1st Hypothesis:
time of the day, meaning they do not have the time to go to
a convenience store or may not wish to be bothered talking to
store clerks.
Consumers are increasingly demanding faster services at
every minute.
2nd Hypothesis:
People may not wish for others to know which sanitary products or
embarrassing items they purchase. People may feel more
comfortable dealing with an impersonal machine and would rather
make such purchases through a vending machine.
The reasons for the usage of vending machines
I carried out a questionnaire asking people for the reasons why they use vending machines and the reasons are the followings:
a) it is more convenient to buy a product from a vending machine
b) convenient location wise
c)convenient time wise
d) certain products can only be bought via vending machines
e) there is no need to talk to a store clerk
f) drinks from the vending machines are often colder or hotter.
I interviewed 40 people and asked them for the reasons they use vending machines.
It turned out that all of them use vending machines because of their convenience.
So I also asked if the convenience due to the location or time wise and more people said the convenience was due to the location.
For example, one girl said “I use vending machines because of its location. I do not have to go all the way to school canteen in order to purchase a drink and there is no need to line up to buy a drink.
Vending machines are located near classrooms.”
Other reasons why people use vending machines were that certain products can only be bought via vending machines, there is no need to talk to a store clerk and drinks from vending machines are often colder or hotter.
The interesting thing I found through this questionnaire was that only products they want to buy can be purchased through a vending machine. One girl said “I use vending machines because I have only seen my favourite drink to be sold on vending machines and have not seen it to be sold anywhere else.”
I found several drink and cigarette vending machines located just outside a convenience store and this shows there is a demand for vending machines suggesting some people do not want to have a face to face contact.
I was surprised that the reasons did not include that people may not wish for others to know which sanitary products or embarrassing items they purchase.
I asked people I interviewed if they have bought something they do not want others to know through a vending machine and all of them said no.
This maybe because I only carried out a questionnaire within ICU community and there is no such vending machines located in ICU or near ICU.
