Why Old-School Gumball Machines Have All But Disappeared

If you grew up with video rentals, arcades, and mall hangouts, you probably also have memories of old-school gumball machines. They used to be everywhere, but now you might go weeks or months without seeing one. They're nearly extinct. They were more than just gumballs, too. Some machines had candy and others were filled with toys, like the Homies toys that became hot collectibles in the 90s. Gumball machines sparked such joy in children trying their luck at getting their favorite color of gum or favorite toy. But what happened?

While the decline of gumball machines is too complex to truly pin on any one reason, a major factor is fewer children spend time outside. When they do, it's usually under parental supervision. Kids aren't hopping on their bikes and spending evenings visiting friends, hanging out at the mall on weekends, or gathering in arcades like they did in the '80s and '90s. Arcades have also changed, with many switching to reloadable cards for payment instead of quarters. When they do go out, children simply don't need to carry change to make phone calls, grab a drink, play games — or buy chewing gum.

There are also larger societal changes at play. The concept of dropping a coin into a machine to get something in return goes way back, but the earliest gum machines in the United States required only a penny for a piece of gum. Eventually, the quarter also lost value over time and vendors faced costly repairs and upgrades. The use of cash began declining as debit and credit cards took hold, then smartphones took people even further away from cash thanks to the digital wallet. And when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the shift away from cash gained even more momentum.

Even prior to the pandemic, health-conscious parents began to question the gum's freshness, the cleanliness of the machines, and the sugar content of the gum or candy inside. Some parents were less likely to approve of sugary snacks like giant candy-coated gumballs for fear of the sugar content. If you take a look at a ranking of today's top gum brands, you'll find several sugar-free options on that list. Gumball machines may have made grocery shopping with your parents bearable but as society changed and gum continued to evolve, the gumball machine was left behind. Today, you're likely to only see them in niche stores as novelty items.