gift, and another where there's no pizza.'

These comments by a full-line operator with 30 routes in the Twin Cities area reflect both the hope and frustration the vend food business presents operators today. Food, vending's final frontier, offers more possibilities and more unanswered questions than any other vending product category.

While veteran food professionals point to the commissary as the inviolate institution that dictates an operator's chances for success in food vending, technology is improving the quality of both prepackaged food and the equipment that delivers it. New opportunities in products and equipment are causing operators to reconsider many of their assumptions.

No operator seriously involved in food questions the importance of the commissary in providing a point of difference in the market he or she serves. Proprietary food, like proprietary coffee, constitutes a signature offering which can solidify customer loyalty. But changes in the makeup of the American work place and growing competitive pressure to serve smaller employee groups are forcing operators to consider all tools at their disposal. And those tools are increasing.

One change operators universally agree on is there are more precooked frozen food offerings than ever, with more being introduced all the time. These offerings enable operators to broaden their menus and, by virtue of their extended shelf life, serve smaller locations.

The wider precooked food selections also play into many operators' willingness to consider frozen food machines, which in recent years have improved in quality and affordability. A random nationwide survey of operators in late December showed a definite gain in the number of frozen food machines in the field, even though most are being used on an experimental basis.

The experimentation also extends, though on a more limited basis, to integrated food systems that cook food from a frozen state. These include both single-product and multi-product machines.

In many cases, the experimentation with new equipment is simply an attempt to impress accounts with new technology. But the results are sometimes pleasantly surprising; one Seattle-area operator who has gone to great lengths to avoid food altogether has been so impressed with the results he's had with a frozen food machine that he's ordering two more.

Interviews with operators reveal a wide variety of experiences with the different food products and equipment that …