East Sacramento residents will no longer be required to walk up to the butcher counter to order their favorite cuts of meat after V. Miller Meats rolls out its new refrigerated meat vending machine this week.
V. Miller Meats opened its shop at 4801 Folsom Blvd., Suite 2, in East Sacramento in 2015. The business is a full-service butcher shop offering meat from the entire animal, from nose to tail, including local grass-fed, grass-finished beef and lamb, sustainably raised pork, and pasture-raised poultry, all of which comes from family farms around the state and Oregon. It also sells a variety of sausages, charcuterie and deli meats, as well as bone broth and soups.
Owner Eric Veldman Miller said the business has been working with New York-based Applestone Solutions on developing the refrigerated vending machine as a way to expand access to customers and extend the hours in which they can purchase items from the store.
"The contents are under lock and key and under a well-monitored environmental control. The customer will walk up, use the touch-screen menu to select their desired meat and cut and how much of it they want," Veldman Miller said. "The whole idea is to make our products a little more accessible so when we are closed customers don't have to go down to the grocery store."
Veldman Miller said all products placed in the refrigerated machine will be vacuum-sealed. Each item will come with a bar code and be scanned for weight and the date it was sealed. The information will then be uploaded to software that can be accessed by an iPad in the main office that will show how long the item has been in the machine and when it needs to be sold or replaced. Veldman Miller said regulations require the items to be replaced after 14 days, but they've set up a parameter that will see the shop replace items after seven days to help ensure freshness.
The system has also been wired into the shop's alarm system. The vending machine will only take cards and will not accept cash. The touch screen has also been reinforced. In total, the machine costs approximately $14,000, Veldman Miller said.
"We hope people see this as an added value to our local community," he said. "People can shop on their own schedules. I think that's the biggest thing for us, especially because of staffing and labor costs and all those things as a small business owner that we deal with to no end. We'd love to keep the shop open until 8 p.m. or open at 8 a.m. seven days a week, but there's just no way."
The refrigerated meat vending machine is expected to begin operating in front of V. Miller Meats either late Wednesday or Thursday. Veldman Miller said he plans to upload a video on the business's Instagram page showing how to navigate the new system once operational.
If the machine proves to be a success, Veldman Miller said the business will consider adding more vending locations around the area to further expand access to its products.
