by KYW’s Mike DeNardo
Thirsty, but don't have enough change for the vending machine? Starting this week, some local Coke machines will begin accepting plastic.
Over the next month and a half, 1,000 Coke machines in the Philadelphia-South Jersey area are being retrofitted with credit card readers.
Maeve Duska with USA Technologies in Malvern -- the company that makes the reader -- says more customers are likely to buy a $2.00 energy drink if they can pay with plastic:
“People are purchasing more items and are able to purchase more expensive items when they're using their credit card, because most people just don't have that kind of change banging around in their pockets. So it definitely does increase potential for sales.”
Duska says the Philadelphia Coca-Cola distributor is staging the industry's largest rollout of cashless vending so far.