A system comprising: a first vending machine comprising: an exterior chassis having a top, bottom, backside, front side, and first and second sides that couple the front side to the backside; a wireless short range communications node included in the chassis; and an actuator coupled to a compartment included in the chassis; a second VM; and at least one remote computing node comprising at least one machine readable medium storing first inventory data corresponding to the first VM and second inventory data corresponding to the second VM; (a) the actuator provides a vended good to an aperture in the front side upon actuation, (b) each of the front side and first and second sides includes no physically manipulatable consumer interface with which the consumer can control the first VM via direct physical manipulation of the first VM, and (c) neither of the first and second VMs include memory storing inventory data related to either of the first and second inventory data; wherein the at least one remote computing node comprises at least one machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing the at least one remote computing node to: communicate with at least one mobile computing node; store first and second data respectively corresponding to the first and second VMs; communicate the first and second data respectively to the first and second VMs, via the at least one mobile computing node, in response to communicating with the at least one mobile computing node; and communicate an actuation command to the first VM, via the at least one mobile computing node, to actuate the actuator to provide the vended good to the aperture; and wherein the first VM includes at least one machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing the first VM to discover the at least one mobile computing node and communicate with the at least one mobile computing node. a first vending machine comprising: an exterior chassis having a top, bottom, backside, front side, and first and second sides that couple the front side to the backside; a wireless short range communications node included in the chassis; and an actuator coupled to a compartment included in the chassis; an exterior chassis having a top, bottom, backside, front side, and first and second sides that couple the front side to the backside; a wireless short range communications node included in the chassis; and an actuator coupled to a compartment included in the chassis; a second VM; and at least one remote computing node comprising at least one machine readable medium storing first inventory data corresponding to the first VM and second inventory data corresponding to the second VM; (a) the actuator provides a vended good to an aperture in the front side upon actuation, (b) each of the front side and first and second sides includes no physically manipulatable consumer interface with which the consumer can control the first VM via direct physical manipulation of the first VM, and (c) neither of the first and second VMs include memory storing inventory data related to either of the first and second inventory data; (a) the actuator provides a vended good to an aperture in the front side upon actuation, (b) each of the front side and first and second sides includes no physically manipulatable consumer interface with which the consumer can control the first VM via direct physical manipulation of the first VM, and (c) neither of the first and second VMs include memory storing inventory data related to either of the first and second inventory data; wherein the at least one remote computing node comprises at least one machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing the at least one remote computing node to: communicate with at least one mobile computing node; store first and second data respectively corresponding to the first and second VMs; communicate the first and second data respectively to the first and second VMs, via the at least one mobile computing node, in response to communicating with the at least one mobile computing node; and communicate an actuation command to the first VM, via the at least one mobile computing node, to actuate the actuator to provide the vended good to the aperture; and communicate with at least one mobile computing node; store first and second data respectively corresponding to the first and second VMs; communicate the first and second data respectively to the first and second VMs, via the at least one mobile computing node, in response to communicating with the at least one mobile computing node; and communicate an actuation command to the first VM, via the at least one mobile computing node, to actuate the actuator to provide the vended good to the aperture; and wherein the first VM includes at least one machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing the first VM to discover the at least one mobile computing node and communicate with the at least one mobile computing node.