小売業では、労働力不足を背景とした省人・省力化への対応として、無人店舗の設置や自販機の活用が進められていますが、自販機を活用する場合、自販機内の収納・搬送の仕組み上、商品は飲料や菓子、生活用品などパッケージされた定形品に限られていました。
Launching a vending machine with a refrigerated locker.
(PDF(206KB)) September 5, 2024
Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.
Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. will release a refrigerated locker-type vending machine that expands the range of sellable products and contributes to the reduction of personnel and labor in stores in March 2025, so we would like to inform you.
1. Background
In the retail industry, in response to labor shortages, unmanned stores and vending machines are being used to automate and streamline operations. However, when using vending machines, due to the storage and transportation mechanism, the range of goods is limited to packaged standardized products such as beverages, snacks, and daily necessities.
In this context, we will release a refrigerated locker-type vending machine in March 2025 that can sell irregular products such as fresh produce and flowers. It is equipped with cooling functionality and can also sell large refrigerated food items such as whole cakes and boxed sushi. We will target markets such as the retail and agricultural sectors which have not traditionally utilized vending machines.
In addition, as a service to support our vending machine customers' operations, we plan to gradually roll out DX (Digital Transformation) services such as real-time sales management and dynamic pricing.
2. Features
1) The storage room can be freely divided, allowing for sales of commodities in up to 40 rooms.
This vending machine can sell products in a maximum of 40 compartments by dividing the storage compartments using partitions. The partitions can be installed and removed by customers themselves, allowing for the free arrangement of storage rooms according to the size and shape of the products they want to sell.
2) Circulating cold air throughout the entire chamber with the optimal cooling structure.
Generally, vending machines circulate cold air generated from the cooling unit throughout the storage room to keep items cool. However, due to the change in layout of the chamber caused by the installation and removal of partitions in this product, a review of the cooling air circulation system was necessary. Therefore, a new duct circulation system was developed to send cold air from the back of the storage room without being affected by the partitions, achieving a refrigeration structure without temperature unevenness in each compartment regardless of the layout.
3) Products can be viewed through transparent acrylic doors.
For products like fresh produce, cakes, sushi, and flowers, appearance and freshness are important. To sell these products in vending machines, it is necessary to be able to directly see the condition of the items.
This vending machine adopts a dual structure with an outer door (insulated door) to maintain internal temperature, and an inner door (transparent acrylic door) to allow users to open the insulated door and view the actual products through the transparent acrylic door before making a purchase.
3. Main target audience
Restaurants, green grocers, pastry shops, farm produce direct sales stores, florists & garden centers, toy stores, etc.
4. Main specifications
| Dimensions (mm) | Height (H) 1,834, width (W) 1,294, depth (D) 620 |
| Storage room dimensions (mm) | Height (H) 195, width (W) 400, depth (D) 330 (Note: when not divided) |
| Number of storage compartments (rooms) | 10-40 |
5. Release start.
March 2025.
Reservations and sales will start from September 5, 2024.
6. Contact information for this product.
Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. Food Distribution Business Division New Distribution Sales Department.
03-5435-7077
The contact form is here.
(Note)
The information (product specifications, contact information, prices, etc.) contained in this release is current as of the announcement date and is subject to change without notice.