Driggs, forty-five, used to be in medical sales–“medical devices, pharmaceuticals, injectables, antipsychotics.” But in that line of work, she says, “Women have a shelf life, if I can put it that way … I was aging out.”
So she started looking for a business she could own and operate herself and settled on vending machines. Not the usual junk-food dispensers stocked with Coke and candy bars but healthy ones selling low-fat/low-sugar snacks like sparkling water, pistachios, and fruit bars.
Driggs launched Sleepy Cricket Healthy Vending last year; her first clients were two car dealerships and three charter high schools. She got her first big contract, with Washtenaw County, this past May.
The county’s request for proposals was super strict: nothing with added fats, and no added sugars except for tiny amounts in grain-based products. That ruled out candy bars and honey buns, as well as most sweetened sports drinks, energy drinks, coffees, and teas. Fruit and vegetable juices were OK, but only servings of twelve ounces or less. And the price mix had to stay between 75c and $2.50.
The RFP was so demanding that Healthy Cricket was the only company that responded. “The first thing I did was hire an accountant,” says Driggs. “I had to meet the criteria set by the county and stay within the price margin.”
That wasn’t easy, because healthier snacks are more expensive. “Profit margins are low,” Driggs says–as little as 20c per item. The county is only giving her access to its buildings–“no money changes hands,” she says–her only income comes from what people actually buy.
The county contract, for two years with an option to renew, calls for placing machines in at least nine county buildings in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Driggs bought the machines and hired a freight company to deliver them from her warehouse. She stocks them herself, hauling drinks and snacks in her Prius. She also talks to the users (staff, mostly) about how they are working (besides coins and bills, they accept credit and debit cards and Apple Pay) and offers samples. In the county machines, those include “healthier” choices from mainstream manufacturers, like Sun Chips and KIND bars, and “healthiest” snacks that she gets from small specialty companies, like jerky made without added sugar or salt, “crunchy” dried fruit, and “Mocha-�xADmazing” cocoa-granola bites.
Dr. Alice Penrose, medical director for the county public health department, says the contract is part of a broader staff wellness initiative. “There are more and more studies out about health problems [stemming from] sugar-sweetened beverages,” Penrose says. “We wouldn’t want to have cigarette machines [in county buildings], and sugar-sweetened beverages are almost as bad for one’s health.”
Penrose says she never used the old vending machines, which stocked “standard stuff–chips and candies.” She tried Sleepy Cricket’s offerings as soon as the machines went in and pronounces herself “delighted.”
“I’m reaching people who’ve never vended before,” Driggs says. She says her main customers are adults who are stuck in offices all day and high schoolers who “don’t want to crash in the middle of the day” after drinking highly sweetened sodas or energy drinks. She also knows from selling pharmaceuticals that a lot of late adolescents are on prescription anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs that don’t mix well with caffeinated beverages.
Why did she call her company Sleepy Cricket? She says she just likes the word “sleepy.” And “cricket is an Asian reference–the fighting cricket, it brings you luck.”
