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Minnesota returns nothing: no signed placement, no venue type, no reported traffic. What makes the blank interesting is its neighbourhood — Wisconsin holds seven signed venues, and Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota hold none between them.
Figures below come from the 87 signed listings open on PinPoint Vending’s marketplace on October 5, 2026, covering 29 states. Traffic is venue-reported and unaudited; no listing reports sales.
By the numbers
| Measure | Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Signed placements | 0 |
| States with none | 21 of 50 |
| Venue types represented | 0 of 26 |
| Nearest state with placements | Wisconsin, 7 |
| Empty states bordering Wisconsin | 3 of 4 |
| National median share, for reference | 40% of net |
How the Upper Midwest looks in this dataset
Like one active state surrounded by nothing. Wisconsin’s seven placements are the whole of the region’s record, and every state touching it on the west and north is blank.
| State | Signed placements |
|---|---|
| Wisconsin | 7 |
| Minnesota | 0 |
| Iowa | 0 |
| North Dakota | 0 |
| South Dakota | 0 |
That is the sharpest border in the dataset. Elsewhere activity thins out gradually — Illinois has two, Michigan three, Ohio six — but on Wisconsin’s western edge it stops completely. Nothing in the listings explains the line, because the listings record signatures rather than sales calls.
What Wisconsin’s seven tell you about a Minnesota venue
More than Minnesota’s zero does, and they are worth reading closely because they are the closest regional evidence available.
| Wisconsin venue | Type | Visitors a day | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin Dells | Water park (premium) | 480 | 40% |
| New Berlin | Family entertainment centre | 210 | 40% |
| Platteville | Bowling alley | 140 | 40% |
| Green Bay | Bowling alley | 110 | 30% |
| Rice Lake | Escape room | 68 | 40% |
| Appleton | Trampoline park | 55 | 40% |
| Marion | Campground | Not stated | 40% |
Six of the seven agreed 40% of net, which is the national median, and the seventh — a bowling alley — agreed 30%, consistent with a category that comes out low everywhere in what the revenue-share data shows across all 87 placements. Six are standard tier and one premium.
Two features of that set are useful to a Minnesota reader. The venue types are varied rather than concentrated, including a campground and an escape room, so a northern route is not restricted to the four categories that dominate our ranking of vending locations. And the shares barely moved across a fivefold spread in traffic, which is the pattern the whole record shows.
How populous an empty state Minnesota is
Among the larger ones. Of the 21 states with no placement, most are small or sparsely populated, which makes a blank row unremarkable. Minnesota is not in that group.
| Empty state | Relative position |
|---|---|
| Arizona | Most populous state with no placement |
| Minnesota, Indiana, Colorado | Also populous, also empty |
| Oregon, Utah, Nevada | Mid-sized, empty |
| The Dakotas, Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware, Rhode Island | Small, empty — unremarkable |
| Alaska, Hawaii | Empty, and stated as outside the locator’s coverage |
Population rankings come from Census Bureau state estimates. Minnesota sits in the second group: large enough that an empty row is a fact about the route rather than about the market, and inside the locator’s stated coverage of every state but Alaska and Hawaii.
What the zero cannot be read as
Three readings the data does not support, and it is worth being exact about why. The record is one locator’s signed venues across a single 2026 season, which means an empty state shows only that this company did not sign there.
- Not an absence of venues. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Rochester and Duluth hold bowling alleys, trampoline parks, indoor playgrounds and family entertainment centres — the four categories supplying 44 of the 87 placements.
- Not a coverage decision. Alaska and Hawaii are blank because the company says it serves neither. Minnesota carries no such statement.
- Not a refusal by Minnesota venues. The listings record signatures, not approaches, so nothing distinguishes “asked and declined” from “never asked”.
What a first Minnesota placement would actually settle
A question no existing listing answers: whether the long indoor season in a cold-winter state changes what a venue agrees to. The record’s northern states hold one or two listings each — Maine two, Massachusetts two, Michigan three — which is too thin to separate a seasonal effect from ordinary variation.
Minnesota, with a metro full of indoor family venues and five months when they carry most of the region’s family leisure, is the natural test. Until one is signed, the state’s row stays blank and the honest comparison for a Minnesota venue remains Wisconsin’s seven. Vending machine locations by state shows where each state stands.
Frequently asked questions
How many vending machine placements does Minnesota have?
None. Minnesota is one of 21 states with no signed venue in the record collected on October 5, 2026, which covers 87 placements across 29 states.
Is that unusual for a state of Minnesota’s size?
Somewhat. Most empty states are small or sparsely populated, but Minnesota is among the more populous of the 21 on Census Bureau estimates, alongside Arizona, Indiana and Colorado.
What is nearby?
Wisconsin, with seven signed venues — the only state in the Upper Midwest with any. Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota are also empty, so Wisconsin’s seven sit inside a block of four empty states.
What can the empty row be used for?
Very little on its own. It records that one locator did not sign a Minnesota venue during one 2026 season, which is a fact about a sales route rather than about Minnesota demand.
What would a first Minnesota placement establish?
Whether a cold-winter indoor venue agrees different terms from a mild-winter one. No state in the record tests that cleanly, because the northern states in it have one or two listings each.
