WSJ:
Long a cultural icon, the vending machine is fading from the American landscape.
The numbers are bleak:
Traditional vending machines disappeared from 134,000 locations between 2007 and 2010, according to the latest available data from Vending Times, an industry publication. Sales from vending machines sank more than 11%, to $42.2 billion in the same period.
Amid the changes, a new group of entrepreneurs is trying to build a new vending industry, outfitting machines with high-tech features, and filling them with live bait, prescription drugs, electronics and even art.
Photo from VCI, Inc. of Des Moines, Iowa who sell live bait vending machines.