AMARILLO, Texas --- Today's vending machines not only dispense products of all shapes and sizes but they also come in all shapes and sizes.

One of the newest vending entries to the market looks something like a small camper.

The Twice the Ice machine produces, stores and doles out ice in 16-pound bags or 20 pounds loose from a chute straight into a customer's cooler.

A Jacksonville, Fla.-based company, Ice House America, builds the units at its manufacturing facility in Moultrie, Ga. It's a concept spreading across the Southeast.

The company is led by CEO and President Bob Alligood, a native of Moultrie and a graduate of the University of Florida's Engineering School who lives in Jacksonville.

In Texas, Jason Boyett and Shane Nance teamed up to bring Twice the Ice to Amarillo.

"We had a huge day on July 4," Mr. Boyett said. "We actually sold out of ice -- sold it faster than we could make it."

The icehouse portion of the machine produces 35 pounds of ice every eight minutes, Mr. Nance said. When stored ice inside a 6,500-pound bin dips below a particular level, a trigger starts the ice maker, Mr. Boyett said.

The partners are able to sell the ice for a flat $1.50 rate, regardless of the amount purchased, because they have cut out middle-man costs of buying ice from a supplier and trucking it in, he said.

"And it's never touched by human hands," Mr. Boyett said. "It's completely sanitary."

They regularly monitor ice production, clean up and replenish the bags and twist-ties.

"You see something like this and think, 'Why hasn't someone come up with this before?' " Mr. Boyett said.

Anything is possible, now that technology has enabled vending machines and automated kiosks to accept credit and debit cards, said Jackie Clark, a spokeswoman for the National Automatic Merchandising Association.

"It opens up a whole new line of products you can easily sell in a machine," Ms. Clark said. Machines now dispense iPods, cell phones and disposable cameras.

Wal-Mart is betting that customers like the convenience of renting DVDs from in-store machines. Machines charge $1-a-day fees to a renter's credit or debit card.

Wal-Mart has installed a Redbox DVD kiosk at grocery entrances to many stores, said David Craig, the market manager for the region.

Movies rented from the machines can be returned to any Wal-Mart, regardless of where they were rented