Steve Beale, Author at Vending Focus

Nothing beats the savory flavors and mouth-watering fragrance of a fresh pizza. Pizza ranks near the top of any list of favorite easy-to-buy and easy-to-make kitchen delights that can be either a meal or a treat. And can you think of any better food to serve at a party? You can’t beat pizza for convenience, but there's a new option in the vending world that takes that convenience to a whole 'nother level: enter stage left, the almighty pizza vending machine! The pizza vending machine has automated cooking procedures and times down to perfection, producing insanely good pizzas made by an auto-timed oven and a few robotic arms housed conveniently within a single vending machine. These 24/7 pizza parlors are the pizza-fanatics dream! Let's get into a bit more detail on this right away! Who invented the pizza vending machine? Claudio Torghele finished the first prototype machine in 2003. A former pasta salesman, Torghele realized that it was possible for a vending machine to make pizzas even more conveniently available. He has since gone on to make the Let’s Pizza pizza vending machine, a commercially available machine that cooks pizzas on demand in a few minutes. How does the pizza vending machine work? Up to 90 pizza bases are kept chilled inside; the machine adds your toppings and places the pizza into its oven. This takes from 3-5 minutes and produces a cooked pizza in a box through a letterbox-style slot. The customer does not see any of the cooking. In fact, you can see an example of this in the video below from Orchard Road in Singapore: There aren’t a large number of pizza vending machine manufacturers, and their products vary. You can expect the vending machine to accept cash or cards. Some pizza vending machines are pretty much what you’d expect when you think of the typical vending machine. They contain a number of pre-cooked frozen pizzas that are heated up for a few minutes and then dispensed. These are convenient but seem to be hardly much more than a microwave oven. The first and most interesting pizza vending machine is manufactured by Mr. Torghele’s company called Let’s Pizza. His unique invention enables you to feel like you’re your own pizza maker and dispenses a fresh, piping hot pizza in about three minutes in its own neat cardboard box. How does the Let’s Pizza vending machine work? You get to make your selection from a handful of pizza toppings and then watch it all happen.Flour is poured into a drum, and then a little bit of water is added to form a doughThe drum spins around to form the dough into a ball, which is then pressed into a pizza-sized discDelicious tomato paste and cheese are addedThe pizza slides into an infrared ovenThe baked pizza is packagedThree minutes later, you have your fresh pizza The price of vending machine pizza will vary according to ingredients and by manufacturer, but you can usually get a hot pizza for between $5 and $10. Can you get money back from a pizza vending machine? Pizza vending machines are usually serviced by the same companies that install and take care of other vending machines, so if there’s ever a problem you can call them to get your money back. You can usually find their name near where you put in your money or swipe your card, or else on the side of the machine. Can you start a pizza vending machine business? Yes, you can. The keys to making money in the vending machine business are to have good locations and to have more than one machine. You might be able to make money with a single machine, but you’ll need more than one – and the more, the better – if you want to run a successful business. The average person drops about $25.00 – $30.00 a year into vending machines, and the average transaction is less than $2.00. The typical vending machine grosses around $300.00 each month. You need to deduct the cost of purchasing and maintaining your machines, plus the cost of whatever you’re selling, any other overhead, and, of course, your taxes. How much is a Let’s Pizza machine? You should be prepared to invest more than $30,000 to own one of these outstanding Let’s Pizza pizza-making-and-vending machines. Are there pizza vending machines in Italy? Mama mia! You’ll find pizza vending machines nestled among the many other vending machines that are steadily gaining in popularity throughout Europe. Vending machine pizza doesn’t offer all the variety you can get at your local pizza parlor or in the frozen section at the grocery store, but what you get is fast and tasty. Conclusion Pizza vending machines are growing in popularity because they can conveniently provide customers with delicious food at a reasonable price. Some pizza vending machines use fresh ingredients and actually mix and bake the pizza. Others just heat up frozen pies. You can go into business for yourself by owning and then placing machines in your community.