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Examined the effects of pricing and promotion strategies on purchases of low-fat snacks from vending machines set up at secondary schools and worksites in Minnesota. Analysis of sales data indicated that reducing relative prices on low-fat snacks was very effective in promoting lower-fat snack purchases from vending machines in both settings. (SM)

Despite federal and state regulations prohibiting the sale of nonnutritious foods in competition with school lunch programs, powerful market forces are keeping vending machines in schools. In 1997, schools generated $750 million for the vending machine market. Soft-drink companies are offering million-dollar contracts to some schools. Student nutrition suffers. (MLH)

A study involving 97 Business Enterprise Program (BEP) counselors and 99 licensed facility managers from 37 states found that both groups ranked profitability issues and leadership skills as the top two training priorities for a two-day Randolph-Sheppard regional training conference. Crisis management and food safety were also ranked highly. (CR)

A survey of 40 directors of the Randolph-Sheppard Vending Facility Program (more often known as the Business Enterprise Program), which provides legally blind persons with employment operating vending facilities on federal property, indicated that legally blind women are significantly underrepresented, making up about 24% of the licensed facility managers. Ways to eliminate barriers to the recruitment of women into the program are suggested. (Author/CR)

Examines how an academic library (Bowling Green State University) "insourced" (retaining services/providing services for others) operations such as photocopying, snack vending, library science education, management of a book depository, and cataloging for another institution. Includes examples of unsuccessful attempts to insource. (PEN)

In exchange for the exclusive right to sell their beverages at school events and on school grounds, large companies are competing avidly for schools' soft-drink business. One Ohio district negotiated a new PepsiCo contract expected to yield over $700,000 over the next 10 years. Everyone wins, including taxpayers. (MLH)

The study evaluated the use of simulated instruction on vending machine use as an adjunct to community-based instruction with two moderately retarded children. Results showed concurrent acquisition of the vending machine skills across trained and untrained sites. (Author/DB)

Dental disease, especially tooth decay, is reaching epidemic proportions among children of school age. Since sugar is a major cause of tooth decay and since many confections are sold in schools, it is recommended that schools remove confections and other nonnutritional food items from vending machines, fund-raising activities, and food services. (JN)

As consumers are exposed to thousands of advertisements daily, researchers have sought to understand what makes people remember certain brands better than they remember others. Metaphors like Carvana's vending machines and taglines like "Red Bull gives you wings" have increasingly become a powerful way for marketers to communicate brand attributes. In this study, we sought to characterize the memorability of ads across three distinct categories (functional, emotional, and metaphorical) using behavioral and neuroimaging methods. Participants were exposed to 20 ads from each of these categories and underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan while trying to recall details from these ads one week later. We found a significant effect of category on brand recall immediately after exposure and memory recognition for snippets from the ad a week later, with metaphorical and emotional ads outperforming functional ads. Insights from activation in key memory regions like the bilateral hippocampus during retrieval revealed that while people were likely to remember the salient aspects of emotional ads and rate them as highly vivid, they were weaker in recalling additional central details about the brands featured in them relative to metaphorical ads. These findings demonstrate the superiority of metaphorical ads for integrating contents of the ads and the creation of "sticky" brand impressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a mixed-methods usability study of seven diverse Self-Service Technologies (SSTs). SSTs mediate many of our everyday interactions with individuals, businesses, and government organizations. Parking meters, transport ticket machines, electric vehicle recharge points, and fast-food ordering kiosks are all likely familiar examples of this category of technology, promising convenient access to products and services. Despite their ubiquity, many SSTs suffer from severe usability issues, the nature of which have not been explored to date by the HCI community. This study evaluates the interactions between users and a broad sample of SSTs, details the usability issues that occurred, explores their connections and consequences, and presents a set of design considerations that may lead to their remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovative energy-efficient vending machine for use in urban environment, called SVIEE-R, have been developed in the global context of reducing energy consumption and using alternative energies. In the design and prototype building phase of the SVIEE-R we analysed energy consumption for several models of the product delivery subsystem. In order to optimise the energy consumption for the product delivery subsystem we also considered the mechatronic delivery system with a spiral for packaged products. Building an energy efficient mechatronic delivery system allows to increase the lifetime of energy independent vending machines and concerning vending machines supplied from the public electricity grid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The use of modern design software allowed the analyse of the functioning of the mechatronic spiral systems from the design stage. The paper presents the research undertaken for the energy efficiency of the mechatronic spiral system using simulations of the operation validated through functional tests using a stand made by modern manufacturing technologies (laser cutting, 3D printing). The tests carried out were mainly aimed at evaluating the energy consumption of mechatronic spiral delivery systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This document provides a comprehensive analysis of a legal case in Germany involving restraints of competition. It discusses the parties involved, the claims made, and the court's decision. The document emphasizes the importance of a credible demonstration of antitrust law violations and examines the evidence presented. It also addresses various legal aspects, such as the admissibility of actions by stages, the request for information and surrender of evidence, and the suspension of the limitation period. The document concludes that the plaintiff has credibly demonstrated a claim for damages based on the findings made by the appeal court. It also discusses separate markets and abusive tying, as well as abusive excessive pricing within the context of competition law. Lastly, it addresses the requirements for a credible demonstration of a breach of the prohibition of discrimination. The case has been referred back to the appeal court for further examination. [Extracted from the article]

Commercial environments and food acquisition methods significantly shape dietary practices and impact health. This study assesses dietary choices among Portuguese university students regarding vending machines, canteens, and lunches from home. It also evaluates their use of the university canteen and their tendency to bring lunch from home. This pilot cross-sectional study used a self-administered electronic questionnaire, made available in early 2023. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling. The study included 137 students from Portuguese higher education institutions, mainly women (74.5%), pursuing degrees or integrated Master's degrees (83.2%), primarily in health-related fields (55.5%). The median age was 21 years (20 to 23.5 years). About 70.0% regularly consumed food from vending machines, while approximately 60.0% brought lunch from home, avoiding the canteen. Factors such as convenience (48.5%), price (47.5%), product availability (40.6%), and taste (39.6%) mainly influenced vending machine choices. Monthly, chocolates, water, coffee, cookies, treats, and soft drinks were the most commonly acquired items, with coffee being the most frequent daily purchase. These findings provide insights for creating policies and initiatives to promote healthier and more accessible food options for students and strategies to encourage positive eating behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vending machines have become a frequently used shopping tool in many countries, as they minimize personnel, energy and facility costs, ability to provide 24/7 service and are easily accessible. In competitive marketing environment, increased costs cause difficulties for vending system managers and reduce profitability of enterprises. The aim of this study is to develop a management system for vending machines to manage warehouse inventory and plan distribution system. The warehouse inventory is classified by using different clustering algorithms, evaluating multiple criteria, and economic order quantity (EOQ) and safety stock levels (SS) are suggested. For the distribution management model, various signals such as the amount of money in vending machines, the number of products, the failure code, and healthy food data are determined. According to the signals from the vending machines, the distribution routes of the vehicles are computed using a linear programming model that provides the optimal solution and a heuristic model based on the nearest neighbor algorithm. With the use of proposed vending machine magement system unnecessary vending machine visits will be eliminated and cost savings will be achieved by reducing the travelling distance of service vehicle. Since the service vehicle will visit the vending machines which have signal information earlier, the lost sales due to vending machine failures and/or lack of product availability will also be reduced. As a result, the vending machine industry's operational efficiency and profits will increase without changing product prices, and the decision-making process's reliance on employee knowledge and experience will be reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We investigated how changes in 24‐h respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and substrate oxidation during fasting versus an energy balance condition influence subsequent ad libitum food intake. Methods: Forty‐four healthy, weight‐stable volunteers (30 male and 14 female; mean [SD], age 39.3 [11.0] years; BMI 31.7 [8.3] kg/m2) underwent 24‐h energy expenditure measurements in a respiratory chamber during energy balance (50% carbohydrate, 30% fat, and 20% protein) and 24‐h fasting. Immediately after each chamber stay, participants were allowed 24‐h ad libitum food intake from computerized vending machines. Results: Twenty‐four‐hour RER decreased by 9.4% (95% CI: −10.4% to −8.5%; p < 0.0001) during fasting compared to energy balance, reflecting a decrease in carbohydrate oxidation (mean [SD], −2.6 [0.8] MJ/day; p < 0.0001) and an increase in lipid oxidation (2.3 [0.9] MJ/day; p < 0.0001). Changes in 24‐h RER and carbohydrate oxidation in response to fasting were correlated with the subsequent energy intake such that smaller decreases in fasting 24‐h RER and carbohydrate oxidation, but not lipid oxidation, were associated with greater energy intake after fasting (r = 0.31, p = 0.04; r = 0.40, p = 0.007; and r = −0.27, p = 0.07, respectively). Conclusions: Impaired metabolic flexibility to fasting, reflected by an inability to transition away from carbohydrate oxidation, is linked with increased energy intake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vending machines, cafeterias, and street vendors are the main source of food in hospitals located in central Mexico. While previous studies in other countries have shown that most of the food offered in these settings is unhealthy, there is almost no information about nutrition environments in hospitals from emerging countries. Thus, the aim of the study was to understand the nutritional characteristics and compliance with the national Front-of-Pack Labeling Regulation (FOPLR) of food in hospitals. Results showed that food sold in and around hospitals is high in calories, sodium, and saturated fats, and did not meet FOPL nutritional recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research focuses on integrating Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the field of distribution logistics of consumables, specifically on the optimization of dispensing through vending machines in a corporate environment. The primary goal was to identify IoT-based vending machine solutions that increase the work efficiency and cost-effectiveness of consumables distribution. In the first part, this paper focuses on the definition of IoT, and its current trends and development over time. With the help of the authors, we define the key aspects of its use in practice, and we also focus on establishing critical security points. We evaluate its impact on the industry, where there is currently a great pressure for automation and robotization of production, as a result of which the labor market is experiencing a major transformation of job positions from executive to technologically creative ones. Using the performance measurement method, this study established key performance indicators (KPIs), which we then collected and, through thorough research, determined the basis for setting the future state. Using the method of technological innovation, we prepared prototypes of the vending machine, which were then placed at the customer's location for a 3-month trial period using the method of technological demonstration. During the trial period, key performance indicators were collected again using the performance measurement method, and we then evaluated them using the comparison method. The results demonstrate a significant reduction in the cost of consumables and a simultaneous increase in employee efficiency. These results underline the potential of IoT technologies in the field of distribution logistics for consumables. The research points to the advantages and perspectives of using the Internet of Things in the business environment, especially in the field of distribution logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues Addressed Methods Results Conclusion So What? Research suggests visual nudging techniques can subtly encourage healthier consumption. Two experiments explored the effect of four visual primes for nudging drink choices from a vending machine display.Participants (17–25 years) were randomly assigned to view vending machine advertising posters containing pictorial nudges of water, soft drink, general health (runner), or a text‐only control, for nudging vending machine choices. Participants then selected an item from a vending machine display containing drinks only (Experiment 1; n = 164), or both drinks and snack foods (Experiment 2, n = 684).In both experiments, nudging condition predicted beverage choice. Specifically, the water image nudged healthier beverage choices in both experiments. However, there was no effect on food choice in Experiment 2. Furthermore, in both experiments, liking and habitual consumption of chosen items were also significant predictors of choice, but condition predicted beverage choice over and above these.A water prime may be an effective means of encouraging healthier beverage choices in a vending machine environment.Findings have the potential to inform strategies for encouraging healthier beverage choices from vending machine environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to determine the compromised acceptance threshold (CAT) and the hedonic rejection threshold (HRT) for consumers of sweetened coffee to propose a strategy to reduce the sucrose addition by studying the behavior of consumers of sweetened and unsweetened coffee. From the sample that showed the highest acceptance (control sample, with 12% added sucrose), it was possible to reduce the sucrose addition by up to 18% without compromising acceptance (CAT = 9.76%) and by up to 52% without promoting the rejection of the beverage (HRT = 5.61%). Consumers who were reducing the sucrose addition exhibited a reduction in CAT (6.54%). Consumers of sweetened and unsweetened coffee had different perceptions regarding the sweetened beverage, thus, research involving coffee consumption should be segmented between these two groups. As a strategy, we suggest that the reduction of sucrose should be gradual and associated with information about its health benefits. Practical Applications: The results are relevant for those interested in understanding the habits of consumers of sweetened and unsweetened coffee and providing an estimate of the tolerance of consumers of sweetened beverages when reducing the sucrose content in coffee beverages. Considering the volume and regularity of coffee consumption by Brazilian consumers, these findings can contribute to the development of a strategy to reduce sugar consumption. This information also supports the production sector in developing ready‐to‐drink beverages, prepared by industries and coffee shops or available in vending machines, indicating that the concentration of added sugar provided can be reduced, as long as a sufficient amount is maintained not to impair the acceptance of the beverage. Additionally, the data are important for sensory analysis researchers, enabling them to better adapt coffee beverage tasting conditions to consumer expectations and, thus, obtain more reliable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curbside parking in a residential area may be induced by the presence of a public transport stop. Travelers may park their car near the stop and continue their trip to the city center by other means. This is called informal park-and-ride. The magnitude of the phenomenon is estimated by simulation. Parking demand is derived from the history of parking time (tickets) sold at vending machines. For each ticket, an activity location is determined by stochastic sampling from a buildings (facilities) database based on the position of the vending machine. The activity timing is derived from the parking duration specified by the ticket. Suitable parking spots for an activity are determined for the cases (i) drive-park-walk and (ii) drive-park-publicTransport-walk respectively. The generalized cost (based on money and travel duration) is determined for both options. The decision is sampled by means of a behavioural model. Several scenarios are considered and the results allow to evaluate the complaints issued by residents of a study area because microsimulation enables the generation of probability densities for parking occupation in such area in each scenario. This paper reports how the method is applied to a study area in Amsterdam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]