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Bulk vending dates back to as early as the late 19th century. Vending machines were used widely in Europe before they became very popular in the US. In the early 1880’s, the first commercial coin operated vender came out in London stocked with postcards. In 1888, the Thomas Adams Gum Company introduced bulk venders to the US, using the machines to sell Tutti Frutti gum on elevated subway platforms in New York City. In 1897, the Pulver Mfg. Company added animated figures to its gum machines. In 1907, the round gumball, a staple product in modern vending machines, came out. In 1909, Emerson A. Bolen formed the Northwestern Novelty Company, selling the Yankee, a penny matchstick vending machine, at this point Bolen’s company is now one of the most popular bulk vending machine manufacturers. In 1913, Ford Mason leased 102 machines and placed them in stores and shops of communities in western New York, he would eventually open the Ford Gum and Machine Company, an empire of over half a million vending machines. In 1948, Oak Manufacturing opened up; it would become one of the largest equipment manufacturers in the vending industry ever. In 1949, Roger C. Folz purchased his first vending machine, Folz Vending was the largest operator of bulk vending equipment in the US, owning and operating over 150,000 machines nationwide at their peak.

In 1950, the US Treasury Department attempted to impose gambling excise taxes on bulk vendors on the grounds that there was no way for consumers to know for sure which item the machine would dispense. For a short time, manufacturers installed viewfinders in bulk vending machines to display the next item to be purchased. Vendors organized to found the National Bulk Vendors Association (NBVA), which successfully lobbied against the taxes, saying that items being vended were of equivalent value. The NBVA has since lobbied on behalf of bulk vendors on a variety of issues.