Run a jerky kiosk in a shopping centre without staffing it
A kiosk in a busy shopping centre walkway has shoppers walking past all day. Paying someone to stand there eats the margin on a $12 pouch of jerky. Put Dispensed machines on the kiosk and let shoppers serve themselves.
How it works
- Order machines sized to your jerky pouch, from $250 AUD + GST each
- Set them up on your kiosk in the walkway, with power and WiFi
- Load them with pouches and put the QR code where shoppers can see it
- A shopper scans the code, pays on their phone, and the machine drops a pouch within a few seconds
Nobody needs to be at the kiosk to make a sale. Drop by to restock, not to run a till.
Why it suits jerky
- Build a customer list. Each sale records the buyer's email when they give one at checkout, so you can sell to them online later, with their consent
- Sells all trading hours. The kiosk keeps selling through bathroom breaks and the quiet weekday afternoons you couldn't justify staffing
What it costs per sale
Dispensed charges 5% (excl. GST) per sale. On a $12 pouch that's $0.60 + GST. There's no monthly card reader fee.
| Dispensed | Traditional vending machine | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront | From $250 AUD + GST per machine | $6,000–9,000 + GST |
| Card payments | $0.60 + GST on a $12 pouch | $660 + GST card reader, plus about $20–40 a month and about 1.5% per sale |
| Size | 20–50 cm per side, several fit on a kiosk | About 1.9 m tall and 395 kg |
See the full comparison.
Running it day to day
- Restock without an admin login. Staff open the store's dedicated restock link and update the stock count after their shift
- Know when you're low. The admin app shows stock and whether each machine is online. You get an email when a machine is out of stock or offline
- Add more centres. Each kiosk gets its own store page and QR code, all managed from one admin app
Good to know
- The machines need power and WiFi at the kiosk. Ask centre management what's available
- Customers pay by card on their phone. It doesn't take cash
- Check your kiosk licence with centre management allows unattended trading