Safety first? Not when there are other boxes to be ticked… By Ian Reynolds-Young
Dave Ward’s recent blog post, ‘Why Is Vending Always The Whipping Boy?’, which you can read now on Planet Vending, has proved to have been ‘right on the money.’
The piece has attracted a significant, global response in favour of the N&W MD’s comments, but one response in particular is making hackles rise in the vending industry. Dave wrote: ‘vending is a soft target, but the removal of the (school sited) machines’ best selling products was a knee-jerk reaction that has achieved absolutely nothing in terms of introducing children to a healthier diet. If the vending machine doesn’t stock their desired can of coke, kids won’t shrug and say ‘ok, I’ll have a bottle of water’. Instead, they’ll buy their fizzy drinks at a nearby shop. That way, the school loses out on a sale to the local 7-11 and the kids are forced to leave the safety of the school premises to make their purchases.’
Those are our italics; you’ll understand why anon…
On LinkedIn, Alan A (whose identity is known to PV, but is being withheld), commented: ‘spot on Dave. Having worked for NAME OF COMPANY for 20 years, and seen many schools generate a great revenue stream from vending for many years both sides are losing out. It’s a two way street.
‘And as a parent whose son’s school had cold drink vending but had it removed, then had to take a phone call from the school to say my son had been knocked down by a car going to the shop to buy a bottle of Pepsi Max during lunch break…
‘Removing vending from schools will not stop kids buying fizzy drinks chocolates or crisps.’
‘My son was not badly hurt, but had vending still been on site, the phone call would not have taken place. It’s about time they all woke up and realised as you say that removing vending from schools will not stop kids buying fizzy drinks chocolates or crisps; they just buy it from the local shop close to school, so the schools lose and so does the vending industry.
‘Healthy eating starts at home not from a vending machine. The government would do well to encourage kids to play competitive sports more in schools, we may see thinner kids, who are out more playing rather than sat at home with the Xbox in front of them.’
Is it just me, or does this beggar belief? To tick a box that says ‘we’re doing our bit to make kids lead a healthier lifestyle’, this school – and who knows how many others? – is content to allow pupils to leave the sanctuary of the school grounds to buy items from local shops that once were sold in-house. As Tony Hancock once said, ‘bloody marvellous’.
* Do you know of similar stories? Please contact me: editor@planet-vending.com
