The world in the 21st century is fighting to get over the age-old stigma associated with menstruating women. Today women’s personal health and hygiene are taking center stage.
A Sanitary napkin vending machine is one such positive step in the direction to ensure women’s convenience to access sanitary napkins.
A vending machine that dispenses sanitary napkins is called a sanitary napkin vending machine. Such a machine can function to dispense sanitary napkins for menstrual needs on a day-to-day basis.
With poor access to and awareness of menstrual care, a vending machine becomes a cost-efficient way to dispense napkins. It brings convenience closer to women, even outside the comforts of a home. In crowded public places like airports, bus stops, schools, or ladies’ toilets, these vending machines are not just important but lifesavers for women during their period.
How does a Sanitary Napkin Vending Machine work?
Like any other vending machine, a sanitary vending machine is like an automated shop, mostly 24*7. Its functioning has been discussed here:
- The first step of delivering sanitary napkins starts by loading an adequate number of sanitary napkins inside the dispenser.
- A power connection is the second need for the installation to be complete. Specific machines can run even without a constant electricity supply, based on batteries, etc.
- The purchasing process begins at coin insertion. The price per napkin for any vending machine is pre-determined. It is to be paid through this inlet before the customer gets a napkin.
- An in-built sensor system accepts the money and starts the mechanics through a motor unit.
- Another sensor at the final outlet ensures that the napkin is then dispensed out from the machine at the “collect here” delivery point or the dispensation window.
As you can see, installing as well as using a sanitary napkin vending machine is extremely easy.
No wonder, entrepreneurs’ interest in this field is increasing significantly. Moreover, this also gives them a chance to entrepreneurs to invest in a field that can bring positive social change in the world around them.
Benefits of a Sanitary Napkin Vending Machine:
A sanitary napkin vending machine is not just a profitable business option but also an arena to contribute to one’s society. Here are some of the benefits of sanitary vending machines.
1. Women’s Empowerment
Even in the 21st century women are hesitant to go to schools and colleges, once they start menstruating. Even if they go to school, their attendance gets affected when they choose to skip school during their periods.
In this situation, installing a sanitary vending machine within schools not only improve girls’ enrollment ratio, their productivity but also attack the stigma associated with menstruation.
2. Addressing the Urgency:
Many working women face extreme hassle when they get their periods at the workplace and they are not prepared for the same. A vending machine that dispenses sanitary napkins can meet the urgent need for sanitary napkins anytime anywhere.
3. Ease of Access:
The readily available sanitary napkins mean greater accessibility. It ensures that every woman can get one for her needs.
4. Cost:
Sanitary napkins delivered at lower costs begin from a vending machine dispensing them. Use as many as you need at a pre-determined cost. A government collaboration of entrepreneurs can also result in a much more profitable venture.
5. Technological interface:
The absence of any human intervention and the self-service arrangement makes the act of buying a sanitary napkin more convenient for a lot of women.
6. Breaking the taboo:
Vending machines can bring more normalized acceptance towards matters of menstrual hygiene. Women’s needs find acknowledgment through its installation in public places.
Hence, sanitary napkin vending machines answer multiple problems of women in one go. Such a utility-based service started as a gender-sensitive movement in India. The sanitary napkin vending machine culture has the potential to bring a massive difference in menstrual hygiene practices and care.
Things to keep in mind while installing a Sanitary napkin vending machine:
A few factors that an entrepreneur can keep in mind while installing a vending machine have been discussed below.
1. Suitability Of Location
This is the first and foremost factor for installing sanitary napkin vending machines. An appropriate location can increase sales inevitably. Whereas, choosing the wrong spot can kill all the possibilities of sale.
Public washrooms, schools, and offices can be suitable locations for dispensing sanitary napkins to women. However, these machines are unlikely to be very profitable in heavily crowded market areas or open restaurants.
2. Regular Refills
Another important consideration is that your vending machine remains stocked at all times. This ensures reliability and trust in the machine.
3. Quality Assurance
General accessibility of low-cost napkins should not mean compromised quality. It can defeat the entire purpose of such a machine if women do not find the sanitary napkins dispensed by it to be of good quality.
4. Consumer Coverage
To adequately address the demand for sanitary napkins, scaling is very crucial in this business. These machines should be extensively installed given their permanent demand as well as to tackle the taboo associated with menstruation, in general.
In a lot of ways, an understanding of sanitary napkin vending machines is as relevant to businesses as it is to consumers. It is a small step in the right direction, with a long way to go. Menstrual hygiene is a pertinent matter with deeper results.
Conclusion
A sanitary napkin vending machine s a way of acknowledging the presence of women in public spaces, which till now has been negligible and often invisible. This self-service mechanism can assist women in conveyance and encourage their movement outside their domestic roles.
Therefore, vending machines are not just a business but a movement to support women’s rights. Their rights to access education, jobs, and most importantly public spaces.
At Wendor, we not only identify this essential need of women but also assert it as a major business endeavor in the market. Next time you find such a vending machine, remind yourself of how many people, directly and indirectly, getting benefitted from its presence.
