Never Purchase Pop or Candy from a Vending Machine Again.

November 15, 2007 By Matthew Paulson

Pretty much everyone has a sweet tooth and enjoys a delicious Snickers, Hershey’s, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups every now and then. Of course these food items have no nutritional value, but they sure taste good, and it can’t hurt once and a while. When we purchase pop and candy, we usually do it very impulsively, often from a vending machine at work or school. Although they’re rather convenient, vending machines are the single most expensive way to purchase pop and candy and often you’ll receive stale products which have been sitting there for months on end!

$0.75 for a candy bar and $1.25 for a 20 oz soda doesn’t seem like a ton of money up front, but when we consider it to the prices we can get from a typical grocery store, it boggles the mind as to why we pay so much for our favorite snack foods inside vending machines.

When you purchase soda from a vending machine, you’re probably paying around 6.25 cents per ounce for your soda. Many grocery stores have a deal where you can purchase six 24 oz sodas (usually all standard Coke products) for just $2.50 or $2.65 after sales tax in South Dakota. At this price your soda is still in a nice bottle that you can carry around with you and bring to work, but now you’re only paying 1.84 cents per ounce! When you purchase soda out of a vending machine, you’re easily paying three times what you should be if not more!

What about candy bars? Usually I can find a deal where the grocery store will sell 6 full-sized candy bars for $2.00, or 33.3 cents per each candy bar. That’s a lot better deal than the $0.75 you’ll typically pay at a vending machine these days!
Depending on who fills your vending machine, the candy you receive from your vending machine might sit there for months. Unless it’s frequented on a daily basis by most everyone in the office, some candy bars can sit in a machine for months if the vendor doesn’t make it a very clear point to make sure the dates on the candy bars are good. Nobody likes to fork over $1.00 for a snack and only to have it be hard, stale, and taste like crap.

Vending machines sure are convenient and a way to satisfy an impulsive hunger desire, but they’re still a rip-off. If you do some careful planning and bring some soda to work or school with you, you can get higher-quality snack food for a lot less money.

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