How a downtown Vancouver apartment complex added a new amenity for its residents
Joan is the president of Columbia House in downtown Vancouver, which is an 150-unit low income housing apartment complex.
She reached out to me after using a Dash Vending Services machine across the street in a laundromat. She was impressed with the amount of options and the custom wrap on the vending machine.
When we first chatted, she explained that most of the Columbia House residents are elderly and the nearest grocery store is over a half mile away. I learned that not having some snacks and drinks on-site, especially on warm summer days, was inconvenient for the residents. Many of them didn’t own cars so going to a convenience store for a drink or snack usually just wasn’t an option.
Interestingly, Columbia House did have a vending machine in the building, but it was a clunky Pepsi machine that had been broken for 5 years. In fact, the operator had gone out of business in 2020 and never even bothered to remove the machine. Not only were there no drinks and snacks, but it was an eye sore.
“We’d previously had a bad experience with a vending company. Their machine was great but it was constantly empty”
What Joan wanted was a local, ethical, and reliable business to partner with to improve residents quality of life and restore a service that was greatly appreciated.
After verifying our business insurance coverage, we signed a 24-month contract and purchased a Futura snack and drink combo machine.
Our team is committed to doing the right thing, and we started by removing the broken vending machine and disposing of it at no cost to Columbia House.
We then created a sample load-out of drinks and snacks and had Joan approve the list.
Once our new machine was installed, the residents were thrilled. Not only did they have access to a plethora of refrigerated items like Coca Cola, Mountain Dew, Snickers, Twix, and Oreos, but 10% of profits are redistributed back to the community fund.
This money is ultimately used to treat residents to complimentary experiences. In the past, this fund has purchased group bus rides to the Oregon coast, hired local musicians to play for the residents, and covered the cost of potlucks.
“Outsourcing the installation, maintenance, and refilling allows us to focus on higher priority projects”
The residents are thrilled with this new amenity. I’ve had several come up to me while refilling the machine and thank us for supplying this service. We also regularly get requests for new items like red licorice and Nature Valley bars.
We pride ourselves on being responsive, keeping the machine filled, and operating with a strong sense of integrity.
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