Medical Vending Machines

Found in public restrooms, gas stations, convenience stores, motels, outdoor recreation areas and many other places, medical supply vending machines offer a convenient, low-cost alternative to hunting down an all-night pharmacy. Packing single-use over-the-counter medicines, contraceptives and first aid products, these machines provide an essential service to customers as well as steady income for their operators.

The most basic medical vending machines offer 4 to 8 selection chambers, and are typically either wall-mount units or furnished with a space-saving stand. Elaborate, bulky units are generally not used to sell medical supplies; rather, the cabinet of a typical medical vending machine averages about 24 inches in length by 18 inches in width. Units are usually only a few inches in depth, depending on how many selection chambers there are, and how many products each individual chamber holds. As with vending machines designed for other products, medical vending machines can be configured to accept coins or card payments. You can also find units that accept bills and make change (which tend to cost more) or ones that don’t.

When shopping for a medical vending machine unit, keep in mind that manufacturers often charge for a unit’s individual components, rather than a single base price for a complete model. The cabinet itself is frequently sold at a fixed rate, with wall mounts or stands available for an extra charge. All reputable manufacturers offer solid customer warranties with their new products, so you should avoid purchasing medical vending machines that don’t come with at least a standard 12-month warranty on all parts.

Products That Sell in Medical Vending Machines

Once you’ve chosen the unit you want to purchase and have done your homework in finding a marketable, well-traveled area to locate your machine, all that’s left is to decide which products to stock.

Medical vending machine owners consistently report pain killers such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen among the top-selling drugs. These items sell particularly well in places where travelers stop to use the restroom, such as hotels and motels, rest stops and camping and picnic areas. Vendors can purchase single-use packets, containing 2 to 4 pain killing caplets, for individual sale to consumers at significantly higher rates than pharmacies charge. Customers are willing to pay extra for the convenience, and few people looking for immediate pain relief are going to forgo it in the interest of saving a few nickels and dimes.

Antacids and cold symptom treatments, such as nasal decongestants and cough suppressant tablets, also sell particularly well, the latter even more so during cold and flu season (spanning approximately November through March). Most vendors operate their medical vending machines like mini drug stores, offering a selection of products a person might look for in a pharmacy. To cater to a need that will always exist, many operators choose to include contraceptives as part of their product selection.

No matter which products you opt to stock, the industry’s track record shows that brand name products sell better than generic ones, so keep your machine stocked with the familiar names people trust, such as Vicks, Pepto-Bismol and Bayer. Remember, brand recognition is a low-cost form of advertising your vending machine; take advantage of the pre-existing popularity of trusted brands to help your medical vending machine garner more revenue.