阅读理解 Vending Vending is such an up-to-date concept, in providing products where and when customers want them, that it is hard to believe that it made its first appearance in Egyptian Temples back in 215 B. C. Vending has benefited from that long history and is now poised to meet the needs of the 21st century consumer. Current day pressures mean that we are all time-starved and the ready availability of a drink and a snack at the right temperature just where we want. It is the convenient luxury that helps to keep stress at bay and provides a few more minutes at the desk or in the gym. At work, those extra minutes spent making tea or coffee by hand really add up. Research conducted by the NOP ( National Opinion Poll) for the Association showed that the average time spent on this by employees over and above formal lunch and tea breaks is 45 minutes per day. That equates to a firm employing 50 people losing up to 37 man everyday, a real hole in productivity! It''s not just in the workplace, though, that the benefits of vending can be enjoyed. More and more major household brands are seeing vending as an ideal route to the customer for their products because the vending machine can be trusted to be ready to serve whenever there is a demand. Machines are now familiar sights at airports, garage forecourts, leisure sites, railway stations and anywhere else that people gather, allowing consumers to put together an instant picnic. It''s no surprise, therefore, that consumers are currently spending at the rate of some ￡1 billion per year through the slots of vending machines now that 10 million drinks are vended into cups every day.