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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,
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
Removing human interaction is the trend, and it's going to keep happening. Two national chains that I know of off the top of my head : Sheetz & Wawa have both removed human interaction from the ordering process for food - you interact with a touch screen, and the order is printed for the human to process. For now - phase 1 - the human is still visible, and exists.
Look at grocery checkout lines - I'm sure you've all seen the image recognition lines that photograph and weigh your items and let you check them out yourselves.
I'm pretty sure we're going to tell our kids about the days you had to talk to people to buy things at the store.
I was in Sheetz once, and a man walked in and tried to order a sandwich. He was pressing buttons for quite some time and growing visibly more distressed, until after a while he looked over the counter and said "Can't I just talk to somebody?".
It became apparent to me after some reflection that the gentleman was illiterate.
All I know is, if that thing fails to drop my diapers, tipping it is going to be a bitch.
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!
what happens if products that expire, like eggs and milk, don't get "changed out" in time? What recourse do you have?
before i even checked out the article i was going to say that i'd seen one of these in adams morgan a block from the bfs' - i hadn't realized it was the only one in the US.
i haven't actually had the nerve to go up and use it yet, but it's a great idea considering there aren't any 24-hour convenience stores in the immediate vicinity.
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?
Imagine a grandma accidentially punching in the number for condoms, instead of her skin cream. No returns... very bad for customer relations.
I imagine they can save a couple bucks an hour on labor, but at what cost? You lose some business because it can't service you to all your whims. if something you buy is obviously defective, oh well. buy another one. That doesn't cut it with Real People. And how much does one of these cost? If it's, say, $200k (i'm guessing, wildly), plus service when it breaks down, plus electricity costs, plus someone who stocks the machine, is it really worth it to save the 50 thousand or so a year (365 days, 6 an hour, 24 hours a day)? Small regualr candybar/chip/pop machines cost up to 10 thousand up front, are produced by the masses and are already very accepted by society.
I'm really not seeing this thing becoming the all-answer to our problems, though it may have a niche market.
Did anyone ever read A Stainless Steal Rat is Born? It's been a long time since I read it, but in the book the main character spends a good bit of time in an automated fastfood restaurant hiding from the police. It was really easy for him to steal food there since it had a built in test button that served up sandwiches to the back room, and since there were no employees noone was there to stop him (except the restocking guy, who came once a week).
The restaurant itself was really cool, a person would put in their order, and the automated system would have everything cooked and ready to go before the customer even got their money out to pay. Much better than McDonalds, which in some places can be slower than a sit down restaurant because the employees are so slow.
The machine's name is Shop 2000! I wonder how long it will take for the number 2000 to stop being associated with all things futuristic? 2010? 3000?
...you've ever slashdotted yer live bait website ;-)
LOL!
"Whoever made this is a genius. A guy in the store can make a mistake or give you a hard time, but not the machine. I definitely prefer the machine to a person."
Just wait until this fellow puts in five dollars only to see it disappear without a trace, or until that packet of Pop-Tarts gets stuck halfway off its little rack and won't drop however much he kicks the machine. He'll start looking for someone to whine to about getting his money back.
Ah, well, I shouldn't complain. I work for a company which thinks that providing us with a couple of tables, a Coke machine and one of those automat machines which dispenses packaged Danish and five-dollar sandwiches satisfies their obligation to provide us with a cafeteria.
hyacinthus.
I have to agree with the critics on this one. This might be a good idea in a few select locations (high crime, etc...) but for the most part it's too dehumanizing for american culture.
Besides, of the "four C's" mentioned in the article (cigarettes, cold drinks, candy, and coffee) three of them already have dedicated vending machines, and the fourth did for a long time until they became illegal (at least in CA). There's still a place for convenience stores.
Even at 2:30am in the morning, when I stop in for a coffee and some sort of warm snack in the middle of a road trip, the small amount of human interaction I receive there is important.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
But what's to stop someone determined from throwing a cinder block through the glass panel? Maybe it's really strong Plexiglass or something, but I'm sure a really determined person can get right through it. It'd be very obvious that you were robbing it (people chucking cinder blocks through windows don't tend to go unnoticed...), but I think it would be definitely possible. I'd actually be more worried about theft from this than I would from a store.
________________________________________________
suwain_2
login: generic99
password: generic
Or just make up your password on the fly http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html
Just wait until this fellow puts in five dollars only to see it disappear without a trace, or until that packet of Pop-Tarts gets stuck halfway off its little rack and won't drop however much he kicks the machine. He'll start looking for someone to whine to about getting his money back.
If that were a problem, payphones would never have taken off, nor indeed any other sorts of vending machines. There's probably a label on the front giving a number to call if there are any real problems. Route this number to a depot and one maintenance man's territory is simply a function of how frequently the machine fails.
I recently realised that in the states "video/dvd renting vending machines" aren't the big thing. I just don't understand why.
In Spain, France, Italy... most of Europe really... you find these cool little machines, about twice the size of a coke vending machine, where you can rent over 500 vhs or dvds any time of the day. Most of them don't require a membership card (which a f'ing annoying anyway), just a credit card. If you return the video within a few hours you pay much less. If you don't return it, they just charge your credit card. Simple and fair. No hazzle.
But yeah... why aren't these machines the bomb in the States, where vending machines are so normal? Any thoughts?
-Kraft
Live and let live
Could anyone find any place with more pictures of it/it working? The article was quite limited in that area.
Dehumanizing is a good thing, here is the human experience: "Can I use your bathroom." noisclose "Sorry, I didn't hear you" no-is-close "I still can't understand what you are saying." IT'S LOCKED!!!!!!!! "Ahh. Okay, I get it now! Yeesh."
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...
I work 2 blocks down the street from the damn thing... The prices are outrageous... but... if you need diapers, condoms, or candy at 3am its a godsend. On another note, Adams Morgan consists mostly of low income housing and bars... and if some teen(s) in that housing or even the drunk fratties that frequent the area are willing to buy condoms from that thing instead of not at all, then the world is a better place because of it.
And I disagree with the the editor guy who said "I'm concerned about the people this is going to put out of work," Don't look at people as something that needs to be kept occupied. Think of all the more usefull things people can be freed up for when machines handle simple repetitive taskes. After all, is it a bad thing that there are soda vending machines instead of some guy spending his day standing at a vending stand selling the sodas? Is it bad that traffic lights have taken the place of a policeman standing in the intersection directing traffic? What about the poor scribes who are out of work now that we have copying machines? These people are all freed up to do something more usefull, and hopefully more interesting. This sort of progress is good.
As touched on in the article, vending machine rule in Japan. We probably won't be getting the beer machines here, even though a machine is probably better at checking IDs.
A toy store in the Ginza area has a giant vending area outside where there's Barbies and such going up to $100. Giftwrap is also included.
Near where my Mom lived there was an egg vending machine. Best I could figure it was stocked by farmers just outside town. I thought it was a great idea. A very inexpensive storefront for the egg farmer. I wouldn't see that as dehumanizing, but rather a way for the farmer to sell his eggs direct in an affordable manner.
a vending machine is dehumanising? are they trying to imply that working in a convenience store is not dehumanising? i suggest they go try it.
US Citizen living abroad? Register to vote!
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.
I hate those automated checkout machines at the grocery store...maybe it goes back to the UI class I had in college, but those machines don't "afford" usability, as my professor might say. It doesn't make sense to me to keep trying to scan things til the machine gets it right, then rotate the little baggy carousel, fill the next bag, and so on; particularly if I have a very large cart load, so there isn't enough space on the carousel.
:)
Maybe, despite my course work in CS, the fact that I can build a pc and write code, the fact that I figured out my microwave, stereo system, and telephone, maybe I'm just dumb
What is your Slash Rating?
oh, never mind that we have a 24-7 Giant supermarket (a clean one, too!) and a 24-7 Home depot (word of warning: don't buy new closet materials at 11:30pm on a Saturday, there is 1 check out line and 4,000,000 people on it) in gaithersburg/rockville,
I'm totally there!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Does anyone else remember the Internet Coke Machines, that you could finger and it would tell you how much of what kind of coke it had, and how cold it was (based on how long it had been in the machine).
Combine the two concepts (the Vendotron and the Net Accessible inventory) and you have a winner.
Sure, finger would need to be replaced with a web interface, but that can all be scripted...
- Serge Wroclawski
You also save a bundle on real estate - probably more than you would ever save on the personnel.
I like the idea. Sometimes I'm just not sociable, and I just want to get my stuff and get home without having to interact with anybody. Some people have it far worse; a social phobia can make going to a store a nightmare for them. This is a great, low-pressure way of doing small shopping without having to flash a false smile at some inane, equally fake, greeting from a cashier, or be looked at as a jerk because you could not give exact change.
/Janne
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
dialing, that is. If voicemail passwords are any indication, the remote access pword shouldn't be too hard.
"You can track sales remotely by dialing the machine's computer to find out exactly what's left of each item,"
Someones going to have a ton of fun with this feature.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
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...
Yeah, the California "starbucks" act has made automated coffee vending machines illegal.
Seattle is next!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
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
Given my experience with getting directions from gas stations in DC at night,
I'll take the machine! Especially if it SELLS A MAP of the district!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
"The public needs to get used to these kinds of stores, but I think it's inevitable that they will."
I thought the rule was the market responded to the consumer, that was supposed to be what was so great about a market econonmy. Obviously that is not always the case. Here is an example of the market dictating to the consumer.
By the way, who are these people who have to buy a DVD at 2am?
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Eh. Nah. There's no one at the machine to run back to crabbing that you didnt get what you wanted. I bet 99% of people will cool off and just forget about it by the time they feel like calling the company up and going through a process. The bigger things get, the worse customer service gets. I mean, why bother? If you're a little company, sure, begging for that last 10% of the scraps is what gets you ahead, but eventually its old hat, you have all the money you really need.. and you have your local monopoly... so who cares? Let em try and find something else to eat! I completely respect the path of least resistance. Thats why I say, if you're too dumb to use the vending machine in the first place, well... go hungry! It's a self solving problem, cause if too many dumb people die off, we'll have to start thinking about good customer service again!
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
We had a similar thing almost 10 years ago in the Netherlands. No-one bought anything from the machine. Within 6 months the damn thing was gone. There were all kinds of issues with it, vandalism, malfunctioning equipment, products passed vending date etc.
I can see the convenience of such a machine but i can't say i like them. Aside from no human interaction there are more things about it that doesn't appeal to me. First of all is that the product range is limited, for some reason alot of products are more expensive then normal store offered ones. And you can't easily get a refund if some product isn't good or past it's vending date.
I'm amazed that there is so much interest in live bait vending machines. Take a look at the counter at the bottom of the page. Who would have guessed there would be so much traffic for a web site in that industry.
Looks like I've found my next career move, since IT is down. From the looks of that single page, I'd have to guess that live bait vending must be a multi-billion dollar industry.
Who knew?
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"
The capsule hotels are for real. It exists to fill a market niche.
Subways in Japan are (reasonably) cheap. Taxis by contrast cost a nut. The subway closes down at midnight. If you get caught out after the last subway leaves, and you're living in the 'burbs, you're looking at dropping a Benjamin or two in order to get back home.
So what's a party guy to do other than sleep it off in the gutter?
Answer: the capsule hotel.
In a park around my house in the summer time... they have this french fry vending machine which cooks your fries on the spot... can you imagine eating fries made by some greasy machine which has been sitting out in the open for days ? disgusting!
a woman walks into a bar. she asks the bartender for a sexual innuendo.
so the bartender gives it to her.
MORTAR COMBAT!
I remember seeing this same thing years ago on a replay of a newsreel from the 50's, they had done a whole grocery store like this. I gotta see if I can find it (prior art ;)
...more than a few people are feeding it their cash and credit cards.
Oh, great. Now I not only have to worry about people stealing my credit card numbers off the Internet or out of the dumpster receipts, I'll be able to stay up nights wondering if someone's stolen the computer out of a vending machine that memorized it.
When you mentioned the MAD magazine article, the writer and artist of that article most likely remembered the Automat restaurant near Times Square that served food dispensed from vending machines. Little did they know that modern technology has taken what that article mentioned into near-reality.
well, if i understand (feet ?? hey, meters !!!), it's something like this. it's a European company that started at first in Belgium and France, and it's very very common here.
You also have tons of automatic dispensers (machines for coffee, sodas, sandwiches) of much smaller size everywhere, but i think it should exist in the US. However i'm surprised that such shops didn't exist before.
The key problem appears to be how to handle failures. It's one thing to fill out a little envelope and get some change back if it rips you off for a Coke.
But do you think that if it robs someone of $50 they won't drive their car into it? They'll definitely need a phone on it and then you'll be stuck talking to Ahmed anyway
"Hey man it ripped me off for $25!"
"Is no work?, sorry nothing to do buhbye."
Machines can have kids now? AIEEEEEEEEE!
The Mads already invented that on MST3K. Dr. Forester put TV's Frank's Liver in one for demo purposes.
Don't remember which movie they were doing though. I think it was a Joel Episode...
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I think that at this point, a credit card is the *standard* way of paying for gas. It's faster, easier, and more convenient. Slide card in, start pump, and a minute or two later, take receipt and go.
Mobil goes even further with SpeedPass, which authenticates even faster than a CC.
One of the things I HATE about living in NJ - There are labor laws that *REQUIRE* gas to be pumped by an attendant.
Guess what - At the Hess station near where I live, the attendant takes your credit card, and just slides it into the pump. Something I could just as easily do myself...
I hear that supposedly in some places in Europe mobile phones have enough market penetration that they can be used as a form of payment. (I believe similar to calling a 1-900 number... You can dial a number to pay for, for example, a booth at a golf driving range.) I could be WAY off on this though.
And don't forget EZ-Pass, automatic highway toll payment.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Going a step further, the truth is in the end we as a society get what we want. I see a parallel here to the Wal-Mart phenomenon, people screaming and crying because we lost "Main Street America" and all the quaint little shops ran by friendly old people, now run out of business by the huge, cold, evil product-dispensing Wal-Mart juggernaut.
Why did it happen? With evil corporate tricks? Smoke and mirrors? No; it was because people like it better this way. We like getting everything we need in one place, getting it quick, getting it cheap. Those little mom and pop shopkeepers screwed me over far more often than Wal-Mart ever could. You think Old Man Funkle from down the street had Wal-Mart's "return anything for any reason for a refund" policy? Hell no. He smiled at us as we came into his little shop, place smelling like cigar smoke, and he gouged the hell out of us. His selection sucked, it took forever to get checked out...
We have moved on. We need toothpaste, diapers, aspirin. We don't see getting those necessities as some wonderful opportunity to make new friends. If we could snap our fingers and make that stuff magically appear in our cabinets, we'd do it.
With the machine, we've taken the next step. There is no line (or at least less of one), there is none of that annoyance we get with humanity. When I want a conversation I'll talk to a friend. When I want a box of kleenex, I'll go to the Kleenex machine. If something has been lost, it is solely because we chose to lose it.
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
human interaction is the last thing I want when buying things - I go to bars for human interaction, at a store, I just want to get my stuff and get out, as quickly as possible. the less semi-literate abrasive humans stand between me and my purchase, the better.
sic transit gloria mundi
I've seen a number of people here claim that North American culture "demands" the rental store experience. Something about wandering around with friends endlessly, buying snacks, holding the boxes, etc. Well, I disagree. What do you think the growing acceptance of high-channel-count satellite/cable and pay-per-view are attributed to? More people each year are interested in "browsing" a selection of movies from the couch and opting out of the video rental store experience altogether. The leading edge of this is for the high-volume, popular, mainstream movies, but that's largely a distribution/bandwidth issue. Sure, the rental store is romantic for some, but people are ultimately price- and convenience-sensitive. Given a decent selection and price point (either monthly or per-watch), and you can see people clearly avoiding that "culture". As more interesting methods of "browsing" pay-per-view or perhaps even P2P movie sharing show up, I predict the rental culture will happily shrink. Afterall, it's -maybe- a 20 year old trend. Not like pubs or cafes or something that ingrained.
If vending machines hit the convenience and/or cost button, they'll tear some people away. Mybe for the novelty alone. Heck, even the internet video rental scene claims a growing susbscriber base over the last few years. But sit-on-the-couch-and-rent-with-your-remote is pretty compelling given a large selection (bandwidth) and convenient UI (software/hardware). And yes, you can still include your friends in that browse/argue/eat/rent "culture" at home.
How about allowing this gizmo to offer pre-ordering via the web? Go to the machine's web site, see the machine's inventory. Purchase your products on a credit card. The products get set aside into a separate compartment for you. You go to the machine, insert your credit card (same one you used to purchase), the products are released to you, and you are charged for them.
If you need to order something that's not in stock, the machine operator could offer some service level for an additional charge to stock it in the next stocking run.
Reduces delivery/distribution costs for the vendors while providing additional convenience for the consumers.
(And why couldn't fast-food places operate like this? Certainly robots can do an equally good job of microwaving and assembling a Big Mac, depositing it into the queue, and then charging your credit card.)
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
There have been for at least a year pretty sophisticated vending machines in the student areas of the Hass School of Business at Berkeley if you are nearby and want to see one in the flesh. They work off of credit cards and sell things like inkjet printer ink, disposable cameras, and a good assortment of office/school supplies, in a space not much larger than a typical vending machine. I remember playing with one, ordering everything in the machine, and getting a total of about $1500- I didn't complete the purchase...
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Granted, where I live the machine owner would still need to place it somewhere with some security, as we have a problem with vandals, I saw a spraypainted BMW on Sunday, (What's up with tagging? The uncontested modus of announcing "I'm the least secure person on my block"?) this in a fairly expensive neighborhood (I think it's mostly rich kids who fsck things up, but that's a whole different can of worms) How secure are such monstrosities, which can't defend themselves, in Japan? Seems like Munich would be another place you could put something like this without coming back in 24 hours and finding it defaced and/or robbed.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
There's a big one in Cornavin station in Geneva.
Remember CBC ... aims for a wide audience, so pr0n is not mentioned.
Which CBC are you talking about?? Would this be the CBC that didn't censor Kid's in the Hall ever? The CBC that has no problem portraying sex durring prime time? The CBC that did a rather graphic expose of pay-per-view hard core porn. Or is this some other CBC that I haven't heard about?
The CBC is one of the most permissive of all the big broadcast networks in North America. Edged out by CITY (in Toronto) and who can forget Blue Nuit on TQS. And before you Euros get all upity: yes CBC is pretty prudish by European standards. Yes, it is sad.
...or at least, that's how it is now.
Actually, I think that it's machines like this that will save our society from itself. Right now, we're used to getting a pack of smokes at 3 am. That's not gonna change. To support that, there's a whole workforce out there sitting behind a counter basically wasting their lives away for $5.50 an hour. I look forward to the day when everyone's job that can be replaced by a machine, is. I expect we'll have a lot more people doing meaningful things that benefit our culture. And with a little luck, everyone will have to work less for the same pay.
c-hack.com |
They used to have something called an AutoMat. The last one in NYC closed down some years back. It was pretty much the same premise - insert money, remove what you wanted.
I just find it interesting that something that became so unpopular they're bringing it back, albiet in a slightly different form.
Pay-at-the-pump gas stations are clearly in the majority now. But in comparison to the convenience of the gas tank fill-up, picking up a quick hit of caffeine is much more complicated. Park the car, go in the store, select the bottle of liquid, get in line, pay a second time. Positively horse-and-buggy.
So...put one of these monster vending machines next to the pump. While gas flows into the tank my already-approved credit card lets me punch up a storm on the vending machine and have it all added to the same transaction. No fuss, no muss, they get more dollars and I get my buzz.
I like these because not everything is open 24 hours! Around here (Sacramento, CA), things have changed:
* Several Taco Bells now close at 1am instead of being open 24/7
* Lyon's (restaurant) closes at midnight
* Wal-Mart isn't open 24/7 anymore
The things that SHOULD be open 24/7, are not.
* DMV and other gov't offices
* Fry's Electronics
* Java City
Trying to build up a machine at night and realizing you need a new CD-ROM drive at 2am really sucks. Personally, I like the idea of a big huge building that houses Fry's, Java City, Round Table Pizza, Wal-Mart, and Albertson's.
Oh well. At least Goldie's porn palace is open 24/7.
If puns were deli meats, this would be the wurst.
"One reason full-line vending machines have not swept the United States to date is that we have had a large population of entrepreneurial immigrants eager to operate convenience stores,"
We must save Apu from the unstoppable march of progress!
~Chazzf
No statement is true, not even this one.
A web & pda frontend.
Imagine picking a bunch of products from a web site before you leave work at ten pm. You load the selection into your pda or cellphone, then stop by one of these and have them do some ir comm and get bunch of products out. No numbers to pick (which is hard enough after eight hours of overtime), no hassle with money or lack thereof.
That's one less minute spent away from your beloved computer/wife/hybrid.
Ps: yes, yes. you could spoof orders if the system wasn't properly designed.
Ok, besides Japan-- the country in which it's probably law to own a tetris keychain, sleep in rest coffins and home to a lot of other highly obscure shit --it's news everywhere else. Jeez.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I wonder how long until we hear a story about some teenage kid trying to tip one of these over.
I Heart Sorting Networks
Also, will the vending machine have to be over 21 to sell alcohol?
They'll probably use something similar to the new cigarette vending machines featuring computer generated personalities that interact with the user.
When I saw this on the Daily Show, I thought it was a joke. The "black guy" personality is a horribly embarassing stereotype. He'd give Jar Jar a run for his money.
The creepiest human encounters I have in a typical day is with the checkout person in my big chain food store.
Maybe everyone don't know this, but they have scripted phrases that they are obliged to say to the customers. It's being checked that they follow the scripts, and if you stray too far you're fired. That feels much more dehumanizing to me than any machine. These people have been reduced to robots. And I'm forced to play along to an extent, which makes me a bit robotized as well.
Somebody had to make that food to be all "hot and savory". A machine didn't cook it. It had human cooks. It had humans to clean the place up. It had humans to retrieve the food that had been in rotation for too long. At it's most basic element, I guess you could campare an Automat to any vending machine. Aside from restocking, the unit mentioned here is fully automated. Incidentally, the movie Dark City is the only movie I can reall seeing an Automat in actual usage.
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Well, no wonder!
Lol.
In response, the community sued the parents for producing a kid so rediculously stupid and then trying to shift the blame so they could get money.
Also, warn your children never to walk up to a boulder on a hill and pull it towards them. But damn, your kids would have to be pretty stupid.
Hey, how can anyone say this is a truly bad thing? Those same people don't bitch about soda vending machine and those take the human element out of my soda transaction. Some things you just don't care about recieveing a warm smile and personalized attention over. And retail automation isn't the end of the world. It may actually become a pain in the ass when these things break and all you have is an automated line to whine to, but things will equal out as there will still be a demand for human interaction for some services. The more automation, the more people will pay for the premium of that warm smile and sypathetic ear in certain cases. I'll be personally happy when I don't have to wrestle with the language barrier because some dumbass put an employee who can't speak the language in a position where he interacts with people regularly. "I'd like fries with that." "What? No understand..." "FRIES. I WANT FRIES." "Habla no English fries. What you want?" "ARRRAAAHHHRRRG!!!" It's not rasism, just hiring the right person qualified for the job, not because you have a racial quota to fill (which is another story entirely...)
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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.
It is quite small compared to the size of a 7-11.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
But I figure some of these services probably operate like a 900 number in the US - Call the number, and your phone bill is charged. In such a case, such as (for example) a booth in a golf driving range.
Get to booth.
SMS a posted number, or call it, and dial/speak your booth number.
Account gets charged, you can now use the booth.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
that's a fucking joke. do you really believe there is a shortage of labour in america? there is a dire shortage of labour willing to work 24/7 for nothing (as robots are) but there is no shortage of labour.
this is just someone using technology to make them more money -- not necessarily a bad thing but they could have been more honest about the motives for going robotic. the cost savings are both in labour (on a well engineered machine, repairs won't cost too much) and in realestate (200 sq ft costs less than 2500 sq ft).
really, don't buy that bullshit about lack of labour -- U.S. unemployment in july was 6%. and if i recall correctly, the federal unemployment numbers only include people actively looking for jobs, not those who gave up.
P.S. i am looking for a job and having very poor results.
fear is the mind killer
Yeah, and that soda machine really takes away from my person to person relationship too. One day these people will get a clue and realize you just don't need some guy who can barely speak the same language, trying to understand what your trying to purchase. Or make judgement calls on your what you're buying. Or give you an attitude because they work at a convienece store and have been up for the last 12 hours pulling the late shift because freckle-nose bobby decided to skip work that day and the manager won't fire him despite his chronic lateness because he needs the body desprately and it'd take more time to dump him and find somebody else rather than just scold him. Or just the fact you just want a soda and simply don't care who or what gets it to you. Not that it ever happens that way.
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This is like a standing ovation for me. I've been called a lot of things, but this is the first time I've ever been called a "redneck", and I wear it as a badge of honor. Not many second-generation immigrants get to be rednecks, but somehow I managed it--and I've got the can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and the Billy Bob teeth to prove it.
hyacinthus.
Digital cell phones (at least CDMA, and probably TDMA has some encryption too) are pretty secure.
In general, the amount of $$$$ required to possibly spoof a phone is far greater than the amount of financial gain possible from such activities.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I think there'd be a certain amount of consumer resistence to buying beverages from a gas pump!