Overview of Soda Machines

• Soda machines are electronic vending machines that dispense single-serving containers of soda for personal consumption. Soda machines stock either 20 oz. bottles or 12 oz. cans of soda and can hold larger quantities of product than other types of vending machines. Third-party operators typically borrow soda machines from large soda bottlers. These operators agree to only stock the bottler's product and promise not to put additional machines from competing bottlers in the same area. The soda machine operator can generally extract more favorable terms if he is operating in an area in which the soda bottler has poor product distribution and needs outside assistance.
  
  

Mechanics of a Soda Machine

• Diagram of a Soda Machine
  
  When a soda machine is installed in a new location, the operator first inputs the appropriate prices for each type of soda into the machine's memory system. The memory system is connected to the processing system, which is responsible for order fulfillment. All soda machines have separate slots for coins and bills as well as optical scanners to determine the amount of money inserted by the customer. Once the customer has paid, she chooses her selection by pressing the appropriate selection buttons on the outside of the soda machine. The selection buttons correspond to various slots on display in the soda machine, and the soda machine's internal processing system matches the pressed buttons to the slot containing the customer's chosen soda. The processing system then releases the soda from its slot, causing it to fall into the delivery tray at the bottom of the machine. The processing slot also calculates the necessary change, which the soda machine dispenses into the change slot. In addition to delivering the product and calculating change, the processing system keeps track of the inventory in the soda machine and notifies customers when a product is sold out.
  
  

Safety and Security

• Modern soda machines are designed to prevent theft of product and money. The inner workings of a soda machine are encased in steel, making the machine similar to a large safe. Additionally, the optical scanners are sophisticated enough to tell the difference between U.S. coins and foreign currency that is the same size, weight and shape. Every year, several people are killed when soda machines topple over and fall on top of them. In many cases, these individuals were tilting the machines to try and release containers of soda or change. Soda machines have unusually high centers of gravity, causing them to tip over if tilted slightly.