Maybe it’s a false impression, but it seems that if there is a particularly popular vending machine item here at work, before long it is no longer stocked in the machine. For example, Ruffles were very popular, usually selling out long before any of the other snacks. So now, the supplier has replaced the Ruffles with some weird flavor of Sun Chips. This has happened before with other items in this machine: a brand of cookies (I think it was Chips Ahoy) was consistently selling out before the other cookies, and now it has been replaced in the rotation by some other brand while the less popular brands remain. What gives? is this some sort of twisted strategy to deny the most popular snacks to people? Or what?
Maybe when the manufacturer realizes that an item is becoming popular, it jacks up the price (or reduces the discount) and thus cuts out the marginal profit for the vendor.
This happened at my former workplace and at my current workplace as well. My theory is that the people who restock the machines don’t always remember what they put in the empty spots, so if a snack is particularly popular it will be more likely to be empty, and thus the refiller will think “hmm, what did I put in here last time? Ahhh, screw it, I guess I’ll put in Yak Milk and Walrus Sausage-flavored Haggis Chips in.”
It’s especially the case with flavors: i.e. they replace the product with the same brand of product but forget the flavor and fill it with something different.
YMMV.
Dammit, now I’m all hungry for some Yak Milk and Walrus Sausage-flavored Haggis Chips. And the vending machine is all out.
Having done this a bit, while working my way through college, I can tell you that the vendors buy several/many cases of junkfood. If Ruffles sells very well, I run out of Ruffles fast, leaving me with most of a case of Sunchips- which is what I stock the slots with hoping you’ll buy the damn things.
This was many years ago, mind you.
I was talking to a vendor here a couple of weeks ago about the same thing. He basically agreed with what DrDeth says. To add, it seems that sometimes they just stock the machines with what they get a good deal on.
And those damn SunChips are still the goddamn machine!
I still miss the vending machine that had freeze-dried (not dehydrated) apples (not fried apple chips). Unbelievably good, but they only had them for a while, and I haven’t seen them since.
Another factor at work here: the less people want what you stock in the machine – within reason, of course – the less often you have to restock the machine.
Coin vending is a less than ideal illustration of the laws of supply-and-demand.
Yes, but that also means you have fewer coins to remove from the machine. Not necessarily the best result.
With your luck, they’ll replace 'em with Ruffles.
Which can result in the worst kind of vending machine angst, because sometimes in order to remind themselves what does go in a particular slot they’ll stick one waaaaay in the back of the spirals, 4 or 5 back from the last purchasable item. Then, when it that item sells out and you go a hankering for a Kit Kat you’re presented with the old “Am I willing to spend $5.75 to get that one in the back?”
I don’t think this one rises to GQ level, so let’s go to MPSIMS.
samclem GQ moderator
I think it started there, maybe, but it certainly has gone in the MPSIMS direction.