COVID Sanitation

New Year’s Resolution: Keeping your vending machines cleaner

New Year’s Resolution: Keeping your vending machines cleaner 1040 661 GAD Vending

 

How to Clean Your Crane Vending Machine: Daily Cleaning and Disinfecting

As a distributor of Crane Merchandising Vending machines, we’ve learned how to clean, repair and maintain vending machines. Our route sales customers rely on GAD Vending for parts, reconfiguration and retrofitting cashless solutions.

3 Ways Vending Is Providing Safer Retail – The Social Distancing Hero

3 Ways Vending Is Providing Safer Retail – The Social Distancing Hero 372 254 GAD Vending

From our partners at CPI Crane’s Cashless Solutions Division: You might be surprised to learn that the history of the vending machine goes back to first-century Roman Egypt, where Hero of Alexandria engineered a machine that accepted a coin and dispensed holy water. In modern times we’ve seen vending machines offer everything from postcards and stamps to candy, gum and cigarettes. Their popularity as beverage dispensers came with refrigeration and heating elements – and today we see an astounding array of products sold from vending machines. Making your way to the gate at an international airport you might pick up an iPad, a SIM card for your phone, a down jacket, a warm hamburger, and an aspirin – plus a cold bottle of water to help you swallow it!

Responding to the social distancing imperative presents multiple challenges for retail environments. We’ve seen limits on the number of people allowed into supermarkets, one-way aisles, distance markers at the checkout, food bars emptied, cafés and breakrooms closed, and Plexiglass shields erected around store personnel. These and other efforts by retailers to keep customers and staff safe and limit exposure are appreciated by all. But ideally, customers could shop for their essential items without interacting with a cashier or even going into a store. And retailers can make the ideal, real, with vending machines.

How can operators use their machines—the ultimate unattended retail model—to serve to the needs of social distancing? Read below to see how 3 retailers have already adapted.

The Meat Guy Who Was Ahead of the Social Distance Curve

 

The owner of Applestone Meats was ready for social distancing years before the pandemic brought the concept into the mainstream. Wanting to serve customers without a retail counter-service location, Joshua Applestone remembered the coin-operated machines once used in cafeteria-style restaurants in New York and Pennsylvania. Applestone searched for and found Crane Merchandising’s refrigerated delivery system, The Shopper, which allowed his customers to pull meat packages directly from their container. And to be ready for card acceptance, he added the 4-in-1 Plus cashless reader.

Applestone customers liked the convenient delivery method well enough before, but after the pandemic? “We thought society might take a while to warm up to the machines,” says Applestone, “but for the situation we’re all in [now], they’re the perfect solution.”

From Healthy Snacks to PPE Provider

 

Healzzy2GO, a Netherlands-based vending company, believes that snacking should be accessible, fun, and most importantly, healthy. With the challenges of staying safe in a global pandemic, “healthy options” takes on new meaning. Healzzy2GO decided to make personal protective equipment (PPE) as accessible to their customers as healthy snacks. They worked with Crane Merchandising Systems to adapt their vending machines to dispense facemasks, hand sanitizer, gloves, and other personal equipment. Custom graphics and media were placed on the machines to educate consumers about the product offering.

The first Healzzy2GO PPE machine debuted in May, providing shoppers at the Alexandrium Shopping Center in Rotterdam and Hoog Catharijne in Utrecht the protection they need to shop safely.

The Healthy Machine Serving Frontline Workers

 

Farmer’s Fridge, a New York-based vending startup, gained popularity by providing vend patrons with healthy options like salads in plastic jars and fresh wraps, instead of the usual candy and soda. When offices closed due to COVID-19, many Farmer’s fridge locations saw a precipitous drop in usage. But, as they say, when a door closes a window opens, and in this case, it was true. Farmer’s Fridge saw a surge in usage in hospital settings – where cafeterias were shut down to limit spread of the virus. To meet the demand, Farmer’s Fridge added over 18 machines to locations that included Northwestern Memorial Hospital, New York Presbyterian and the Javits Center field hospital. Farmer’s Fridge also supported the efforts of front-line workers by adding more than 60 mini fridges that served complimentary meals in hospital break rooms.

Vending machines are typically a last resort for healthcare workers, but due to their value proposition of removing the roadblocks to eating wholesome, delicious food, Farmer’s Fridge is now serving fresh meals to over 30,000 workers per week at hospitals across the U.S. One surgeon at UChicago tweeted: “Thank you @FarmersFridge for keeping the trauma/ICU team fed during #COVID19.”

Vending Moving Forward

 

How does an industry so firmly rooted in serving sweet treats and soft drinks recreate its persona as the hero of a pandemic? “The Convenience Services Industry is uniquely equipped to assist the nation in this time of crisis,” writes Carla Balakgie, president and CEO of the National Automatic Merchandising Association, in a letter to the White House and U.S. Congress. Balakgie cited the unique distribution system of unattended retail as “the greatest source of ‘contactless’ nourishment” for healthcare workers. In other words, the machine invented by a man called Hero can now live up to that name.

Are you ready to adapt your machine to serve the needs for health and safety in these times of crisis? Ask a member of our GAD Vending team how you can make seamless and safe payment a part of your post pandemic vending strategy.

Back at the Office to a COMMON Coffee Pot? Gross. Try a Crane Coffee Vending Machine. Really? You’ll Love it!

Back at the Office to a COMMON Coffee Pot? Gross. Try a Crane Coffee Vending Machine. Really? You’ll Love it! 389 651 GAD Vending

Common coffee stations – with all the pots, creamers and sugars – is a single germy touch point of employees all day. And, let’s admit it, you didn’t miss the gross coffee station during COVID.

There is a simple solution. Get your breakroom a Crane coffee vending machine. If you don’t believe us – ask your GAD Vending rep to bring you a cup of coffee.

 

COTI FREESTANDING COFFEE VENDING MACHINE

Build a modern, hygienic coffee experience with the COTI free-standing coffee vending machine. With a large touchscreen and custom user interface, operators can engage users with a broad menu of fresh brew coffee beverages, while maintaining commonality with legacy vending machines for ease of servicing and cleaning.

  • 21” Full capacity touchscreen, with ADA compliance mode, to actively engage users
  • Extensive drink menus offering a variety of coffee, espresso, and tea drinks enabling operators to increase drink prices for higher ROI
  • Customizable beverage options with “Save my Drink” option to encourage return users
  • Reduced maintenance costs with 15-50% reduced cleaning time compared to competition
  • Flexible user interface allows operators to customize drink menu, drink names, and screen content and images, plus enable full HD video content
  • Integrates with other Crane Machines to provide a customizable, streamlined food and beverage portfolio experience

Looking at everything in the office to create a COVID free environment? Get rid of the manual pod machine. No more coffee pots that someone has to fill, clean and sanitize. And, you can get rid of all the common condiments – gone is the old creamers, sugar and powdered drink mixes. Gone is sanitizing the common break room counter between every cup of coffee from the pot. Gone is the unproductive morning coffee runs to some expensive coffee shop.

GAD Vending sells Crane COTI hot beverage vending machines in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Call us to try a cup from a Crane COTI vending machine.

Demand for PPE Continues

Demand for PPE Continues 739 544 GAD Vending

Make PPE convenient for your customers – whether in a break room or public area – people want and need PPE to continue to be out and about in the post COVID environment.

Offer essentials like disposable face masks, safety glasses, gloves, and hand sanitizer. Add contactless payment with a Crane tap and pay solution.

This Crane vending machine is already set with graphics and a configuration to add PPE to your vending line-up. Or create your own graphics, product mix and payment system. GAD know Crane Vending.

New at GAD: Micromarket Merchandizer Freezers

New at GAD: Micromarket Merchandizer Freezers 600 600 GAD Vending

With finding employees so difficult as people return to the office after COVID, many employers are looking for automated services to support their production employees. Micromarkets are a solution many employers are turning to.

A Micromarket is an automated food and beverage breakroom service area that is serviced by a vending route sales person. At set up, GAD Vending helps you design cameras, security and flow for social distancing. There are choices in vending machines, cashless payment solutions, profitability projections and product mixes to optimize your employee satisfaction.

GAD Vending offers complete employee breakrooms with microwaves, vending machines, condiment tables and freezers. GAD also sells ATM’s, coffee vending machines and digital background music.

New to GAD Vending are these freezer selections.

Habco SF28HCBXM

High Capacity, Froze Space Merchandiser™ designed for volume merchandising with premium impact and appeal. Wide format provides maximum LED illuminated merchandising in a robust, yet low energy package. Factory preset to -10°F (-23°C) for holding frozen product.
Call your vending route supplier or GAD Vending if you have questions about adding a Micro Market to your employee break area.

CoolBlu Cooler with Header Black Interior Propane

The CoolBlu Cooler deploys a world class control system allowing the user to use the cooler as a food cooler or beverage cooler. State of the art locking system is simply programmed to turn on/off through the control system. This eliminates the need for different types of coolers. CoolBlu can do it all.

NAMA certified, this cooler has built in Bluetooth Technology with the ability to track number of door openings, length of time the cooler has been without power, time between last power cycles and finally, the maximum temperature inside the cabinet. Telemetry is also an option with CoolBlu.

 

 

 

Covid-19: Crane Vending Machine Maintenance and Hygiene Tips

Covid-19: Crane Vending Machine Maintenance and Hygiene Tips 359 237 GAD Vending

As businesses across the Midwest slowly come out of lockdown, by necessity we now have to work out how best to handle tasks we may have previously taken for granted. COVID-19 has caused a rapid change in consumer perceptions of the devices around us, including vending machines. As the vending world adjusts to the new norms and expectations, as a company that is committed to safety from its origins, we wanted to give you some tips on how to restart your vending and OCS business safely.

Vending machines are very safe and here are the reasons why:

  • There is no need for human interaction when purchasing a drink or snack, machine surfaces and keypads are disinfected against viruses
  • Vending machine operators, fillers and technicians place food safety and hygiene as top priorities in their daily service, and are trained in both personal hygiene and protection against infections.
  • Touch screens can be used to remind consumers how to protect themselves from the virus and the importance of maintaining social distance in front of the machines
  • Single use cups are the most hygienic method of consuming a beverage on the go
  • Contactless payment with a card or phone is preferred by consumers because they don’t have to touch the card machine’s keypad
  • The products cannot be handled before being purchased unlike other retail environments such as supermarkets.

How do I keep my machines COVID-19 safe?

Utilize the machines’ touch screens to communicate to the user how to use the vending machine and the W.H.O health safety requirements. You can combine this with other communication channels commonly used in your organization or business. If your machines don’t have touch screens you can use the lower and upper photographic panels of the machine or appropriate spaces located in the payments area for pre-printed.

You can apply social distancing floor signs on the floor.

Which are the W.H.O requirements regarding health safety?

Users must keep the distances while waiting to use the equipment (at least 1 meter away from each user)
Use gloves and protective masks to protect themselves and the other users.
Leave immediately the area after the withdrawal of a drink or product and consume in another area

Hand sanitizer, gloves and mask are operator’s new best friends.

Before any filling or cleaning operation operators must wash their hands with soap and water, wear a protective mask and a new pair of disposable gloves. When operators are working on the machines must wash their hands often and thoroughly with soap and water, for at least 60 seconds. Carrying a travel size bottle of hand sanitizer makes it easy to disinfect their hands when soap and water are not available. We recommend to the operators not to touch their personal items such as mobile phones before/ while working on or stocking a machine. Phones and other objects used frequently should be decontaminated daily, using a 70% isopropyl alcohol spray or other disinfection method.

Make sure that your disinfectant solution has 70% alcohol (ethanol) or 0.1% chlorine-based (bleach).

Sources: I.S.S and W.H.O.

Which are the focus cleaning areas?

For touch screens/selection panels, it is recommended to use only isopropyl alcohol (with an alcohol percentage of at least 70%) and avoid other detergents that could damage the screen. Use a soft micro-fibre or lint-free cloth to gently wipe the screen. Dampen the cloth with water, glass or a screen lens cleaner to wipe the glass and dry.
Clean thoroughly the change-giver buttons and areas for inserting coins / accepting banknotes or credit cards.

Specific to Hot Drink Machines and OCS Machines:

Clean the cup catcher and drain pipe in the sanitizer solution. Rinse the components with clean water and dry thoroughly.
Wash the drip tray and grille thoroughly and sanitize using the diluted bactericidal cleaner solution.
Wipe clean cup stand and dispense area using a clean, damp sanitized cloth
Specific to Cold Drink/Snack/Food Machines:

Use glass cleaner and disposable towels to clean the glass inside/out.
Clean the front of monetary panel with a plastic cleaner. Don’t use ammonia based cleaners as it may cause premature crazing of the polycarbonate surface.
Delivery cup and Delivery Port must be cleaned inside out with a mild soap and water solution to remove any spills or residue. Don’t forget to wipe and dry.

How do I restart the machine after temporary shutdown?

The following instructions assume that your coffee machines has been switched off and inactive for an extended period.

  • Before starting on the machine, if a water filter is connected, either replace it or follow the filter manufacturer’s instructions on how to flush it.
  • Flush three (3) times the whole espresso system with hot water.
  • Place a suitable container under the dispense nozzles. Switch the machine ON and allow the machine to fill up and reach operating temperature.
  • Remove all the instant ingredient canisters and discard the old ingredients. Sanitize and dry the ingredient canisters and nozzles before replenishing them with fresh ingredients.
  • Remove the coffee bean hopper, discard all the beans and sanitize. Refit the hopper and replenish it with fresh beans.
  • Carry out a CoEx tablet clean.
  • Flush all pipework, mixing systems and CoEx brewer with fresh hot water using the internal service keypad.
  • Remove all mixing components and dispense pipes and sanitize them.
  • Clean and sanitize all surfaces inside and outside the machine including the door.
  • Refit all the mixing system parts, pipes and ingredient canisters.
  • Carry out another 2 system rinses.
  • Close the door, place a cup in the hot water vend position and vend four cups of hot water.
  • Test vend all drinks to ensure the quantity and high quality is as expected.
  • Your coffee machine is now ready for use.

The following instructions assume that your snack/cold drink machines has been switched off and inactive for an extended period

  • Thoroughly clean the machine and in particular the buttons, touchscreens and glass window.
  • Remove products and clean the interior shelves and dispensing area.
  • Check the stock for sell by dates. Replace products as necessary. If the machine was turned off and not refrigerated as normal, product quality may have suffered and need replacing.
  • Check the temperature is correct for the product range.

Crane Cleaning: Coffee Vending Machines

Crane Cleaning: Coffee Vending Machines 1053 643 GAD Vending

How to daily clean and fill canisters in the Crane Vending Machines: Cali, Coti and Icon.

Hands Free Pinball: Creative Thinking…

Hands Free Pinball: Creative Thinking… 1078 602 GAD Vending

May not be for every player but a bit of creative thinking makes this vintage pinball game hands free.

 

 

Stern Pinball Announces Mask Sales Proceeds to Charitable Causes

Stern Pinball Announces Mask Sales Proceeds to Charitable Causes 1000 1000 GAD Vending
As Stern Army locations and other establishments worldwide ease back into reopening, it’s necessary for all employers and players to practice safe habits while working and playing.
Facilities are opening in a careful and measured way to ensure a safe environment for all guests and staff and Stern wants to support those efforts by providing these additional safety measures in the form of these masks. Stern will donate a portion of the proceeds directly to the AMOA Coin-Op Cares Education and Charitable Foundation and to the AAMA American Amusement Machine Charitable Foundation.
  •  Features 3 layers of cotton with polyester front
  •  Comfortable and easy to breathe through
  •  A portion of the proceeds will go directly to charity
  •  Artwork by Josh Clay
$9.99
FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING on all orders over $50!

As We Open Up – New Cleaning Standards For Your Equipment

As We Open Up – New Cleaning Standards For Your Equipment 1707 2560 GAD Vending

While many of our vending machines, digital music and ATMs have been located in essential business – many of our customers are just opening up.

Don’t go it alone! Harsh chemicals will destroy graphics and parts. If you’ve been open during the pandemic, you should be using these guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting your equipment. If something is not addressed here, please contact GAD Vending for manufacturer recommendations for cleaning.

For all our route provides, end users, maintenance crews and service personnel – here are articles and video on the new level of COVID cleaning standards.

VENDING

3 Ways Vending Is Providing Safer Retail – The Social Distancing Hero

How to Clean Your Crane Vending Machine: Daily Cleaning and Disinfecting

3 Additional Ways Owner/Operators Can Keep Their Machines COVID Clean

Vending Machines – A Controlled, Safe Method to Provide Food and Beverages to Consumers – Part II

 

ATM

New! Hyosung ATM Disinfection Kits Coming Soon

DIGITAL MUSIC

Starting Up Your AMI Jukebox Post-Pandemic