Insta Ink, which sells more than 800 types of new and recycled ink and toner cartridges, has partnered with AVT to manufacture kiosks to dispense products inside retail locations.
Consumers in North America throw away more than 350 million empty toner and ink cartridges each year, a stat that the creators behind a new kiosk concept are hoping to decrease.
Insta Ink, which sells more than 800 types of new and recycled ink and toner cartridges, has partnered with AVT to manufacture kiosks to dispense products inside retail locations.
Currently, the company has eight kiosks inside grocery stores throughout Utah, each selling cartridges for more than 18 different brands of printers. Some of the most popular brand names including HP, Lexmark, Canon, Brother, Epson, Dell, Sharp, Samsung, Oki and Xerox.
The Utah grocery stores are each hosting the kiosks under a revenue-sharing program with Insta Ink, but company founder Todd Lund said he's also looking into renting and purchasing operations.
How it works
The customer enters either the brand, cartridge number or printer model on the kiosk's interactive screen, and the system automatically finds the cartridge.
"Customers no longer have to search the aisles of office supply stores or wait for an employee to offer help," said Bryan Ross of AVT, a developer of self-service retailing systems, custom and automated retail stores.
Delivery comes in one of two ways: The kiosk stocks 74 of the most popular Inkjet cartridges, so when a user swipes his debit or credit card to purchase one, the machine vends the cartridge.
Customers buying larger LaserJet and toner cartridges or inkjets that are not stocked in the kiosk, however, place their orders at the machine and receive them at their homes or offices within two or three business days.
Using the kiosk to buy recycled products can save consumers up to 50 percent, Lund said, and despite the fact that they are remanufactured, all the kiosk's printer cartridges meet or exceed OEM standards for page yield and ink volumes.
"In other words, all cartridges hold as much ink or toner as the originals, and in some cases they hold even more," Lund said.
The benefits
Both consumers and retailers will benefit from the kiosks, Lund said.
