I learned a lot from writing this paper, I ended up having a long work cited page. Each competitor has at least two good aspects that I think can be applied to my idea. For customer research, I used IBIS World to see the trends in the vending market, and there ended up being a good amount of information about healthy food and vending machines. I also used a research document from the USDA called “Consumers Balance Time and Money in Purchasing Convenience Foods.” Based on the healthy eating index IBIS World found that people are starting to eat healthier. The USDA research said that people are not changing their eating habits without a significant increase in money. So this leads me to believe that people are looking to eat healthier but not to change their habits. I think fresh food vending machines solve that problem. It’s something they have been doing in Japan for over a decade and it’s a 60 billion dollar industry. My competitors realize this as well and have come up with lots of ideas to solve the problem. Such as an automated salad bar, recyclable glass jars that can be recycled back into the machine, using produce scraps to make other products, and using a grocery store partner to source goods. That is just a basic summary but there is more. I described my early adopters as students that will be a mix of environmentalists, activists, vegans, vegetarians, athletes, weight-conscious, gym-goers, trend-setters, full-time (work or school or both), creatives, and adventurers. I think it will be these types of people who will see the value in what I am offering.
