A sanitized vending machine includes product and cup dispensing mechanisms and an actuation mechanism. The product dispensing mechanism, holding product items, rotates through a product dispensing cycle to dispense them. The cup dispensing mechanism, holding a stack of cups, rotates through a cup dispensing cycle to dispense an empty cup to an intermediate location in a drop chute spaced above a final discharge location. Dispensing cycles occur in a predetermined sequence enabling the dispensed product items to be received in a dispensed empty cup and the cup dropped to the discharge location. An access door locking mechanism is coupled to the actuation mechanism so as to maintain the access door in a locked condition and closed position from start of an actuation cycle to completion thereof whereupon the access door is converted to an unlocked condition permitting a user to open the access door and remove a cup with product items.
