Bulk Vending: The History of the Candy Wheel
The sale of unsorted items selected in random is called bulk vending. This type of vending is a subcategory of full line vending representing about a percent of the vending industry. Bulk vending goes as far back as the early 1880s when the very first vending machine appeared in the UK. A few years later, bulk vending was introduced in America. The first ever product sold by these machines were Tutu fruitti gums. The products sold later on evolved to round gumballs and then expanded into vending matchsticks until there were already empires built by vending machines.
Bulk vending today usually means selling confections i.e. candy covered chocolate balls, gumballs, and nuts. In the 1950s, however it was associated to gambling because the United States Treasury Department at the time felt that gambling excise taxes should be imposed on those who own bulk vending machines. This was mainly because of the premise that consumers do not actually know what the vending machine will dispense since it dispenses an assortment of confections one by one.
Later on, vendors started installing display windows so that consumers will see what will be the next item to be dispensed by the machine. This however was short-lived. Bulk vendors then founded the National Bulk Vendors Association to lobby against the gambling excise taxes proposed by the US treasury. Bulk vendors reasoned that all the items inside the vending machine are of the same price or value so getting whatever the machine will dispense is what your money is worth.
For consumers, purchasing a candy or a gumball from a candy wheel is something very simple. You just have to place a coin in the machine, turn the knob and you get your candy. Bulk vending is highly profitable because anything that is bought by the bulk can be sold triple the price a piece, sometimes even more. Bulk vending machines are not outrageously priced either as compared to machines that dispense soft drinks or snacks, making bulk vending a win-win.
