Slashdot Mirror
Shop Till It Drops
Ando Japando writes "There's an article on NYTimes.com about a new vending machine in the US. Unlike the typical machine, this one is 18 ft wide and takes up 200 square ft. Of course, the convenience stores are not sure if this machine is a boon or a boo, but many people like it because it doesn't take up a lot of space. It'd be really cool to see these all over the place. Others complain about the lack of human interaction and perceive it as dehumanizing. That may be true, but at least it's not a live bait vending machine."
I want my Big Gulp and my hot dog with onions with as little (sub)human interaction as possible. They should just retrofit existing convenience stores with androids that know how to make change and get more Coors Light suitcases out of the back and point out the aisle with the barbecue chips.
i buy stuff on the internet all the time. if it doesn't come or arrives broken, i am basically screwed and have to deal with RMAs and trying to get my money back.
if everything came out of a machine, if my merchandise doesn't come or arrives broken, i can kick the shit out of the machine. MUCH BETTER.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
I'm just guessing, but that's probably the first time we've slashdotted a site pertaining to 'live bait.' That link was absolutely and totally random...
I don't find it dehumanizing. I find it GREAT! Now I can buy the 75 pack of enemas and the forbidden magazines without that weird guy behind the counter looking at me like I'm a freak.
on the horizon... I hear they are planning a vending machine for body parts to be installed in large hospitals. Just insert your credit card and punch buttons to receive a lovely, hardly used replacement liver!
I saw a program about Japan which featured a porn vending machine which was out on the street. Aside from the usual magazines and condoms, you could also buy a sex cup - a paper cup containing spongy jelly that you had intercourse with. Will the wonders of technology ever cease?
...you've ever slashdotted yer live bait website ;-)
LOL!
Dell, no... Compaq, definitely not.... Gateway, there it is; B-2 [punches B-2 into vending machine]. [Metal coil uncoils and pc tower drops **clunk**] [open flap and pull out computer]. ... [doesn't uncoil and gets stuck in machine] [now you start shaking it]... [monitor starts to fall]... **clunk** **crash**. Not another broken screen.
Now i just need a monitor.... C-7
Jonahweb.com has stuff.
This thing screams japan.
.. ANYTHING.
.. i was greeted by the teenage teller pocketing all the pennies from the penny cup.]
.. but I was in a strange area that I had never been to before. I wan't to know what the excuse of the folks who WORKED on the street and still didn't know it was.
.. imagine if you could pay it a buck and get printed directions ..
.. it probally would get them from map quest :(
200 ft is much less than another 2500 foot store hawking t-shirts and boardwalk crap in Ocean City, MD [where i think these things would clean up!]
Rather than have 100 shops that all sell suntan oil, 70';s iron on decal t-shirts, and assorted crap, put a dozen of these babys in, free up all that space, and put more restraunts, or hell
what i don't understand is folks complaining about how dehumanizing these are.
How is the 'inhumanity' of this machine a factor? Does the bored teenager/non english speaker/insaine freak behind the counter at a 7-11 REALLY provide you with a pleasant and memorable transaction? [Last time I walked into a 7-11
Or what about when I walk into a gas station and can't find a single person there who can speak the native tounge of the area. (english.)
No joke, maybe im just getting old, or maybe its different in New England or something, but when I was a kid - i remember being able to stop at a gas station and ask directions.
Last week I was looking for a Dr.'s office in Towson MD. I stopped at a gas station and asked them where [X street was]. They had no idea.
[or I gathered they had no idea, as they kept shouting 'no english, IDUNNO' at me.
I gave up asking the attendants, and called the dr.'s office from the phone outside the gas station. The receptionist answered the phone, and when I told her where I was - she answered cryptically "Turn around."
I did, and she was waving at me from inside the office across the street.
Ok - bad on me for not realizing I *wasn't* lost
of course, these machines don't have a map module yet . but GAWSH
then again
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
In issue 33, June 1957, Mad Magazine has an article called "Vending Machines of the Future." Including are such oversize machines as the Auto-Vend, which dispensed new cars for only 10,000 half dollars and the wife-o-mat, which seems like a great deal at only 20 half dollars.
Finally, there is the vend-o-vend, which is the ultimate in future vending machines which dispenses a vending machine. This will in turn dispense a vending machine and so on. The final vending machine will dispense a dime for the first vending machine and the whole mess starts again...
Others complain about the lack of human interaction and perceive it as dehumanizing.
If you have to count on going to the convenience store for your human interaction you've already been dehumanized.
Not in my town, unless bar-code scanners count as "image recognition". I imagine that camera over the touchscreen (I'm thinking of the A&P setup) is for security to glance over and see if you've tucked a steak into your pants.
Me, I like those things, but then again, I remember seeing a list of "Real Geek" qualities once, and I think number 3 was "Knowing that you could scan items faster than the clerk if only you had the chance". Well, now I have the chance.
My favourite game is to anticipate each step, so that I swipe my card through just as the machine starts its "Press 'Credit' on the card reader...", so that each sentence gets truncated to just the first syllable. It's a rich and full life I lead. :)
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
It's a machine. It's bound to break. It's bound to get jammed.
"Honey, will you run to the store and pick up some eggs?"
"I can't, the 7-11's broken again"
a woman walks into a bar. she asks the bartender for a sexual innuendo.
so the bartender gives it to her.
MORTAR COMBAT!
http://www.mrnick.binary9.net/riaa/
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
It's more fun to wander around in the store for an hour going "I don't know, what do you want to watch?"
must... stay... awake...
Machines can have kids now? AIEEEEEEEEE!
Yeah, I've seen those here in too. Only difference is there's a little joystick to manueveur the hand and you pick out the item. I think all of the ones here are broke though, because they always drop the item before I can get it to the door.
If puns were deli meats, this would be the wurst.
Too damn right, I mean do you really want the cashier to know you are buying that packet of condoms, butt plug, Ann Coulter book, anal lube etc?
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
I don't get them. First I have to slide my card. The terminal even tells me "Welcome to Publix, Please Slide Your Card". I slide it, and the screen goes blank (as though it's "blocking" for a response from the "server").
Then the cashier finally scans the first item, which apparently begins the transaction. Of course, this resets the debit terminal so now it asks me to slide my card again. I slide it again, and after about 5-10 agonizingly long seconds, it finally asks me if I want Debit or Credit.
I always mash the debit button hard, becuase somewhere in my primitive ape-mind I get the idea that the harder I push, the sooner it'll finally ask me for my friggin' PIN number. After another 10-15 seconds, it finally asks me for my pin number, which I can type in faster than it can pick up, so I often have to clear it and type it in more slowly (and with more force, of course).
Next, I wait for the cashier to finish scanning (unless it was just two or three items, which even the slowest cashier can finish scanning by the time the terminal has finished parsing my four-digit pin number and prompts me to "Please Wait for Cashier".
Then without fail, every time, the cashier asks me "Is that Debit or Credit"? Why can't hir cash register tell hir? I just tell hir before they even get to that step, even though sometimes they do it again out of habit. I wonder what happens if you tell them debit but you entered credit on the terminal?
Finally, the total comes up on the terminal and I need to press the green enter key. As my hand goes down to press it, the cashier manages to pull off one of the fastest hand motions you'll ever see from hir and hits it for me. What's the purpose of having me press the button to authorize the charge if the cashier is just going to do it for me? Can't I decide at the last moment that I really didn't want to spend that much money and back out of the whole deal? What if I did just out of principle? I'm sure I'd be asked not to shop there again...
I'll take a mega-vending-machine anyday, so long as it runs on something faster than a Z80 processor and a 50 baud terminal connection.
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF