Gas prices driving up vending machine prices

As a customer stood in front of a vending machine in Columbia Thursday, he noticed the price of a soft drink and shook his head. “What’s a dollar worth any more, about a nickel?“ he asked. The price of a soda is now $1.35 at that machine, up from $1 recently. The rising cost of gas is now hitting vending machines everywhere.

Brenda Kemp, with vending company Atlas Food Services, says there are two reasons for the big increases customers are seeing. First, it’s costing vendors a lot more to operate the trucks that keep the machines full of your favorite snacks. Atlas runs 10 to 15 trucks out of its warehouse in Columbia.

“They fill up every day,“ Kemp says. “We’re looking at a tank that used to be $80 has gone up to over $200 (for a) fill up. So you’re talking about literally thousands of dollars in fuel costs to operate these trucks to go out to these accounts and fill these vending machines.“ 

The second reason is that suppliers are also raising the prices on their drinks and snacks. Non-diet soft drinks, for example, use high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. The price of corn is way up because of demand for it to be used to make ethanol, which means sodas that used to cost $1 for a 20-ounce bottle will now cost you $1.25, on average.

Kemp says chips, crackers and candy bars have gone up by 10 to 20 cents, in most cases.

The higher prices are causing some people to pass the vending machines by, with vending operators saying sales are down 25 percent over last year. In a business with a profit margin of a few pennies on a 75-cent candy bar, the higher prices and lower sales are frightening. “Everybody’s worried,“ Kemp says. “We’ve already seen vending companies go under.“

She says, for her company, the price increases you’re seeing at the vending machines are strictly the price increases from suppliers. “We’re not trying to make a profit or anything right now. We’re just trying to maintain right now so that we’re in a position that, hopefully, when we do get a relief from gas prices, we’ll still be here,“ she says.