Vending Machines in College Campus Selling AIDS Testing Kits
Recently, students of Southwest University were amazed by their school’s up-to-date vending machines which were selling AIDS urine testing kits. Many netizens were pretty impressed by this piece of news, saying that it was very considerate for the school to protect students’ privacy and control the disease at the same time.
According to the campus Hospital of Southwest Petroleum University, the distribution and retail of testing kits were a project launched this year by National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, China CDC in an attempt to promote the control and prevention of AIDS. This project is now being tested out in some college campus.
Standing on the side of Southwest University’s campus stadium was one of these vending machines with testing kits of white wrapping which read “Anonymous HIV Urine Testing Kits”. Even though the prize tag said “30 RMB”, the retail price of one testing kit was actually 298 RMB. The other 268 RMB was covered by social donation.
Mr. Li Shuwei Creating www.goi8.cn to Reshape Vending Machine Market
“In a broad sense, there will be 3 million vending machines in China by the end of 2016, including advertisement distribution systems, intelligent self-service terminals, large and small screen equipment. However, the number of smart vending machines is less than 40,000,” said MR. Li Shuwei, founder of www.goi8.cn. “We predict that in the next few years, the compound growth rate of China’s vending machine market will reach 20%-25%. The prospect is very promising.”
He pointed out that in general the relationship between conventional retail and online retail was eventually changing from intense rivalry to cooperation and coexistence. At this rate, physical retail would also possess its own value. Soon physical retail would be as convenient as electronic commerce. The difference was that physical stores can provide personal and immersive shopping experience which online platform was incapable to offer.
At the end, Mr. Li Shuwei stated firmly that in the next 5 years, conventional physical stores would surely win the battle!
He believed that no matter how popular e-commerce was now, physical stores would be the one who laughed last! Physical stores would not disappear, but adopt this change and adjust their business models. In the future, physical stores would still exist because they were needed by customers. It was certain that e-commerce would integrate with physical store, which was just a matter of time.
Smart Newsstand Distributing Newspapers, Magazines and Beverages on the Streets of Hangzhou
Recently, a fully automatic and self-service smart newsstand made its debut next to a bus stop of Southern Wulin Square in Hangzhou.
Every compartment of this newsstand contained a different kind of newspaper or magazine. To buy what you want, you just needed to move your finger and tap on the digital screen.
There were 3 payment methods, which are Wechat Wallet, Alipay, and coins. There was a beverage stand and a snack stand installed respectively on the two sides of the newsstand. Mounted on the newsstand was a large LED touch screen which provided residents with many convenient services, such as Wi-Fi hotspots, water and electricity bill payment service, phone bill prepaying service, etc.
Later, other services like the release of government information, etc would be eventually added to the newsstand.
It is not hard to find that China’s vending machine industry is striving for innovation. Whether it is the integration of functions or the variety of products, every latest development of China’s vending machine industry is unprecedentedly impressed, which is worthy of being celebrated by every insider.
China Int’l Vending Machines & Self-service Facilities Fair 2017 (China VMF2017)
Date: March 1st-3rd, 2017
Venue: China Import and Export Fair Complex
Contact Person: Ms. Eve Cheng
Mobile: +86 13560305370
Tel: +86 20-29188156
Fax: +86 20-82579220
E-mail: grand.ev@grahw.com; chinavmf@yeah.net
Website: www.chinavmf.com/en
