For those who’ve been to the shopping mall near me recently, you could have seen new distributors, however not the human type.

They usually’re not robots, both.

These new mall distributors are, nicely, merchandising machines.

OK, Steve. Give me a break – merchandising machines, a brand new thought? It’s possible you’ll be considering, “I get sodas, sweet and chips out of merchandising machines on a regular basis.”

You are proper. The merchandising machine is many years outdated, however now there is a new twist.

For example you are heading out to the mall along with your iPod and may’t discover your case. No drawback. Once you get to the mall, purchase your iPod equipment proper from the merchandising machines.

Do not have an iPod but? That is OK – you possibly can by a kind of from the machine, too. You may get an iPod, iPod nano, or the brand new iPod Shuffle. OK, you could have hassle getting the iPod Shuffle. I used to be at The Parks at Arlington mall and checked out their iPod Merchandising Machine. All 5 rows of the Shuffle had been bought out.

Nearly each accent in your iPod is bought by means of these machines. On my latest mall go to, I noticed:

· Carrying circumstances

· Vehicle equipment

· USB energy adapters

· Arm bands

· Earphones/headphones

· Audio system

· Common dock

· Radio distant

· AV connection package

Principally the one factor you possibly can’t get from the merchandising machine is precise music.

Within the Dallas/Fort Price space, these malls have put in iPod Merchandising Machines:

· Collin Creek Mall (Plano)

· Hulen Mall (Fort Price)

· Stonebriar Centre (Frisco)

· The Parks at Arlington (Arlington)

· Vista Ridge Mall (Lewisville)

These programs are manufactured by Zoom Techniques, however I am positive there will likely be different corporations with their very own machines quickly.

Moreover not having to pay salespeople, one other profit is that the Zoom System merchandising machine’s stock might be monitored by way of the web, so the suppliers know simply when to return re-stock.

And Apple is not the one firm getting in on the act. Proactiv, a skincare firm has put in a number of of their very own merchandising machines. As of October 2006, Hulen Mall in Fort Price had a Proactiv merchandising machine.