Abstract: Picking apparatus for picking and dispensing plastic sheet wrapped videocassette packages onto a high speed product gathering conveyor comprises a package dispensing mechanism with a package feed magazine containing a replenishable stack of these packages stacked on a platform of the dispensing mechanism. The dispensing mechanism is controlled by a computer and has a pair of dispensing belts with cogs that engage the package at the bottom of the stack and dispense it at a prescribed time off the platform and onto the conveyor. A set of nozzles with a pressurized air supply is operated to forcibly direct air between adjacent packages in the stack in a sequential manner to reduce adhesion therebetween prior to their dispensing and a bumper operated by a controlled plunger timely bumps the package at the bottom of the stack to help free it from the one immediately above and start it in the dispensing direction.