Monthly Archives: November 2018

Healthy Snack Vending Machines

Trends and the Snacks New York City Employees Eat

Healthy snacks in New York CityDo you have any favorite snacks that you loved as a child but no longer eat? If you do, it wouldn’t be a surprise as many New York City employees no longer eat the same foods that they did as children. Besides changing palettes, changing food trends also influence which snacks people eat during their lifetime. In 2018, there were several trends including botanicals, transparency, sustainability, and indulgence foods that caused the preferred list of snacks to evolve yet again.

Botanicals

Edible plants and flowers with a variety of health related benefits are making an appearance in snacks and beverages in the United States. Some of the more recognized ones include ashwagandha (Indian ginseng), ginger, lavender, curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric), carob bean pods, chamomile blossoms, chia seeds, flax seeds, hibiscus, elderberry, and passionflower. To make it easier for consumers to use these botanicals when they aren’t already a listed ingredient, several companies have prepared and prepackaged them for individual use.

Transparency

New York City consumers also want to know more about what they eat and drink. It’s no longer enough to learn just the ingredients or how many calories are in something. In addition to information about the packaging, the number and type of artificial ingredients, and sustainable production, consumers want to know where their food came from and how it was handled along the way. Being able to know as much as is possible about a specific product helps potential consumers to feel a personal connection to their food.

Healthy snacks in New York CitySustainability

In regards to snacks and beverages, sustainability has expanded to include more than farming practices or land management. Today, it includes creating as little food waste as possible by using all of an ingredient. For example, if a watermelon is used as an ingredient, the rind and seeds are no longer thrown away. Instead, they are used to create new and interesting snacks and beverages. This process goes a long way to decrease unnecessary food waste.

Indulgence Foods

The category of indulgence foods includes exactly the type of snacks and beverages that it sounds like. High-quality, organic dark chocolate is a great example. When compared to a very inexpensive, highly-sweetened milk chocolate, consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Zs, will choose the high-quality dark chocolate. Reducing the amount of sugar consumed and choosing non-GMO, organic, and clean-label products are more important than decreasing the amount of fat or calories consumed.

Have you considered the impact that these trends have had on your New York City employees’ break room snack and beverage choices. If not, it’s time to let the healthy vending machine experts help you make sure that their preferences match their break room vending machine options. For more information about making the change, call Healthy Vending at 917.572.3671. We look forward to hearing from you.

Healthy Vending Machine Choices

What Type of Value Does Your New York City Break Room Offer?

Break Room options in New York CityTo be a sought after perk, a break room has to offer what current and potential employees are looking for, and today, that means understanding what New York City Millennials want. As of 2017, research by the Pew Research Center found that Millennials became the largest group of Americans in the U.S. labor force at 35 percent. Generation Xers got bumped to second place with 33 percent of the workforce.  

While the number of years between Millennials and Gen Xers may not be very far apart, many Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) came of age during the recession. For a variety of different reasons, the recession had a strong impact on Millennials and triggered a need to find value in what they purchase. Words that describe a product or brand and convey value to Millennials include “well-priced given the quality,” “reliable,” “high quality,” “trustworthy,” and “loyal to customers.” Next in line are words that indicate social responsibility like “fair-minded,” “ethical,” “moral,” and “transparent.”

Whether the product in question is a piece of clothing, a smartphone, or a snack or beverage purchased from a vending machine, value matters. So, how does this generational shift impact your New York City break room? Unfortunately, there is no single answer for all break rooms. To figure out what matters in your break room, consider the following questions.

Break Room options in New York City

Who was your current break room designed for, and what did they value? What do your current employees value? Does that match what Millennials value?

Was it Baby Boomers or Gen Xers? What was or is important to them? Do they still value the same types of snacks and beverages or break room environment? Depending on the age of your organization, your current employees might be those who the space was designed for. But if that’s not the case, what do your current employees value? Are they looking for healthy snacks and beverages that have a functional purpose? Does that snack need to be organic or be made with as few ingredients as possible?

The next step in this process is to see compare those answers to what New York City Millennials are looking for in the break room. Based on the results of the Pew Research Center study, most Millennials are looking for a welcoming, comfortable space that offers snacks and beverages which are well-priced and made with high-quality ingredients by companies that are trustworthy, transparent, and care about their customers. And that sounds like something everyone would enjoy.

Healthy Vending would love to help your New York City organization take the first step toward a high-value break room with delicious and healthy beverages and snacks. You might also consider adding a bit more value by offering the same vending machine options at a reduced cost or for free. For more information, contact us at 917.572.3671. We look forward to helping you increase the value of an important employee perk.