‘Mama-Mergency’ vending machine comes to the rescue at Dartmouth Mall | Dartmouth

Forgetting a diaper or a pacifier at home is enough to ruin any outing with a baby or toddler — until now. Meet Mama-Mergency, a brand new vending machine at the Dartmouth Mall designed to give parents quick and easy access to baby essentials to avoid the stress of rushing home.

The Mama-Mergency machine is the first of its kind, designed by sisters Kristy and Kelly Walton who live in Fall River and Middleborough respectively. The vending machine can be found at the Dartmouth Mall just outside of the GNC and The Toy Vault.

Kristy and Kelly are new to the vending machine business. From the beginning, they knew they wanted their vending machine to be something special that offered something that other vending machines didn’t. Kelly was inspired by her best friend and mother of two daughters.

“She’s a super mom,” Kelly said of her best friend. “I wanted to shine a light on mothers.”

Kelly and Kristy created Mama-Mergency to empower mothers and all parents by making their jobs just a little easier. Though neither Kristy nor Kelly have kids, they know from spending lots of time with their nieces and nephews what a hassle it is to forget something like a pacifier or a diaper at home. It can be a scramble to rush home and grab something, Kelly said.

“Instead of it being a whole big thing, the machine is right there,” Kelly said. “So it’s easy for them.”

She and Kristy surveyed their friends who are parents to decide which items should go inside the vending machine. The vending machine includes everything from rash creams to diapers to sippy cups. Kristy is an “extreme couponer.” She said this earns her big discounts on supplies like diapers to keep the vending machine stocked and to pass along the savings to parents.

“Most people view their moms as being super-moms,” Kristy said. “We view moms as super moms, too.”

Mistakes happen to everyone, Kelly said, and parents shouldn’t have to feel bad for forgetting something.

“It’s OK to forget something, or to need something. There should be no stigma behind that,” Kelly said. “It happens to everybody.”

Far from being passive income, Kristy said it takes a lot of work to keep the vending machine in proper order. From constantly keeping the machine stocked to installing mechanical components for accepting cash money and credit cards — it hasn’t been easy.

“It’s a lot harder than you think,” Kristy said.

They said there’s potential for growth, and depending on how their first vending machine does, they said they might launch other Mama-Mergency machines in the future.