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."
but something very much like it is quite common in Japan. The last time I was there, there was a beast of a machine that sold everything from fast food to condoms in the lobby.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
login: generic99
password: generic
Or just make up your password on the fly http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html
At least not until they make one that dispenses the latest neighborhood gossip with each purchase, gives credit to regular customers, and sells dime bags under the counter.
We've had these for years now, here in Belgian. Even the place my parents live (a small town on the countryside) has a few of these. There are especially popular when you don't have much time, or during the night, when while hacking on that big project at 3 AM, you realise you are hungry and are out of Dorito's and Coke...
The NYT article didn't include a picture, but this page on the Shop 2000 web site does.
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
We probably won't be getting the beer machines here
Actually the previous company I worked for had a vending machine that dispensed beer (MGD and Icehouse), it was right next to the coke machine, and it didn't check id. The name of the company was Rockwell Software, but I'm not sure if they still have the machine or not, it's been a few years since I've worked there.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I have lived in Tokyo since 1994. Panty machines were never particularly common, and it has been at least two years since I have seen one anywhere. Granted, I don't usually frequent areas where you'd be likely to find those, but even on occassions when I have been in those areas, they weren't common. I've only seen two or three of them in my life.
:-)
:-p
:-)
Rubber machines are around, though. They aren't common, but you see them every once in a while. Oddly, they don't usually seem to be in proximity to any sex-related businesses, not even love hotels. There's one about 50 meters from one of my neighborhood convenience stores. Weird, because the convenience store also sells rubbers. There was also one on the road to the local high school, but it's gone now. I don't know if:
1) High school students don't use rubbers much;
2) The school pressured them to take it away;
3) The students stole it
I haven't seen a pr0n vending machine in a long time, either. They may have been outlawed. Pr0n involving underage girls only got outlawed a couple years ago. Up until then, my neighborhood video store used to sell it.
Tokyo and Nagano were the last two prefectures to outlaw prostitution by girls under 18. Before that, they both drew the line at 16 (the age of majority in Japan is 20). Tells you what politicians here and in Nagano are up to
While on that topic, and contrary to the squeaky clean media image that Japan works to hard to maintain abroad, prostitution is big business here. Whorehouses and similar operations are commonplace and operate openly, with signs describing what kind of place it is. This despite the fact that prostitution is illegal in Japan. The country's least enforced law. If it's enforced at all, it's only against foreign streetwalkers. Japanese ones are safe. Also contrary to the squeaky clean media image, there's a huge amount of xenophobia and racism here.
Prostitution is very expensive here, though. Figure on $250 or more for sex, and that's *if* they'll let you in if s you're a foreigner. Some of the workers there may be foreigners (Southeast Asian or Eastern European) but in most places only Japanese are allowed to be customers. And I don't mean only Japanese citizens. I mean only ethnic Japanese (this doesn't include Japanese-Americans or anything like that, either, unless they can pass themselves off as Japanese by speaking at a native level).
It's an odd place.
Oh, about capsule hotels. They don't cost anything like $100 a night. They're the cheapest accomodations around, try $35 - $50. This is dirt cheap in Japan. Only the gutter is less
A woman walks into a pub and asks the barman for a Double Entendre. The barman gives her one.
See, "double entendres" sounds like a drink, which is half of the joke. Saying "sexual innuendo" gives it away and ruins the punchline. I doubt anyone finds this funny now that it's been repeated 3 times though!! ;-)
Yes, I think the one in Zurich has been there at least 20 years. When it first opened, all shops in Zurich closed at 6:30PM by law, and even today, you won't find much open after 8PM, and certainly nothing open 24 hours.
I don't think the shop had much of a vandalism problem, although at times it attracted a pretty rough crowd in the early morning hours (Ten years ago, the Heroin scene was pretty close to the main station, and even today, many of the Zurich homeless, although there aren't all that many, hang around main station). It's built pretty solidly.
I live up the street from the machine in the NY Times article. I rented a DVD ($1.59!) from it one of the first days it was open. Took it home and it was scratched to hell. What was my recourse? I ended up going back over there and one of the staff happened to be standing there, and she gave me my money back out of her purse. But that's not very sustainable!
Incidentally, I have a good closeup of what's stocked in the machine on this page.