In Ohio, vending machines are usually reserved for drinks, snacks and banking, but a new ice vending machine is changing the way college students and families will buy their ice.

Matthew Myers is one of four owners of Midwest Vending Products, a company created in August of 2016. The company installed a Kooler Ice machine in front of Falcon Food Mart at 1414 E. Wooster St. two months ago. It’s the company’s first and only Kooler Ice machine.

“I’ve been doing this business for probably seven years now. Being from the Midwest I was trying to find a way for it to make sense to put an ice machine in the upper region,” Myers said. Where he lives in Georgia, ice vending machines are much more common.

With a wife from Haskins, Ohio, only a short distance from Bowling Green, Myers found his way to put a Kooler Ice Machine in the Midwest — place it in a college town.

 The machine is hooked up to filtered water and electricity to continuously form perfect, 7/8-inch uniform cubes. While there are six stores on East Wooster Street alone that sell ice, Myers said Kooler Ice provides a much better product.

He said the ice from these vending machines is more uniform and produced fresh daily, so there’s no need to slam a bag on the ground to break the ice up. It’s also simpler.

“Everything that we do as a society, or most things, is about convenience,” Myers said. “there’s nothing more convenient than ice on demand.”

The price is comparable to other stores selling bagged ice. On Wooster, the stores generally sell 7 pound bags for $1.99 plus tax; Kooler Ice’s vending machines give two options: a 10 pound bag for $2.25 and 20 pound in two bags for $4.

The machine needs no employees aside from the Falcon Food Mart employee who loads the bags and ties about once a week, and it’s available 24/7. Myers said if a college student needs a bag of ice at 2 a.m., they can walk right up to the machine, hit a few buttons and leave without talking to anyone.

Nathan Earnest, co-owner of Midwest Vending Products said the ease of the machine also reduces the carbon footprint without diesel trucks delivering the ice, and since the ice is produced fresh, Earnest, Myers and their other two partners don’t have to worry about theft, blackouts, spoilage or running out of inventory.

He expects the Bowling Green community members to utilize the machine for ice in the summer and during warm weather for picnics. College students will supplement the off-season for ice when it’s cooler by using the ice machine for parties.

“The sales have been not as much as I would have initially hoped, but with that being said we really haven’t done any advertising at all,” Myers said.

He fully anticipates putting fliers around town, into dorms and in the Greek Village, but he wants to make sure the bugs get worked out first.

“The last thing you want to do is advertise and promote something that doesn’t work,” he said.

However, Earnest said the usage has been increasing on its own as people become more aware of the machine. Business has continued increasing despite the approaching cold weather.

“People are generally surprised and impressed with the quality,” he said.

As residents of Georgia and Chicago respectively, Myers and Earnest aren’t the only ones who live far away from the new machine in Bowling Green. The other two company partners live in Chicago and Ann Arbor.

Since the machine is so far away, they have eliminated the cash aspect. Without cash, there are less coin jams, meaning far less problems with the machines that need immediate attention. Instead, the machines accept credit cards.

Kooler Ice has over 1,100 machines in 40 states, mainly in the south, and it also exports to Canada, the Bahamas and Australia.

The company is looking at five potential locations in 2017, including Earnest’s home in Chicago. He also hopes to add more in the Bowling Green area. They’re focusing on areas like campuses, parks and campgrounds where the model has proven effective.

“People are going to start demanding their ice to come in this flavor,” he said. “We’re excited to bring our partnership to the area, and we think everything about this concept is positive. We’re trying to be the Uber of ice—change of market.”