What’s a gum machine?

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Gumball dispensers are popular vending machines that dispense candy-coated rubber balls. They can be found worldwide and are profitable for operators. The classic design features a clear globe on a metal base, but modern machines use plastic. Consumers insert a coin and turn a knob to receive a random gumball. Some machines have obstacle courses for the gumballs. The first gum machine was released in 1907, and vending machines for inexpensive items remain popular today. Prices vary, with higher-end versions being more expensive due to their durability.

A gumball dispenser is a type of vending machine that dispenses gumballs, rubber balls covered in brightly colored candy coatings. Gumball vending machines are among the most popular of vending machines and can be found all over the world, sometimes as standalone vending machines and sometimes in the company of a number of vending machine choices. For vending machine operators, gumball machines can be used to make a good profit, because the unit cost of gumballs is usually very low and consumers can be enticed to pay many times that price.

Many people are familiar with the shape of the classic bubble gum machine, which includes a clear globe mounted on a thick metal base attached to a pole. Traditional gum machines had glass globes, while most modern machines use plastic instead, as it can stand up to heavy use. Some gum machine makers get creative with their machines, designing little obstacle courses for the gum balls to navigate as they exit the consumer’s hand.

To operate a gumball dispenser, a consumer inserts a coin and turns a knob, which allows a gumball or assortment of gumballs to be taken out. The number of gumballs dispensed is controlled by the company that owns the machine, which periodically refills it with gumballs and withdraws the money that is stored in the base. Because the dispenser is completely random, consumers never know what color of gumball they’ll get, and some companies turn it into a game, seeding a gumball machine with a small number of unusually colored gumballs that can be redeemed for prizes.

The first gum machine was released in 1907, about a year after gum was developed, and proved a popular success. By the late 1800s, a number of other candy and gum dispensers had been made, as well as vending machines for cards and small toys. The basic concept of small vending machines that dispense an assortment of relatively inexpensive items lives on in places like airports, variety stores, candy stores, and so on, and some offices also keep a bubble gum dispenser around for novelty.

The price of a gum machine varies. Some companies make low-cost novelty versions for people who think it would be fun to have one in their home or office. Higher-end versions are built to resist vandalism and theft and tend to be more expensive since they’re made of more solid materials.




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