with supply and demand and all… IM DEMANDING CANNED BREAD!! where’s the supply 🥺?
It replaces workers with robots so it would probably save money too.
My company has a vending machine for computer accessories. For example, if you need a replacement mouse, just go over to the machine, wave your badge in front of the sensor, select the mouse, and wait for it to drop
We used to. They were called Vendo-mats. They had sandwiches and cakes and all kinds of things. They weren’t exactly vending machines in the sense that things would fall down. The food was behind a little door you’d open after paying. I’m too young to remember what the stuff tasted like, but it seemed pretty good because the food would always have to be put in the machines fresh every day.
the food would always have to be put in the machines fresh every day.
ate from these on a few occasions as a kid, and no, they were not fresh every day. I remember my mom sniffing egg salad sandwiches and throwing half the ones they purchased in the trash at a rest stop. also had them at rest stops in the UK in the late 80s as well. it was not great.
The Horn and Hardart automat was an interesting bit of early 20th century Americana.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Horn_%26_Hardart_automat.JPG
Just like the cake machines in the TVA break rooms!
as an elder millennial, I can say they were not that great. I enjoyed the novelty though.
I’m seeing a lot of advanced retail in US vending machines - inside airports. Food, electronics, cosmetics, all kinds of stuff.
This hints at the problem. Airports have improved security and you have to spend money on a plane ticket to enter so they don’t suffer the same dystopia as public spaces in the US which are trashed and destroyed by any asshole coming through who doesn’t give a shit, including the extremely impoverished and homeless which as a category includes many drugged up people, congenital criminals, and mentally ill. There are some over generalizations here about Americans all having no respect for others and this isn’t fair. Most are wonderful people. But enough Americans suck that it spoils the party for everyone, and broken window syndrome is a thing.
Sidenote: Homelessness_in_Japan is really low because they made some serious efforts to tray and reduce it.
Homelessness in Japan is illegal, so people turn Internet cafe pods into “homes”.
I wonder if they’re including those that are living in internet cafes and such. I remember that being a pretty prevalent problem a bit back. Wikipedia says they counted it on 2007, but no notes of whether they continue to include them or not as homeless.
Not discounting their achievement though, they have their shit together, at least way more than the US
That’s interesting. It sounds like people are paying to be in those facilities, where they can get showers and food in addition to a place to be. Almost like everyone is tacitly okay with the arrangement. This is certainly not housing but neither is it exactly homelessness.
I’ll give that a read. There’s also almost no homelessness in San Francisco Chinatown, despite the rest of the city being an open sore. I’ve never heard the whole story about why but I think it’s a combination of active community development organizations offering low cost housing and cultural differences in how families work, how drugs are regarded, and what is permitted out in the open street.
Chinatown is a more unique environment. Lots of foot traffic, sidewalk vendors, and really tight knit community. Its not a scaleable solution though. Hard to make that kinda of super dense area everywhere
Think about it realistically. Considering just food machines, what foods popular with Americans can realistically be sold out of a vending machine?
Popcorn is a clear winner. It can be made in advance, stored for a while, and then easily dispensed. Its profit margin is high. You can charge two dollars for a bag of popcorn that only cost you twenty cents in ingredients.
Packaged food like potato crisps is also a good idea for the same reason. You don’t even need to keep the vending machine heated. Similarly, cold drinks and ice cream can also be easily dispensed out of a cooled vending machine, although I don’t consider those different from “packaged food”.
But what other American classics are there to consider? Hamburgers are out immediately. They’re too complex to prepare fresh and most people wouldn’t buy a reheated frozen burger.
Hot dogs might be viable, but a machine that sells hot dogs can only see hot dogs due to the mechanical complexity. I think many people would also question the freshness of a vending machine hot dog unless you cooked it right in front of them and let them see it via a glass window. Additionally, a hot dog has a much lower profit margin. If you charge four dollars for a hot dog, it might cost nearly a dollar in ingredients along with the mechanical complexity of the machine. Most people would expect the machine to also dispense condiments like ketchup, mustard, and relish.
Pizza is also complex and would take several minutes to bake from fresh or reheat from frozen. I don’t think people would stand around for several minutes waiting for a machine to heat up pizza. Unless you can get the cooking time under sixty seconds, forget it. Pizza also traditionally baked at 700 degrees Fahrenheit, or 370 degrees Celsius. It’s not an easy to safely install a component that gets that hot in a machine. Pizza that is pre-cooked and kept warm tends to not taste very good.
Fried chicken tenders will lose their crispness over time, even when kept warm. There is no temperature you can keep fried chicken at where it will remain crisp for hours but also not overcook. Hot oil in a machine is a recipe for disaster. French fries are a possible inclusion (the machine in the post sells French fries), but Americans don’t really eat French fries on their own; they are usually served as a side dish along with something else.
Ideally, a machine should be loaded with frozen or pre-cooked food, which it merely keeps warm and dispenses to a buyer when purchased.
Think about Japanese food. Curry, in particular, can be served just barely hot and still delicious. Rice balls can be served refrigerated, as can cold Lawson sandwiches. Instant ramen is also popular, but that’s just packaged food that requires a hot water spigot. I argue that Japanese food in general is just more suitable to be served out of a vending machine.
When I was stationed at Camp Pendleton around 2003-ish, one of the barracks I was at had a pizza vending machine. It made cheese pizzas (maybe pepperoni too, but I am not sure) that were a little smaller than a frisbee and cost around $5 (at a time when the priciest McDonald’s value meal was almost $5). I never had any myself, but it did take a couple minutes to make and (if I remember correctly) the crust was mostly pre-made. Being able to watch the process (a crust drops onto the conveyor, a robot puts the sauce on, another robot puts the cheese on, another robot puts the toppings on (if any), the pizza is conveyored through the oven) would help occupy the customer’s time. If the crust is pre-made, you’re really just broiling the cheese and toppings to get them melty and hot.
I don’t think the pizza was too tasty or popular, but it was a convenient option if you were drunk.
It’s a lot more complex than an ordinary vending machine though. That increases costs. A curry machine is nothing more than a normal vending machine with a heater. A ramen machine is nothing more than a normal vending machine with a tap for hot water. Adjusted for inflation, the pizza machine would cost $8 for a small pizza. You can buy one from Little Caesar’s for the same price and it’s bigger and probably tastes better as well, since, as cheap at it is, the crust is at least fresh.
We have fish bait vending machines with worms in them
I don’t trust vending machines anymore. I barely used them ever but over the years I got moldy food a couple times and a bunch of times the thing gets stuck and I end up not getting what I paid for. fool me once, shame on, shame on you… fool me, can’t get fooled again
I just realized that in something like 200 years, no one is really going to understand the difference between George Bush and George W Bush. Like, they’ll know they were two different people, but mis-attributing something that one Bush said to the other Bush will be seen as an easy mistake to make (much like how nowadays, John Adams and John Quincy Adams are seen as two different people but are not really that different in the average person’s eyes).
Like, there might be memes of 41 saying “…fool me -can’t get fooled again. Heheh” and no one will realize what’s wrong with the picture.
We used to have cigarette vending machines here, but nooo, all the people worried about not dying of preventable diseases had to go and ruin the fun.
Love that Bill Hicks quip “i wasnt a heavy snoker. I go through two lighters a day, dude.”
Many countries still have ciggy vending machines.
Popcorn seems like the simplest to me. Saw one in a subway in Buenos Aires once. Its so cheap and once it pops, the smell sells itself
Needs to be cleaned every day.
By human or machine?
Having worked at a movie theater, I can tell you that the answer is “by a human”
If you can make a machine that cleans a popcorn popper well enough to pass a health inspection, you’ll be a very rich person. Especially a small vending-machine-sized popper-and-dispenser all-in-one jobby.
I don’t understand the question.
You have a vending machine in a train station cooking greasy popcorn all day. Is there a machine that can clean that ?
Baked on greasy-buttery-ness is very difficult to clean.
Pretty sure a machine that can be built to make popcorn can also.be engineered to self clean. Human maintenance one per week to swap out parts and re-top corn.
I’m sure it’s possible but I suspect it’s simply not cost effective.
Removing grease requires hot water, harsh solvents, and scrubbing. If you’ve ever cleaned an oven or bbq or whatever I’m sure you’d agree that it would be very difficult to automate.
That looks more like a hot vending machine
I will say while I deeply agree that we don’t have a cool vendung machine American identity…
My mall has vending machines for cotton candy that will make shapes, a vending machine for hijabs and other covers, a vending machine for medication and beauty products, a vending machine for umbrellas and a vending machine for weed.
I’d rather just have curry and hot chocolate but hey… Its something.
In the Netherlands Food Automats are still very popular
Looks cool! How is the quality?
Idk about food but I used to work for a company that sold fastners and tools via vending machine all the time.
MSC?
Fastenal
Fastenal them nuts amirite??!
In the USA they lack the population density pressure to make it the most optimal solution of serving food, and the startup costs don’t justify changing from human labor to fully automated food sales. Also I bet the quality isn’t as good as you think it is from some preserved fried food wrapped in plastic.
Your first sentence hit the nail on the head. Most Americans travel nearly exclusively in their car. Why would they get out of their car to use a vending machine when McDonald’s has a drive-thru? Or if they are willing to get out, why wouldn’t they just pick up fresher food from a restaurant? Moreover, mobile ordering has solved the issue of having to talk to people.
The US does have some vending machines like this, but pretty much exclusively in areas with very high foot traffic, like airports, train stations in major cities, etc.
Is that really what’s happening in the picture OP posted? Like someone puts foil wrapped morsels of… food in there once a week and the machine just keeps a couple hot and ready to go?
Seems very unappealing.
That said here in Australia the food you get at gas stations / road houses is more or less the same, just that there’s a person to heat it up and hand it to you.
Japan loves wrapping everything in plastic. They and the US were the only ones not to sign a promise reduce plastic usage. For all the appearances of Japan being eco conscious, they have this one big issue.
And whales.
Whale meat isn’t even that popular. Boomers just like it and like “pissing off the libs”. Younger generations don’t like it.
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I saw an orange juice machine but it had a stupid fancy touchscreen and was out of order.
I feel like there’s potential in this if you avoid the temptation to go with a complicated touchscreen and instead just keep everything as mechanical as possible
Where I am in Canada we have personal pizza machines, coin-op skate sharpening and once I saw a french fries/onion rings one. Coffee vending machines used to be a thing but I think K Cups kind of took that over
Coin op skate sharpening sounds perfect for Canada.
I wonder if I could bring that to Finland…?
