A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage area where predetermined groups of stored articles are located at predetermined positions within the housing. An article retrieval device is associated with the housing for moving articles to be vended from the storage area to a dispensing area. A user interface and control apparatus allows a user of the dispensing apparatus to initiate an article dispensing operation, and generates control signals for causing controlled movement of the article retrieval device so that a user selected article is retrieved from a predetermined location in the article storage area and moved to the dispensing area. The user interface and control apparatus includes a memory for storing therein a plurality of sets of control information, each of a plurality of sets of control information being required for generating proper control signals for the retrieval device when the storage area has disposed therein a corresponding predetermined arrangement of the groups of stored articles. A selection device coupled to the control apparatus allows selection of a given one of the sets of control information in the memory when a corresponding predetermined arrangement of the groups of articles are stored therein, so that when a desired article is selected by a user, it is properly retrieved from the predetermined location in the article storage area and moved to the dispensing area.