Smart Cigar Vending Machine with Built-in Cutter, Match Dispenser, and Advanced Climate Control

A vending machine for cigars and other similar smoking products, collectively referred to herein as cigars, the vending machine comprises:

• a main housing with a base and a plurality of surfaces that collectively define an interior cavity, one of the plurality of surfaces is a front surface, the front surface has a dispensing aperture that provides access to a drop tray disposed within the interior cavity, a transparent display panel configured to exhibit a display portion of the interior cavity, a touchscreen interface configured to receive user input, a scanner port operatively connected to an age-verification system disposed within the interior cavity, and a cigar cutter aperture that provides access to a cigar cutter disposed within the interior cavity;
• a plurality of shelving and dispensing units inclined relative to a vertical axis and disposed within the display portion of the interior cavity of the main housing above the drop tray, each shelving and dispensing unit is divided into a plurality of columnar segments arranged side by side, each columnar segment has a stack of compartments that extends between an upper end and a lower end of the columnar segment, and a motorized dispensing cylinder disposed at the lower end adjacent to the lowest compartment of the stack of compartments;
• and
• a climate control system disposed within the main housing;
• wherein each compartment of the stack of compartments, except for the lowest compartment, is configured to shelve and display a cigar in a manner that enables the cigar to physically support a cigar in the compartment immediately above and be physically supported by a cigar in the compartment immediately below, the lowest compartment is configured to shelve and display a cigar in manner that enables the cigar to physically support a cigar in the compartment immediately above and be physically supported by the motorized dispensing cylinder below, thereby forming a stable stack of cigars;
• wherein the motorized dispensing cylinder controllably delivers cigars from the stack of cigars to the drop tray below and is configured to reduce or eliminate the risk of blockage of cigars during dispensing;
• wherein the drop tray is configured to collect cigars delivered thereto and to direct the collected cigars toward the dispensing aperture of the front surface of the main housing for retrieval;
• and
• wherein the climate control system is configured to regulate the environmental conditions within the display portion of the interior cavity of the main housing to maintain the quality of the cigars shelved and displayed therein.