An Innovation in Concessions

Makenna Turner
Designing Your Business
3 min readJun 1, 2022

Everyone knows and loves movie theater popcorn. Whether you decide to indulge yourself with buttery delight or plain salty goodness, having a snack in arms reach has always been part of the movie experience. But with the added joy of popcorn, we often have to face annoying lines at the concession stand. Aside from the wait, the options for toppings on popcorn are limited. So for those who would like more options, it’s quite hard to find a variety at their food stands.

So what if we can introduce a product that can eliminate the negative factors while sustaining the traditional experience of a movie theater/ concession stand. This is where we would like to introduce, Pop-Pow, food at the tip of your fingers.

With cutting-edge technology, the Pop-Pow machine offers dozens of food customization options at the touch of a button and completely revolutionizes how food is served. Built on the Impinj platform, Pop-Pow delivers:

  • Simplified operating procedures for service employees
  • Enhanced customer experience
  • Automated monitoring and tracking of dispenser consumables
  • Real-time business analytics about product consumption and preference

Rendered image of the Pop-pow vending machine.

Technology

Our vending machine took some influence from a variety of Japanese vending machines. Overall, the goal was to create not only a reliable product, but an immersive and simple user experience to encourage interaction with the machine. In our design process, we emphasized the customer’s agency to customize the product at hand. Current vending machines and concession foods as a whole are often extremely limited by way of variability which we looked to change. We wanted to incorporate features that would boost the control users had over the customizability aspect of

Actionable Report

Given that our machines are new in the food industry, especially in areas such as theaters and fairs, we have got to find footing before completely dispersing them. This is why we would like to work closely with movie theaters by allowing them to be the first ones to use our machines free of charge. From there, we would be building our credibility and relationship with theater companies. Moving forward, we would then begin to sell our machines to other interested parties, and expand from just popcorn to other vendors/ hot foods!

Mission

With our machines, we hope to provide a technology that can customize food at the touch of a button. In doing so, we would be revolutionizing the way that food is served not only in small concession stands but across different industries at large.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Reach out to us at aboutus@poppow.com if you are interested in joining us as we develop our product, we are looking for the next and brightest talent in mechanical engineering, Technical Sales Managers, mentors, and passionate investors. Through talent, expertise, or funding, we would love to have you on our team as we customize our future.

Keep Popping,

The Pop-Pow Team

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