One of the nation’s largest pharmacies has announced plans to release touchscreen-controlled health and wellness vending machines in select locations. The new vending machines won’t provide the same sodas and high-calorie snacks you find in traditional vending machines, however. Instead, they’ll feature healthier snacks as well as personal care products and necessities. The general idea is to provide a higher level of convenience to consumers by providing them with essential products that they can buy straight from a vending machine.
Some of the products you’ll be able to purchase through CVS’ new health and wellness vending machines includes over-the-counter drugs, shaving cream, deodorant, makeup remover, vitamins, supplements, eye drops, first aid, antiseptic cream, bandages, healthy snacks, bottled water, batteries, phone chargers, earbuds, lint rollers and more. CVS says that it’s planning to roll out the first 25 vending machines in New England and New York by the end of October. Some of these vending machines will include high-traffic areas like LaGuardia Airport, college campuses and bus terminals.
When speaking about the new vending machines, the company explained that it’s always looking for new ways to “combine convenience and innovation.”
“We are always looking for new ways to combine convenience and innovation to help better serve our customers,” said Judy Sansone, Senior Vice President of Front Store Business & Chief Merchant at CVS Pharmacy. “Our new CVS Pharmacy vending machine program allows us to extend that convenience beyond our brick-and-mortar locations to offer customers on-the-go essentials in the locations where they often need them most, like airports, hotels and other transportation hubs.”
In terms of technical specifications, the new CVS health and wellness vending machines will feature a 22-inch multi-touch display that’s capable of producing high-resolution images with product information and QR code reader support. What does multi-touch mean exactly? Basically, it means the vending machines will support input from two or more simultaneous points of contact. Touchscreen devices that feature multi-touch input support a greater number of commands, simply because you can control them with two or more points of touch. Pinching the screen in, for instance, may zoom in on the selected area, whereas pinching the screen out may zoom out. Devices lacking this feature can only be controlled by one point of contact; thus, restricting their utility.
What do you think of CVS’ new health and wellness touchscreen vending machines?
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