Vending Machine Locations in Michigan, by the Numbers

Three cards pinned at three slightly different heights on a board — Three cards at three heights: a small state reproducing a national ordering. AI-generated image

Michigan contributes three placements in three weeks, in three different venue categories, and they sorted themselves the way the full 87-placement record does: the bowling alley agreed 35% of net while the family entertainment centre and the indoor playground agreed 40%. Two of the three can be converted into captive time.

Figures below come from the 87 signed listings open on PinPoint Vending’s marketplace on October 5, 2026. Traffic is venue-reported and unaudited; no listing reports sales.

By the numbers

Measure	Michigan
Signed placements	3
Reporting a visitor count	2 of 3
Convertible into visitor-hours	2 of 3
Highest, Bad Axe	about 275 visitor-hours a day
Shares agreed	35% and 40% of net
Tiers	3 standard, 0 premium

What is on the record for Michigan?

Three venues, signed on the 1st, the 9th and the 21st of July 2026.

Field	Ann Arbor	Bad Axe	Ithaca
Venue type	Indoor playground	Family entertainment centre	Bowling alley
Tier	Standard	Standard	Standard
Signed	July 1, 2026	July 9, 2026	July 21, 2026
Reported visitors	Not stated	40,000 a year, 110 a day	25,000 a year, 68 a day
Visitor-hours a day	Not calculable	about 275	about 184
Revenue share	40% of net	40% of net	35% of net
Machine	Cotton candy	Cotton candy	Cotton candy

No Michigan venue reached premium tier, which requires 100,000 or more reported annual visitors. Among states with three or more listings, that is not unusual — most of the record is standard tier — but it does mean Michigan’s set describes the middle of the market rather than its top.

How the two measurable venues compare with their categories

Bad Axe and Ithaca both sit below their category medians, and the smaller venue is in the category with the longer visit.

	Bad Axe	Family entertainment centres	Ithaca	Bowling alleys
Visitors a day	110	180 (median of 9 reporting)	68	140 (median of 16 reporting)
Visit length used	2.5 h	2.5 h	2.7 h	2.7 h
Visitor-hours a day	about 275	450 (median)	about 184	378 (median)

Bad Axe reports about 61% of the traffic of a typical family entertainment centre in this record; Ithaca about 49% of a typical bowling alley. Converting both — visitors a day times a published average visit length, the method behind our ranking of vending locations — puts them 24th and 30th of the 44 convertible listings, which is squarely mid-table.

Why Ann Arbor cannot be placed at all

Its listing states no visitor count. Eighteen of the 87 placements do not state one, which is the larger of the two gaps in this dataset — the other being the six listings that state no revenue share.

That distinction matters when reading any state summary. A state’s visitor-hours figure describes only the listings that report a count, so Michigan’s measurable record is two venues rather than three, and the state’s apparent position depends on which gap you are looking through.

It is also the more interesting gap, because Ann Arbor is the only Michigan venue in a large city. The one listing that would test whether a metro Michigan venue behaves differently from a rural one is the listing with no number attached.

Ithaca’s bowling alley agreed 35%; Bad Axe and Ann Arbor agreed 40%. In a three-listing state that could easily be noise. It is worth attention because the same ordering holds across the whole record.

Venue type	Listings	Agreed below 40%
Bowling alleys	18	7
Everything else	69	6

Roughly two in five bowling alleys agreed under the median, against roughly one in eleven of everything else — and bowling has the longest published visit length of any category here. Michigan reproduces that inversion inside one state and one month, with the same operator on both sides of it.

Thirty-five per cent is also genuinely rare: only two of the 87 placements agreed it, Ithaca and an arcade in New Jersey. Fifty-five landed on exactly 40%, twelve on 50%, eleven on 30% and one on 45%. What the revenue-share data shows across all 87 placements works through what sets the number and what does not.

What is missing from Michigan’s record?

A visitor count for Ann Arbor, any premium-tier venue, and two of the four categories that carry this dataset. Michigan shows nothing from trampoline parks or arcades, and nothing at all from the Detroit metropolitan area, Grand Rapids or Lansing.

Three listings from Gratiot County, Huron County and Washtenaw County describe where a sales route reached in one July rather than what Michigan contains, which is the standard caution for every short state record here. Vending machine locations by state shows where every state stands.

Frequently asked questions

How many vending machine placements does Michigan have?

Three in the record collected on October 5, 2026: an indoor playground in Ann Arbor signed July 1, a family entertainment centre in Bad Axe signed July 9, and a bowling alley in Ithaca signed July 21. All three are standard tier.

Which Michigan venue offers the most captive time?

Bad Axe, at roughly 275 visitor-hours a day from 110 visitors at a 2.5-hour visit length. Ithaca’s bowling alley produces about 184 from 68 visitors at 2.7 hours.

Why can Ann Arbor not be measured?

Its listing states no visitor count, which eighteen of the 87 placements also do not. Without a count there is nothing to multiply by a visit length.

Did the shares differ?

Yes. Ann Arbor and Bad Axe agreed 40% of net and Ithaca agreed 35%, a figure only two placements in the whole record share. The bowling alley came out lowest, which is what bowling alleys do across this dataset.

What do three listings support?

Narrow claims about three venues on three dates. Michigan’s value in this dataset is that its internal ordering matches the national one, not that three listings describe a market.

Next step

Read Michigan as a category check rather than a market reading. If you are weighing a placement in a bowling alley anywhere, the figure to carry is that seven of eighteen bowling alleys in this record agreed below the median while only six of the other 69 placements did — and Michigan’s own three venues show that gap opening between neighbours in the same state, in the same month.