I expect sticker shock at the gas pump, but the snack machine? When an urge for something sweet hit at 3 p.m on a recent workday afternoon, I grabbed a dollar and went to the break room.
Since the last time I visited the vending machine, prices had doubled on many of the chips, candies and cookies. In some cases, portions had increased. Gone was the slim pack of 75-cent licorice I liked and in its place was a movie-sized monster that cost $1.50 and featured 3.5 servings.
This was done, The Canteen Corp. explained in a note, after market studies and customer requests for Healthier Options (their capitals). We also supposedly want larger single-serve candy and snacks, which is Canteen’s way of explaining why the pretzel bag doubled in price to $1.50 and now is 3.5 ounces.
Canteen’s message also said the company wanted to provide us with a better Balanced Choices menu, shorthand for items marked with a cute little green leaf and containing 7 grams or less of fat, 250mg or less of sodium and 260 or fewer calories.
Sure it’s low-fat, but who really considers nitrite-laden beef jerky “healthy”?
All I wanted was my former balanced choice, a small, sweet or savory snack that cost under a dollar. I knew if I purchased the super-size candy I wouldn’t be able to stop after eating the suggested serving size. Many of the items that remain small and 75 cents are what my teenage sons used to call the “itos” food group: Fritos, Doritos, Cheetos. Classic junk food.
So what did I do? I went to the lobby and bought a saucer-sized oatmeal cookie at Starbucks. For $1.50. But at least it wasn’t wrapped in plastic and platitudes about healthy eating.
Later I called John Crews, district general manager for Canteen, for his view of the vending scene. His territory runs from Castle Rock to Fort Collins, and his mission is to keep 3,200 snack, soda and coffee machines humming.
He says his costs for products and transportation have increased dramatically in the past year. Talk about a sugar rush: Candy manufacturers have hiked prices 13 percent to 17 percent, Crews said. “We don’t get an explanation from them, but we know our fuel costs have gone up.”
As for what they stock, Crews says, “It’s kind of a guessing game.” Every six months, Canteen surveys customers at IBM in Boulder, one of its largest accounts. It also does phone surveys.
Healthy items are a big request, he says. “Ten years ago, those items made up about one-tenth of 1 percent. Now they’re 20 percent. But most people are still buying chocolate,” he says.
Crews says it is not cost-effective for the company to stock such items as Luna Bars. “You can buy them at King Soopers for 99 cents, but that’s about what I have to pay for them,” he says. “To maintain our margins, we’d have to sell them for $2.”
Crews said that despite Canteen’s efforts to keep the machines in the Denver Newspaper Agency’s building stocked with items to please the snack-happy among us, sales have dropped 15 percent. Part of that is likely because of the fact there are fewer employees in the building than there were a year ago, but the remaining ones also might be pinching their pennies.
Crews said a Boulder customer told him he no longer used vending machines because he can get candy for 15 cents a bar at Costco. “They sell it for less than what I pay for it,” Crews said.
Suzanne Brown: 303-954-1697 or sbrown @denverpost.com
