Snack Attack

This isn't your college dorm vending machine.

Far from it. What former Verizon manager Jeffrey Dovedot and entrepreneur and commercial real estate investor Scott Dobbins say they've created with Tampa-based Tastibot is a new way to eat healthy on the go. “We don't even like to use the word vending machine,” says Dobbins. “We call this automatic merchandising.”

The pair hopes potential clients call it the next best thing in snacking. Tastibot machines — tasti is for products, bot is for technology — are slightly narrower than standard vending machines, in light green with a robot logo. The top three levels are snacks, the bottom level is an array of cold drinks. Payment options include Android and Apple Pay, debit cards and four major credit cards, and cash.