Coffee and food vending machine operators are in talks to receive a one-month delay to reprogram their machines after the official adoption of the euro from January 1st next year, BNT reported.
If this does not happen, there is a risk that in the first days of the new year, a large number of people in hospitals, bus stations and small towns will be left without access to this service. Due to legal requirements, reprogramming of the devices cannot begin before the official adoption of the euro as a unit of payment. At the same time, in order to avoid this risk, parking meter users at the airports in Varna and Burgas now have the option to pay their fees by card.
How will we buy coffee and tea from a machine from January 1?
According to the Bulgarian Vending Association, there are over 30 thousand vending machines for food and drinks, but a very small part of them allow card payments. Installing new coins and new software on the cash registers will make it difficult to operate them in the first days of the new year.
The risk of not being able to buy coffee or tea from a machine on the street on January 1 is too great. If you celebrated New Year in a small town - that's for sure.
Todor Kanazirev, Bulgarian Vending Association: "We can't cope on January 1. Let's start selling only in euros. For each machine. The coin mechanism must be replaced. On some of the cash registers that do not have a second GPRS channel, the cash register must be removed and an authorized service center must be authorized to convert the cash register itself. To update it so that it is now in euros. "
That is why the industry hopes to receive a one-month postponement.
Todor Kanazirev: "During this period that we have to set up our machines, we cannot provide this service to anyone, in small towns, hospitals. If we stop the machines on January 1, they will be left without access to coffee, energy drinks, hot drinks, water, waffles. "
For the reconstruction of all vending machines, the operator's costs are at least 100 leva per machine. The association says that by law they are not allowed to raise prices, even though they have grounds for doing so.
Todor Kanazirev, Bulgarian Vending Association: "Our prices can be 5 or 0. Everything that costs 80 stotinki will start costing 40 euro cents. This is a very heavy blow to the business. We sell a lot of units and these 2 stotinki cost us pure profit."
In addition to vending machines, the devices used to pay for parking in malls and other facilities must be replaced. To deal with the problem, payment is now also possible through post-terminals at the airports in Varna and Burgas.
Svetlana Simeonova - Director of “Commercial Activities and Customer Experience“, “Fraport Twin Star Airport Management” AD: "We have already introduced card payments to all parking meters, so there will be no change from January 1. The change is relatively recent, but we are studying global trends. More and more card payments, you know, are entering everywhere."
If users still do not have cards - both now and after January 1, 2026, parking fees at both airports will be able to be paid at the counter.
If we have collected pennies in piggy banks, here are some tips on what to do with them. The easiest way is to spend them by December 31 or give them to charity. If we fail, after January 1, merchants will continue to accept them, but if we give them more than 50 coins in one payment, they may refuse to accept them. At the BNB cash center, you can exchange them for paper banknotes in the new currency. If you have sorted 1, 2 or 5 stotinki, they will accept them without a fee, regardless of the amount. However, if you have over 200 leva in 10, 20 and 50 stotinki, 1 and 2 leva coins - you may be charged a fee for the exchange.