The National Automatic Merchandising Association, or NAMA, is the American national trade association of the convenience services industry, including vending, micro markets, office coffee service, and foodservice management. [1] Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, NAMA represents more than 1,000 member companies, including hundreds of small businesses. [2]
Carla Balakgie is president and CEO of NAMA. Before joining the association in 2011, Balakgie served as CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association. [3] [4]
Heidi Chico, president of National Vending LLC, chairs NAMA's board of directors. [5] [6]
In the summer, NAMA convenes an annual Fly-In, which brings more than 300 industry leaders to Washington, D.C. to discuss calorie disclosure requirements, overtime pay, and other issues affecting the convenience services industry. [7] [8] In a July 2017 op-ed column published in The Hill , Balakgie claimed Fly-In attendees hold more than 200 meetings with members of Congress to "ensure that the voice of the convenience services industry is heard on Capitol Hill." [9]
A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The first modern vending machines were developed in England in the early 1880s and dispensed postcards. Vending machines exist in many countries and, in more recent times, specialized vending machines that provide less common products compared to traditional vending machine items have been created.
Nama or NAMA may refer to:
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant, full bar, and a video arcade. As of September 2023, the company has 156 locations in the United States, two in Puerto Rico and two in Canada.
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware, and a provider of security products. Headquartered in the greater Hartford city of New Britain, Connecticut, Stanley Black & Decker is the result of the merger of The Stanley Works and Black & Decker on March 12, 2010.
Crane Co. is an American industrial products company based in Stamford, Connecticut. Founded by Richard Teller Crane in 1855, it became one of the leading manufacturers of bathroom fixtures in the United States, until 1990, when that division was sold off. In 1960 it began the process of becoming a holding company with a diverse portfolio. Its business segments are Aerospace & Electronics, Engineered Materials, Payment and Merchandising Technology, Fluid Handling, and Controls. Industries served by these segments include chemical industries, commercial construction, food and beverage, general and commercial aviation, and power generation.
Airlines for America (A4A), formerly known as Air Transport Association of America (ATA), is an American trade association and lobbying group based in Washington, D.C. that represents major North American airlines since 1936.
The economy of Stamford, Connecticut is robust and is considered an anomaly for having a large number of corporate headquarters in a city of its size. In the 1980s and 90s, Stamford had the third highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country, with 18 companies headquartered in the city. The only two cities that had higher concentrations in the nation were New York City and Chicago.
Chico's FAS, Inc. is an American women's clothing and accessories retailer founded in 1983 on Sanibel Island, Florida. Founded by Marvin and Helene Gralnick, it is headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida and operates four brands: its namesake Chico's store, White House Black Market, Soma and TellTale.
Micro Markets constitutes a retail sector closely associated with the vending machine industry.
GLG is a financial and global information services company headquartered in New York City. The company provides financial information and advises investors and consultants with business clients seeking expert advice. It is the world's largest expert network, with over 1,000,000 freelance consultants. GLG's experts include asset managers, investors, consultants, physicians, scientists, engineers, lawyers, senior current and former c-level executives, and former government members. GLG's clients include strategy consulting corporations, hedge funds, private equity firms, professional service firms, and non-profit organizations.
Crane Payment Innovations is a designer and manufacturer of vending machines. They are a business unit of publicly traded Crane NXT and their manufacturing facility is located in Williston, South Carolina, United States.
Mary Lovelace Schapiro served as the 29th Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She was appointed by President Barack Obama, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and assumed the Chairship on January 27, 2009. She is the first woman to be the permanent Chair of the SEC. In 2009, Forbes ranked her the 56th most powerful woman in the world.
George R. Jensen Jr. is an American businessman who founded USA Technologies Inc., (USAT), a high-tech company that developed the ePort, the first wireless networked cashless payment technology for vending machines, unattended Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals, and kiosks.
Cantaloupe, Inc., previously known as USA Technologies Inc., is an American company known for its work with ePort cashless acceptance technology running on its patented ePort Connect service, a PCI compliant services. ePort Connect wirelessly facilitates electronic payment options to consumers with credit, debit, or NFC enabled electronic wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay while providing operators with both telemetry and machine-to-machine (M2M) services. ePort technology is primarily found in vending machines, kiosks and point-of-sale (POS) terminals, but the ePort Online and ePort Mobile products have extended the network to accept recurring payments from a PC or retail outlets and the taxi industry through smartphone devices.
DEX is a format for collecting audit and event data from vending machines.
Fresh Healthy Vending is a vending machine company located in San Diego, California specializing in healthy alternatives to traditional vending machine snack foods and beverages. It was founded in June 2010. The company's refrigerated machines offer carrots, yogurt, smoothies, granola bars and beverages such as milk, juice and teas.
Nayax Ltd. is a global fintech company that offers cashless, telemetry, management, monitoring, and business intelligence (BI) products and services for the vending, unattended, and other retail industries.
Appen AI is a publicly traded data company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the code APX.
Multi-Drop Bus / Internal Communication Protocol (MDB/ICP) is the latest, US-European iteration of a multidrop bus computer networking protocol used within the vending machine industry, currently published by the American National Automatic Merchandising Association and supported by the European Vending Association and the European Vending Machine Manufacturers Association. It is based on earlier protocols dating back to at least the early 1990s.
Matthew R. Shay is a trade association executive currently serving as the president and CEO of the National Retail Federation. He is a frequent guest on CNBC, Fox Business Network and Bloomberg Television.