Park Ridge Chooses Local Company To Install Vending Machines In Metra Stations

Park Ridge City Council voted unanimously on April 21 to contract a local vending machine company to put in vending machines at the city’s two Metra stations.

Park Ridge-based Divine Vending specializes in machines that sell healthier food options than traditional snacks and drinks. Finance Director Chris Lipman told the council that the city has been looking to fill a restaurant space in the Uptown station, to no avail, but they did get proposals from two vending machine operators. He said that their bids were similar, and the city chose Divine because of the healthy options.

Divine Vending owner Louann Mlekodaj told the Journal & Topics that the vending machines will offer sandwiches, wraps, salads, yogurts and nutritional drinks, as well as some of the more “traditional” items such as chips. Because fresher food naturally perishes faster, she said, the inventory would be changed at least twice a week. Anything that’s left over by that point will be donated to local food pantries and other nonprofits, before it has a chance to spoil. 

Miekodaj said that she and the city are still negotiating the final details of the contract, but once that’s sorted out, she expects the machines will be installed and ready to go within six weeks. 

Park Ridge currently owns the two stations within the city limits — Uptown Park Ridge station, listed simply as “Park Ridge” on timetables and signs, and Dee Road station. The former has a small snack space on the east side of the main waiting room. The snack shop was most recently used as an outpost for Des Plaines-based B’s Sweet Bites coffee shop and bakery. 

Lipman told the council that the city has been trying to find another vendor, but the feedback they got was that, with fewer riders commuting to Chicago five days a week than there were pre-pandemic, “having a manned [shop] — that just isn’t feasible right now.”

Downtown Des Plaines Metra station has had a Brew Coffee Lab shop since 2022, and owner Japhlet Aranas previously told the Journal & Topics that the business has been doing fine. But the Des Plaines station waiting room is open seven hours longer than the Uptown station, whose main waiting room closes at 1 p.m. Aranas also said that they benefit from customers waiting for Pace buses. Des Plaines station gets more bus service than the Uptown station, and most buses stop on the same side of the street as the station building, while the four bus routes that serve Uptown station stop on the opposite side of the street. 

Lipman said “proposals from both vendors, money-wise, are almost identical.”

“This isn’t really a moneymaker for the city,” he said. “This is something that we want to do to provide service to people who use our train station.”

Lipman said that Mlekodaj proposed putting a machine at the Dee Road station. According to a memo to the council, that station doesn’t currently have a dedicated space for vending machines, so the city staff will need to figure out where the machines might go. 

Mlekodaj told Journal & Topics that the prices would be higher than traditional vending machines, comparing it to getting a sandwich from a fast-casual restaurant such as Panera Bread. 

“Low-end can be $10, a wrap can be closer to $12,” she said.

Miekodaj said that the goal is to have about 60% healthy options and about 40% snacks.

It was important for Divine Vending to make sure the food doesn’t spoil. Mlekodaj said that the vending machines will automatically lock if the freezer fails, and she’s timing the donations so that any leftover food is still good to eat.