Abstract: An automatic vending machine includes a drop and delivery shaft defining a drop direction therein for product packages such as bottles or cans. A fixation frame communicates with the drop and delivery shaft for receiving a box having compartments defining product positions for product packages and having an open top being inclined relative to the drop direction for discharging into the drop and delivery shaft. A belt is attached to the fixation frame and covers the open top of the box. The belt has an opening formed therein with a contour dimensioned to permit precisely one predetermined group of adjacent product packages in the box, preferable containing only one single product package, to pass through the opening. The opening is displaceable from one product position in the box to another by incrementally moving the belt.