Response Of Vending Operators To The Ethnic Market

Planet Antares vending operators on the lookout for ethnic products are more successful now as compared to a few years back. According to a survey, 90 percent of the vending operators believe that product suppliers are offering enough variety of food, snacks or beverages to meet the customer demands.

This is a great opportunity for those operators who understand the rising demand for ethnic products. As a whole, the industry seems to be slow to recognize the need to cater to this fast growing market.

Almost three-fourths of vending operators realize that their customer base is becoming more diverse in ethnicity. As reported by Planet Antares vending operators, the biggest gain was in Hispanic customers.

African Americans have also been cited as an ethnic group being served by a large number of vending operators. However, other surveys have indicated that this group does not possess any particular product demands.

While most Planet Antares vending operators recognized a gain in ethnic customers, only about 40 percent of all operators have reported success with the products targeted to these customers. This indicated the fact that only a minority of vending operators have offered these products to this group.

Positive results have been reported by the operators who have met ethnic demands. However, the challenge is to determine how much of the product mix should be geared to the ethnic audience when the customer base is mixed.

A large portion of the ethnic products have been offered in the salted snack segment, followed by food. The greatest product variety has been offered by this category for several years and snack machines have more facings than any other type of vending machines.

In the cold drink category, Planet Antares vending operators have also provided ethnic choices. As the number of ethnic customers continues to increase, vending operators will find it necessary to carry products that target ethnic customers.