Central MN Meat Market Introduces 24/7 Meat Vending Machine

MEATY PROBLEMS

You're on your way to lake for the weekend -- but you're running late. You're not going to get to the meat market before they close.

No problem.

You're hankering for some tasty meat sticks, but the store's not open this time of night.

We gotcha.

You'd really like to toss some wild rice brats on the grill -- but you forgot to pick them up and it's a holiday.

Relax -- you're covered.

That's because McDonald's Meats in Clear Lake has just fired-up a new service: a state-of-the-art meat vending machine available around the clock.

Why?

"Because we can't be open 24 hours a day," co-owner Jennifer Dierkes laughed.

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TIMELY SOLUTIONS

Dierkes and her business partner Travis McDonald have just rolled-out a brand new way to shop for their products.

Their new vending machine system takes up most of a brand new entry vestibule area that was included in last year's store expansion.

The vending machine is really a freezer unit and three refrigerator units all tied together with a computer touchscreen ordering system and credit or debit card processing.

Dierkes says the vending machines have been in the plans for a while.

"I'd seen them years ago at some of our conventions and I thought this would be a great thing to have at our location."

"People driving by, I'd get comments all the time -- 'I wish you were open later.' And now we're able to bring some products to them 24/7."

TOP PRODUCTS

Dierkes says they sell about a thousand products in the store. And now their most popular products will be available all the time. And they're the same price as they are inside the store.

"There's about 80 items in here -- which is still a lot for vending machines. But of course when you have over a thousand items, 80 isn't too many. But it's 80 of our most popular items."

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That includes meat sticks, jerky, bacon, hot dogs, brats, summer sausage, salmon, pork chops, pork sausage, Italian sausage, ground beef patties as well as other meat products.

But at this point, the product list is a work-in-progress.

"I'm figuring out which products people are looking for on a regular basis," Dierkes laughed. "Of course, I'm sure all customers would tell me to put everything I could in here, but we're going to go with the top ones and try to figure out which combination. Is it the travellers who want snacks or is the people who want meals for the evening?"

INVESTING IN HIGH-TECH CONVENIENCE

The vending machines are an investment for McDonald's Meats, and it wasn't cheap to put in. But Dierkes believes the convenience of it will help existing and future customers.

"This is the first of its kind in the United States where there's the frozen connected to the three refrigerated because that's the largest footprint available as a standalone."

The system is from Europe and took a while to ship, install and get up-and-running.

"This is German technology as most good meat stuff is," Dierkes giggled.

"I'm excited for people to come in and see it," Dierkes said. "I hope people get a kick out of it."

In the vending area is a notepad and pen for people to leave their ideas.

"I'm open to suggestions. I'm interested to hear what people -- the people that are going to stop by and use that -- interested to hear what they have."

McDonald's Meats is located at 8601 Main Street in Clear Lake. The meat vending machine is open now.