Economy machine
A savings machine is a machine that dispenses a small chocolate bar and / or candy after inserting a coin.
history
The Cologne chocolate producer Ludwig Stollwerck set up the first vending machines in Germany from 1887. The vending machines were initially part of his advertising strategy, which aimed to promote the sale of Stollwerck products in retail outlets by distributing inexpensive samples from vending machines. “Automatie” soon created a new form of distribution for chocolate and a large number of other Stollwerck products. 18 million bars of chocolate were sold in vending machines in 1890 alone. The success of the large vending machines led Ludwig Stollwerck to also produce toy-sized machines from 1890 onwards. With the “automatic Chocolade Sparkasse” he wanted to get young people used to thrift “in good time” and give the children an “incentive to work hard”. The money-saving machines had a simple mechanism: after opening a small lock on the side, the back wall and roof could be lifted off and the inserted coins could be removed again. With this money the Stollwerck refill packs should of course be bought again. But there was still an amount left to save. The savings machines were a complete success: by 1902, 750,000 had been sold. The manufacturer was not Stollwerck himself, but the factory founded by Friedrich Anton Reiche (1845–1913) in 1878 . Its Dresden "chocolate molds and sheet metal packaging factory" was considered the most important manufacture of chocolate molds and tin toys in Germany. In 1895 around 1,100 employees produced molds and tin packaging for almost all chocolate producers, while the savings machines were manufactured exclusively for Ludwig Stollwerck.
Individual evidence
- ^ Spiekermann, Uwe: Basis of the consumer society. Origin and development of modern retail trade in Germany 1850-1914, CH Beck, 1999, ISBN 978-3-406-44874-4
- ^ Geldgeschichtliches Museum der Kreissparkasse Köln: http://www.geldgeschichte.de
- ^ Association of European Savings Bank Collectors: http://www.embc.de