The total number of installed automatic vending machines in 2010 is estimated to be 5,186,950, decreased by 0.6 percent compared to the previous year. The market has been in a decreasing trend since 2006, due to the decreased number of installed automatic vending machines for cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, in addition to the saturation of automatic vending machines for non-alcoholic beverages which account for 40 percent of the total. The decreasing trend is expected to continue in the future as well, with the estimated total number of installed automatic vending machines to be 5,149,850 in 2011, decreased by 0.7 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In the past, products were sold on the automatic vending machines at the list prices without any price discount. Recently, however, automatic vending machines with discounted products, such as 100 yen or 80 yen per bottle of beverage are increasing. The installation of automatic vending machines with discount products started to spread in Kansai area, then beginning to penetrate into Kanto area as well, becoming to be a threat to leading beverage producers and suppliers. In the background, there are ever toughening competitions with the other sales channels, and the emergence of independent automatic vending machine operating companies, freed from the constraints of established product distribution channels and pricing.

Further, in order to differentiate from the competitors and to improve corporate image, automatic vending machine manufacturers are working on the enhancement of environment-friendly vending machines and philanthropy-oriented automatic vending machines which may include functions such as providing products free of charge in case of disaster, LED panel for emergency messaging, provision for donating a portion of product price to environment protection and other social activities.