Automated Vending News As we move through the first quarter of 2026, the self-service and unattended retail industry is fixated on one date: June 15, 2026. This is the “End Date” for the $848 million acquisition of Cantaloupe by 365 Retail Markets. While the parties initially aimed for a 2025 close, the FTC’s “Second Request” issued in late… Read More »
Service and Vending Much has been reported about new capabilities of self service equipment thanks to technology, but when it comes to vending, one maxim has never changed since the time Hero of Tesibus is believed to have invented a coin-operated machine to dispense sacrificial water in ancient Egypt: Service makes the difference. In vending industry parlance, “service”… Read More »
Vending and convenience services operators interested in bidding on government service contracts now have a free resource: a request for proposal (RFP) listing on retailsystems.org, (a technology website of the industrygroup.org and sister website of kioskindustry.org). State and local governments release requests for proposal on a regular basis. The RFP list includes: The title of each RFP contract… Read More »
Donatos Pizza taps Appetronix for robotic pizza Donatos Pizza, the pizza restaurant hain, recently opened its first fully autonomous pizza restaurant in June. Donatos and its sister company Agápe Automation partnered with Appetronix to bring the robot operated restaurant to life, according to a companmy press release. The new fully automated restaurant debuted before security in front of… Read More »
Smart Vending and Smart Kiosks The Swiss company transforming mechanical vending machines and kiosks into smart IoT-devices with patented touchless technology, AI-powered engagement and crypto-payments, builds on large new U.S. orders. Invenda makes crypto-capable, touchless, IoT/AI vending machines and kiosks. They just raised $7.5M — with Swiss retail heavies like Walter Huber and Phillipe Gaydoul leading. We’ll post the… Read More »
