november2023 - 36

had taken over more than the garage.
" We were constantly replenishing
our inventory, " Carl said. " We were
stacking product all over the place,
just to keep up. "
Five years in, the company
moved to its first 5,000-square-foot
warehouse. " We thought we had died
and gone to heaven! " Dean laughed.
" We had all the space in the world for
managing our inventory. We could
drive our trucks inside to load them.
We had a spot for everything. It was a
beautiful facility that we were so very
proud to be in. "
SURE AND STEADY
Like any business with three decades
under its belt, Quality Vending has
navigated the challenges of an everchanging
world. Trends come and
go. Technologies evolve. Pandemics
can happen.
" There's a balance in determining
how and when our company should
also change to meet the needs of our
customers, our industry, and our
world, " Dean said.
Carl recalls when selling bottled
water in vending machines seemed
like a radical idea. " I was like, 'Oh my
gosh, people are really going to buy
bottled water?' " Carl questioned.
Carl Miceli and founders Don and JoBeth Miceli along with son-in-law Dean Prather
outside their first dedicated warehouse.
Rather than impulsively jumping
on the hottest trends, the company's
approach has been to listen carefully
to what its customers are asking for.
When calls for office coffee service
(OCS) started brewing, it added this
service line. True to its sure-andsteady
approach, what began with a
simple one-pot setup, is now a robust
line of coffee services, including
single cup, espresso, and fresh ground
and gourmet offerings.
Similarly, the company introduced
cold food vending at the requests of
its customers, which led to one of the
largest segments of its business today.
" This service line proved to be an
invaluable asset during the
COVID-19 pandemic as many
essential businesses relied on our
offerings to keep their employees
fed and hydrated, " Dean said.
" If there is any facet of our
industry in which we dragged
our feet, it was the micro market
segment, " Dean said. " I'm not
embarrassed to tell people that we
were late adopters of the concept, "
adding that he and Carl were at a
NAMA convention in Chicago many
years ago when this new concept was
introduced.
" We walked out of that show,
looked at each other, and said, 'these
people have lost their minds. It's just
an honor box system!' We made a
conscious decision to not invest in
that segment - that we would let
everyone have fun with it until it
died, " Dean said.
As it turned out, demand for
Aaron Bowers, Quality Vending's warehouse manager.
36 Automatic Merchandiser * November 2023
the innovative convenience concept
continued to blossom. " We had
been sitting on the outskirts, paying
attention to micro markets, " Carl
added. " We realized that the day was
going to come when we would need
to include them in our offerings.
We just didn't realize it was going to
come as quickly as it did. "
november2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of november2023
