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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

PanPacific

Market Map: Booze Tech in 2019

From countertop devices used in the home kitchen to delivery services, the number of avenues in which companies can get booze to customers has expanded in recent years. And since it’s still the time of year when drinking on patios is a popular sport, we decided to focus our latest market map on all the tech out there currently changing the alcohol space.

In the U.S., alcohol consumption has actually stagnated, according to IWSR, but part of this is due to consumers now seeking quality over quantity when it comes to their drinking. Which might explain the rise in the number of companies offering recommendations apps that rate beers, wines, and spirits as well as at-home devices for the kitchen countertop that give the user a little more control over the quality of their drinks.

For The Spoon’s Booze Tech in 2019 market map, we divvied the market up into several categories where technology is making the biggest impact on the way people get, create, and consume beer, wine, and spirits. That’s everything from apps that update you on the best craft beers available to at-home bartending devices that let you release your inner mixologist to the many ways in which companies are making it possible to get the booze delivered right to your doorstep. We’ve narrowed the companies down to a collection of startups and major corporations alike. As with any post that outlines a market, this list isn’t exhaustive. So if you have thoughts and tips for who else you’d like to see here, feel free to drop us a line.

While we’re on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our 2019 Food Robotics market map and our Food Waste Innovation in 2019 map.

Booze Tech in 2019

I’ll Bet You’re Thinking of How this Beer Vending Machine Can Be Tricked While You Read This

In a world where there are vending machines that dispense pizza and hot ramen, it only makes sense that eventually we’d have one that serves up ice cold beer and other adult beverages. Last week, PanPacific unveiled the SmartPan Pro, an age-verifying, beer dispensing vending machine.

If you’re like me, your first thought was well how quickly will a high schooler be able to trick that machine. But according to the press release, the machines use “ultra-accurate finger-vein biometrics as the consumers’ identifier” which also prevents ID sharing. Once the user completes an account creation process, they can use their finger on any SmartPan Pro machine.

The SmartPan Pro is meant for venues like sports arenas and other, similar, high-traffic venues. Operators can add restrictions to the machine to create purchase or timeframe limits.

At first glance, it seems like this type of unattended sales mechanism would be ripe for abuse. Finding ways around booze restrictions is a time-honored tradition, after all. But borrowing someone’s finger to buy a beer is a lot harder than borrowing their ID. Sure, someone could buy a beer and then give it to an underaged friend somewhere else, but that always has and always will happen — with or without vending machines.

But if set up properly, a self-service beer vending machine makes sense. Place one or two in a designated beer garden (to check IDs before getting in), and you can free up human staff to serve higher ticket food items that require more human-level skill. (Well, until robots do those jobs too.)

This isn’t actually the first time you’ll be able to use your finger to pay for beer at a ball game. Last year, CLEAR (of airport fame), debuted a system at CenturyLink Field in Seattle allowing people to pay for concessions including booze.

A combination of tech like age verification, robotics and internet connectivity is transforming the capabilities of vending machines, opening up whole new options for eating around the clock in busy places like airports and hospitals. Though, the ER seems like a bad place for a beer vending machine.