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[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
11/17/2002 ]
Vending of live bait a novelty at first glance, but it's catching on
By SCOTT BERNARDE
The reaction has been common when customers leave Bass Pro Shops Outdoors World in Lawrenceville. The doors open, they look left and focus
on a vending machine with pictures of fish and the words "LIVE BAIT" all over it.
"You've got to be kidding me," said Daniel Smith, of Anniston, Ala., who already had an eyeful during his first visit to the mega tackle store
located in Discover Mills mall. "Now, I've seen it all."
John McDevitt made a deal to place the vending machine outside the store in June. Every time he services the machine, he draws a crowd of
curious onlookers. And when he counts the sales --- 803 dozen of nightcrawlers, red wigglers and the like --- he knows it's catching on.
It's a sign of the times, he says. In the time it takes to buy a candy bar, anglers put in their money, punch a button and wait for a Styrofoam
container full of lively critters to plop into the opening at the bottom.
"Anything you can imagine can be sold out of a vending machine. I've even seen jeans sold in one," said McDevitt, a 39-year-old Loganville
resident who runs J&J Vending. The company operates 35 to 40 vending machines, most of which sell traditional goods like snacks and drinks.
"Sooner or later [selling live bait] was going to happen, and it has."
McDevitt, owner of the machine and regional distributor for its maker, Iowa-based VCI Inc., charges $2.25 per container of minnows and up
to $3.75 for the worms, all kept lively by the refrigerated unit. He promises more than a baker's dozen in each cup.
"It's floored me how well it's done," said McDevitt, who says he likely would have sold even more if he had gotten the machine in place for
the peak spring fishing months of March, April and May. "I'm thinking [sales] will at least double next year."
The machines, which cost between $2,000 and $4,100, depending on age and condition, are a rare sight in Georgia, but the concept isn't all that
new. Modern machines have been common in Northern states for more than a decade, and McDevitt occasionally comes across old-timers who
remember buying worms out of soda machines years ago. In his home state of Pennsylvania, where live-bait fishing is more common than in the
bass-rich South, you'll see bait machines in places like delicatessens and drug stores.
He knows of only two other similar machines in Georgia. One of those, at Feather, Fins and Fur Taxidermy in Loganville, does a brisk
business, according to owner Beth Johnson. She sells live bait inside the store but says her machine does "hundreds of dollars" in sales each week
when she's closed.
"It's ideal for someone wanting to go fishing at 4 in the morning," Johnson said.
McDevitt, who has deals for two more machines in north Georgia (in Cornelia and near Lake Lanier) set for the spring, continues to be
amused by the reactions. He recalls watching a woman attempt to buy a soda for her granddaughter.
"She put in her money and went to press a button and then realized it was only worms," he said. "She screamed. Of course, I gave her her
money back, but there are a lot of people who think it's a Coke machine that just has pictures of fish on it."
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