What did coke do with there machines?

[loman4ec]

I just wanted to know if anyone had any idea what happened to machines when Coke was done with them? They had to have gone somewhere. It seems that only a few years ago you could get a square top for next to nothing and now they have gone crazy. I would be nice to stumble upon a stockpile of old machines.

[johnieG]

You & me both!, currently they scrap's them here in the Detroit area, Pepsi too, they smash them up & deface them them send them to the scrap yard, who has an exclusive contract to dispose of them & you can't even buy any parts off of them.  '>

YEP YEP Coke sent em to the scrap-yard I have been in contact with someone locally who used to work for coke and he said in the 60's all of the 50's machines were just taken outa rotation and sent to the scrap heap, Ticks me off now but hey Disney used to burn/throw away there animation cells and now those are worth hundreds of thousands in many cases. I was talking to someone recently and they were saying that someday even 80's cars will be in style like 50's cars are, Frankly I think thats a load of Bunk cause 80's cars are ugly no matter how you look at them. A big cardboard box on wheels the 80's were not like sleek 50's cars. If the big 3 started to make reproductions of the cold 50's cars( granted  with new materials seatbelts airbags crumpel zones etc) they would make a mint

So in short after all of that THEY ARE GONE tho I did just look on ebay( never buy anything on there its too much of a bidding war/paying too much) and I saw that someone now is marketing the new westinghouse JR's I cant believe that someday the " bubble front" machines of today will be collectable there boring

[Bob K]

The general interest in the square-tops seems to be skyrocketing.  Just compare the number of posts in the Pre-60's category to the Post-60's.  Hasn't been a peep in the Pre-60's since June 5 (I'm posting this on June 25).

Personally I'm more knocked out by the square-tops, but maybe that's because that's what I remember as a kid.

I remember one machine that we used to hit on the way home from school.  Boiling hot day, open the bottle door and pull an ice-cold green bottle out.  It would get soaked with condensation.  Ahhhhhh....

Now I'm a fitness nut and I avoid sugar   '>.  Funny how as you get older you suck every bit of enjoyment out of the simple things.

Sorry, I'm rambling... '>

[MoonDawg]

Had an elderly gentleman ome into my store and give me a picture. It was the Coca Cola bottling plant in 1966, a few blocks from my location. It was torn down later that year for what is now Jack in the Box and Shell gas.
     He was the service tech for the vending machines back then. Coke started buying new square corner machines in 1962, which were capable of vending for more money than the previous 10 cent round corner machines.
     Each time he installed a new machine on location he would haul the old one back to the warehouse. With approxamately 100 obsolete machines, and the wrecking ball  moving in..............well you know the rest.

     He filled the 64 Ford stakebed 10 times and headed for the dump.  As he stared at my fully restored Vendo 81 he recalled, "The last time I ever saw  machines  like this,         a bulldozer was pushing them into a big pile"      ouch!

YES if Only I was alive in the 60's tho to be honest back in the 60's would we all have been saying " OHHHHH the 50's machines Wont someone think of the 50's machines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Probbably not makes me wanna find a dump that didnt bury them just stuck em in a pile, tho the dump by me in there " Fridge" section Wont let anyone go and take things outa them WHY?'>?'>??cause.........aaaaaaa............well cause they are retards, and it might be a liability  So here we all are scrambling for the last few, Funny enough I found a guy who has a 50' x 40' polebarn fullllllllllll of 40's 50's machines Oh how I wish I was his nephew or benifactor cause he wont sell them, well for a price Im looking to pay for them. '>    tho I have a feeling Im gonna run across a stockpile sometime soon ..................Its just a feeling and I hope Im right( line the garage walls with machines and basement) LOL

[Eric]

Coke helped fill a sink hole in a scrap yard here about 40 years ago with 180+ nickle and dime machines in the mid 60s.
I looked up (stalked) a few retired workers and asked them
this same question. One told me he hauled a few dozen a day
out to a then scrap yard for about a week. Coke then had them crushed and burried. A couple of the employees
took some home, or to a church, to use. He was
working on a cooling unit on one so he backed his truck in,
loaded it up, took it home and used it for a fridge in the basement until I bought it from him. It was a nice clean
early vendo 39.
So keep look'n... they're out there! '>

Eric

Hey Eric could you do me a favor and make a cardboard template of your 39's drum? I have a 39 and want to make my own drum but need soemthing " to go by"( I can pay you) Yea the sinkhole story is kinda depressing, if they didnt crush them and just stacked them outside someplace they would still be around and while obviously rusty they wouldnt be in the ground/ crushed to 5 inches etc  '>  

[ussexplorer]

Coke:

When I purchased a replacement coin mech from the local coke company in pocatello, id. They sold if to me for $30.00. About a year or so later I found out they was selling machines for $30.00. All exited I called them up just to find out they stopped selling the old machines. They said people would call them up and try to re-sell them the old machines at a high price. So the only ones they keeped around was for parts.

Oh, I found out during that time that they entered all there inventory in the computer. I was a few month to late of them chucking out all the extra paper work before 198?. So they didn't have the history of either one of my machines.

Pepsi:

They told me they never sold there machines at all. So I pointed out that a friend of mine had one. They started asking tons of questions. I just told them it was a machine from the 60's or so. After that they quieted down. Shortly after that I got my secound westing house machine.

Never got around to asking the R.C. supplier about another westing house machine like mine sitting next to there building with R.C. sign and logos on the side. Not that i needed another machine. But, the R.C cola sign would have been cool.

laters,

ussexplorer