A meat vending machine? East Sacramento butchery takes rare approach to meet demands
By Melanie Wingo
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SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — A butcher shop in East Sacramento is bringing a bit of sizzle to its sales model: They’ll soon offer meat products out of a vending machine.
East Sacramento’s V. Miller Meats takes pride in its brand of craft butchery, with particular attention paid to quality, freshness and connection to customers.
Wanting to serve more customers, with convenience and accessibility in mind, V. Miller Meats decided to test out the meat vending machine concept outside its storefront.
“It’s the same quality. It’s the same beef. It’s the same animals,” said butcher and store owner Eric Veldman Miller. “It’s the same ranches that we use, that we sell with confidence, every single day.”
Veldman Miller said, unlike typical snack or soda machines, his vending machine is built just for meat, and it will be able to fulfill customer orders even when he’s not.
He calls it a continuation of the butcher shop that’s ideal for purchasers who know exactly what they’re looking for or for whom precious time is at stake.
“You don’t have to talk somebody into buying ground beef. You don’t have to talk somebody into buying a ribeye,” he said. “If there’s a big long line and all you need is some ground beef, it’ll save you a little bit of time.”
Machine security is well-done, according to Veldman Miller, who explained the machine is locked in three places: It doesn’t hold cash; it’s extremely heavy and it’s wired to the shop’s alarm system.
“So any shenanigans are going to get alerted,” Veldman Miller said. “It’ll wake me up in the middle of the night and I’ll come down.”
Product freshness is also a factor. Everything placed and purchased is vacuumed-sealed and accounted for.
“Nothing will be in the machine for longer than seven days,” Veldman Miller said. “I can look at what’s selling, what’s not selling — what we need to rotate.”
Veldman Miller thinks this vending machine will meet customers’ needs and enhance their experience with the shop.
“Doing this, I didn’t want it to be a pain in the butt,” he said. “I just wanted it to work and I wanted to sell some more meat, and I wanted to be able to get more customers our products.”
If customers get hooked on the meat machine, V. Miller Meats may soon pop up in other places.
“We hope that this will be successful to the point where we can actually spread them out around town a little bit more,” Veldman Miller said.
A company called Applestone Solutions makes the machine that can live indoors or outdoors.
The machine is set to be up and running by Thursday.
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