Free Vend Day

How much coffee, hot chocolate, and hot tea do you drink in a day? How much would you drink if it were free? How much would you jam down your gullet if it were free for nine hours? I found out my answer one day at work.


1994

My employer had numerous small ways to thank its employees. There was not always a specific employee, department or even task designated for which the company was saying thanks. There were periodically generic employee appreciation days.

One such appreciation day was Free Vend Day. Free vend courtesy of our employer! The vending machines that offered hot drinks was issuing its product at no charge for the whole day! This did not include the prepackaged items such as soda pop, milk, sandwiches, chips, and candy. Free vend was from the machines where the disposable cup drops down and you watch the selected beverage dispense from the machine filling said cup. Free all day long. Game on.

I was not one who ever engaged these machines. I’m not a coffee guy nor much of a tea guy. Hot chocolate, though, I’m good. But still, I just never made the purchase. But on free vend day I discovered the beverages to be absolutely delicious. At least the first several times I visited the free vending machines. Even late into the afternoon when it was no longer delicious due to overexposure I was helpless to cut off my patronage.

My cubicle neighbor and I were, and remain today, quite good chums. We’ll call him McBride. Every hour or so, “Hey, let’s go get a free vend,” he’d suggest. It wasn’t, ‘let’s go get a free coffee or hot chocolate’, but ‘a free vend.’ I offered no resistance.

I took down many free hot chocolates that day. I even tried a few coffees. By late afternoon the free vend had lost it’s excitement, but I couldn’t deny my buddy. Let’s go again.


Looking back it seems like a silly, yet smartly inexpensive, way to thank folks. Regular price was only $.50 per cup, I think. Regardless, I got my share of appreciation. Probably about four bucks worth.
-klem