Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Dr. Pepper and Snapple vending machines in Dallas, New York City and Chicago will now be contactless payment friendly, according to a deal announced Thursday between MasterCard and the Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages. As part of that deal, the test machines will accept “all major credit cards” and not just those using MasterCard’s PayPass.

The agreement also included USA Technologies, which makes the e-Port device that lets the vending machines accept contactless payments. The companies said “as many as 1,000″ Pepper/Snapple machines effort is the beginning of a larger contactless rollout for 5,000 POS terminals and vending machines in a dozen U.S. cities, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Seattle, Miami, Orlando and Washington, D.C. That larger rollout “will be installed over the next several weeks and represents the largest rollout of contactless technology in the vending and POS markets,” a joint statement said.

The move is not unexpected, as the contactless payment space is one of the brighter spots for RFID. But the vending machine segment is especially compelling as candy/snack/softdrink prices soar, making cash payments more inconvenient.