vending machines

I remember when I worked at GLC, the Executive Assistants used to re-fill the vending machine. And before they did, they’d empty all the change out of it so they could go buy more snacks. The method for removing the change was loud and time consuming. There was a mechanism inside the door that held coins, sorted by size into little columns. To retrieve the coins, you had to press a button, and a single coin would be released into a box. I thought this was ridiculous! Why wouldn’t all the coins be stored in the box? This was so inefficient.

So I looked up the model of the vending machine and downloaded the manual. The section involving the cash fill and retrieval mechanism described how to set how much money, in change, was left in the sorted section. This money was what could be used to generate change. The amounts were $50 or $100. The remaining money is filtered into the change box at the bottom to be collected as income. I printed out this page of the manual and gave it to the assistants. They couldn’t believe I read the manual. They also didn’t want to leave an additional $50 in the vending machine. That wasn’t really a process I was going to impose on them. I simply let them know how it was inteded to be used, and why the mechanism for removing the coins was some tedious.

I think they laughed at me.