An upstate meat company is now offering Westchester residents an option to buy their raw products from a vending machine.
People can head to Applestone Meat Company on White Plains Road in Eastchester at any time of the day or evening to buy a variety of items, including beef, chicken and hot dogs.
"We don't think of them as vending machines. They're just a delivery item. We are the same butchers, we just don't have the same type of counter," says Joshua Applestone, president and CEO of Applestone Meat. "It's just like a normal package you buy anywhere else, where it has expiration date, freeze-by dates. Everything we do is fresh to order, nothing is pre-frozen, so everything has a nice long shelf life."
Joshua Applestone says he believes it is a business concept that has been proven to work because of the pandemic - and it's here to stay.
"This type of contactless sale enables a company like myself to still survive," he says.
The Applestone Meat company has three other vending machine locations in upstate New York, including one in Ulster County.