Vending Dreams

Leave the regular snack-dispensing machines to yesterday; Allied Vending’s Vernon Tan tells Melainne Chiew about his bigger vision for 2018

- Melainne Chiew

TO CELEBRATE THE revival of an It watch of the eighties, Panthère de Cartier, Singapore’s Infinite Studios was transformed into a nightclub, with glamorous guests bopping to cooler-than-thou music courtesy of vocalist Emma Hewitt and Dutch trance group Dash Berlin.

In a dark lounge barely illuminated by a neon red sign, a crowd quickly filled the room to survey its gold-armoured vending machine. Stocked with mini bottles of Cartier-labelled champagne, it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill vessel of refreshments. Vending machines, after all, typically draw images of sugared drinks and salty snacks — quick, convenient, and dirt-cheap. This one, in contrast, was the queen of vending machines, dispensing posh bubbly from its glistening visage. Unlike other machines, which sends its product to the bottom, each bottle descended precariously from an elevator function to the sound of fancy whirs. A liveried waiter stood by to assist, as the line to the machine lengthened.

Working the configuration to accommodate the fragile glass bottles was a challenge for Vernon Tan of Allied Vending, who supplied the champagne vending machine.