Vending machines are placed in schools throughout the United States, elementary, middle, high schools and colleges. These machines offer up a variety of fare ranging from nuts, to hard candies, candy bars, sodas, juices, chips, cookies and various breakfast items of burritos or a biscuit in which these must be microwaved. With the availability of these vending machines comes an unbalanced list of pros and cons.
Today is a busy time and the world demands as much time as we can give it and we never seem to have enough so in our hustle and bustle time we grab what we can eat, enough to get by on and for those in school this usually means a vending machine. Vending machines provide a quick snack that can be eaten on the go and many times when in classes. A quick drink can be bought when water isn’t desired, a quick pick me up to tide you over until you get a real meal. These are some of the pros but depending on what is available in those machines may turn this pro into a con.
Foods that have no real nutritional value are always a con. Our world has taught us that junk food is ok and by habit we treat vending machines like a fast food stop. This in turn cannot, in anyway help our overall health or diet. This is akin to preventing the healthy diet. Unhealthy eating can lead to worse case diabetes, continued obesity and teeth
decay in general. A pro to combat this is to put healthier foods, snacks and drinks in these machines. Time saved for the consumers can also be considered a pro as well as the economic profit to the distributor. We all know of people who have lost money in these machines from time to time and any time one loses, generally that isn’t a pro of anything.
If you are starting a business that involves vending machines you need to weigh the cost versus the overhead and they types of food you will fill your machines with; will they be healthy or considered as junk. Market trends need to be taken into account. The bottom answer is who are you? Are you the vendor or the consumer, what do you want to eat versus what you should eat, what do you sell and of all of this which holds the higher value of pros.
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My opinion on vending machines vary. I don’t think they belong in elementary school and maybe they don’t even belong in middle schools. If vending machines are to be placed in the schools then they need to promote a healthier fare. This will go along ways to helping our society in learning good habits. Maybe in some small way, vending machines can also help to teach students the value of a dollar when they are missing the 25 cents for what they want. Then again, if there are no machines available and the students have nothing but school lunches to eat, this can help alleviate some of the more picky eaters.
It is a balancing act of many proportions and if the vendor can find the good balance between promoting healthy eating habits and todays market trends then there may be a niche good for the students of schools.
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References
Finklestein, Eric. Pros and Cons of Proposed Interventions to Promote Healthy Eating (2004) http://www.activelivingbydesign.org/fileadmin/template/documents/Finkelstein_procons.pdf
