Automated retail across the New York City subway.
In collaboration with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, CC Vending II is transforming long-vacant subway newsstands and retail spaces into modern automated retail destinations - giving riders convenient access to beverages, snacks and everyday essentials while creating revenue streams for underutilized transit infrastructure.
The program was secured through the MTA's competitive RFP process and is anchored by Coca-Cola as its exclusive beverage provider. The first locations are now open 24/7 at the 23rd Street-Broadway, Second Avenue-East Houston and 116th Street-Lexington Avenue stations in Manhattan, with additional locations planned across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
CC Vending II is a joint venture between Transit Tech NYC and CC Vending, Inc., a family-owned operator with more than 35 years in the industry and thousands of machines in service across the New York metropolitan area. Transit Tech NYC leads design, engineering, construction, and program management; CC Vending leads operations, service, and logistics.
"This is a smart way to repurpose former traditional walk-in retail units. The RFP process resulted in securing a 'master tenant' to install and curate vending machines over time to bring useful products to customers, delivering a better customer experience and a productive use of existing space."
David Florio, MTA Chief of Real Estate Transactions and Operations Officer
From the MTA's official announcement, July 30, 2026.
The concept began on the operator side. As Florio explained to the New York Post, vending machine operators initially approached the MTA about bringing the model to the subway, and the agency "decided to try that model out."
Vending returns to the subway.
This is a return, not an invention. From the 1880s through the 1970s, vending machines were a fixture of the New York City subway - chewing gum, peanuts, chocolate, coffee, even soft-serve ice cream at the Jay Street station in Brooklyn. This program brings vending back to the system for the first time in roughly fifty years. "It brings life and commerce and energy back into the system," Polly Desjarlais of the New York Transit Museum told Curbed as the first locations opened.
