On this week’s customer case study, we interviewed Ariana Davison who started Berries Unlocked. Berries Unlocked is an extremely popular fruit stall based in Herefordshire, selling fresh fruit at the side of the road to her customers. Ariana has now upgraded her stall by adding our Chilled LockBlox Vending machine to sell fruit 24/7 and has big plans for the business going forward.
Listen to what Ariana had to say about her business. – “Berries Unlocked is a business that sells fresh fruit to the public. Originally it was a stand at the side of the road but now we have upgraded to the Vending Machine”. “We are selling Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries and Cherries when in season. Then over the winter we are diversifying into smoothies, fresh healthy drinks as well as dried fruits to keep the customers happy”.
With an already successful running stall. Why did Ariana decide to invest in Farm Vending Technology? – “We wanted to offer our food 24/7 (24 hours a day 7 days a week) to the public and right throughout the year. Because the (soft fruit) season, with fruit growing under tunnels, fruit is available for a lot longer than just the summer. Which we couldn’t offer before when we closed the stall to go back to school and university”.
When asked if our vending machine has achieved what is was purchased to do and added value to the business, Ariana’s response was – “Yeah definitely! We’re one of a few Vending Machines around, we’re known as the best Vending Machine around due to it being refrigerated and really customer friendly”. The Chilled LockBlox machine has also made Berries Unlocked stall even more popular, catching the eye of customers and major news outlets. Ariana said – “It has added a lot of value, made us known more around the public, especially with the BBC and radio covering us. The machine rocketed in popularity with people driving several hours to see the machine”.
We were keen to ask why Ariana trusted Vending by JSR to fulfil her vision of turning Berries Unlocked into a 24/7 all-year-round stall. She responded – “We conducted a lot of research into Farm vending equipment. So, we first saw you online, on your website. And thought your machines were the best for what we wanted to do”.
How did Berries Unlocked customers, who were used to buying her fruits at a stall person to person, adjust to buying their fruit from a vending machine? – “Because a lot of our customers are quite elderly, it meant they were quite nervous to use it. However, once we showed them that it only takes 4 clicks, and you can buy your fruit, they were suddenly really exited to use it. They felt like they were kept up with the times”. Despite some customers being a little nervous they grew to love the machine. – “They were really happy with the 24 hours a day aspect and that you don’t have to chat with anyone. You can get your fruit and go”.
We were interested to find out what was Ariana’s favourite aspect of our Vending Web and how she used the Vending Web to help run her business. Ariana said – “My favourite aspect is probably the refill advice (tells you what stock is left in the machine). Just because I can see what fruit to order for the next day. Especially with the perishable products I need to keep fresh. I can see what needs to be bought in”.
To finish of the interview, we discussed Ariana’s future vision for her machine and Berries Unlocked going forward. She informed us – “we are going to add in more products like drinks, nuts and dried fruits”. She also added “In the future I can definitely see more vending machines out there. Long term plan is definitely to see them everywhere”.
If you would like to find out more about Berries Unlocked and keep up to date with what they are doing. You can follow them on social media https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=haygrove%20fruit%20stand and check out their website https://www.berriesunlocked.com/about/ .
If you run a stall like Ariana’s and are intrigued to find out if our Vending Technology can add value to your business. Then please contact us via our website and fill out our enquiry form. That way we can arrange a consultation to discuss this idea further.
