BALTIMORE Upscale foods go on the vend

The Redbox machines have the backing of McDonald's.
BALTIMORE SUN
The vending machine, long the province of chocolate bars and soda pop, has gone upscale.
Look no further than the train station at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where a giant automated convenience store now offers commuters and airport patrons everything from portobello goat-cheese sandwiches ($4.95) to San Pellegrino water ($2.25).
"We want to break the mold of what vending is all about," said Mark P. McGuire, development director for Redbox, the brand name for the hopped-up 18-foot-wide vending machine. "Americans have a very set mind-set about what vending is, and it's generally not good."
McGuire says Redbox could change the world of vending, one goat-cheese sandwich at a time. There are three Redbox machines so far in operation in the country; the other two are in Washington, D.C., and Bethesda, Md.
What's available
The machines stock 140 different products -- some of them such typical fare as candy bars and others decidedly untypical, such as tampons (10 for $4.25) and toilet paper (four rolls for $2.45). There's also orange juice ($3.25) and milk ($2).
The company behind Redbox is McDonald's, but the Big Mac purveyor doesn't exactly advertise its association with upscale vending -- for understandable reasons.
When the first Redbox opened in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C., last year, some community activists loudly complained that they wouldn't let their grocery dollars go to McDonald's instead of the corner store. But that Redbox proved successful, so another opened in a McDonald's parking lot in Bethesda in January.
"People are more and more comfortable with the use of technology -- look at what ATMs did to the banking industry," McGuire said. "Some of the most time-pressed people are commuters, and this is an opportunity for them to save some time by buying products through automation technology."
Although more Redboxes are planned for the Baltimore region in the next few months, there are no immediate plans for nationwide expansion. McDonald's will wait to see how consumers in the test market respond to the machines.
Is it good?
Whether the $5 gourmet sandwiches and $3.50 carrot cumin soups will appeal to consumers is still an open question. One marketing expert said McDonald's must overcome the popular perception that products from a vending machine are inferior -- not to mention products from McDonald's.
A reporter bought lunch from Redbox, selecting the lunch combo (turkey and mozzarella sandwich, tomato and asparagus salad, chocolate chip brownie) for $5.95 and a bottle of Sprite for $1.25. The total was $7.20.
The meal was not bad. The baguette was a little soggy from the diced tomatoes, but the turkey was tasty and the mozzarella fresh. The salad was on the bland side and short on asparagus. But the generously sized brownie was moist and delicious. Buying the three items in a combo pack saved $4.45 over buying them separately.