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."

Comments

This may be new in the USA

[overshoot]

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.

Re:This may be new in the USA

[macshit]

Yeah, Japan's the place for this sort of thing.

Besides the ones you often hear about (porn, etc), some wierd ones I've seen in japan include:

• A machine selling cookies & other snacks -- not the usual little packs, but huge family-sized boxes; the delivery-door was about 15" x 15"!
• A machine selling full-sized bottles of Whisky (all japanese brands though)

... and my favorite:

• A machine selling potted plants -- fairly large, leafy ones (like a foot high), complete with a big clay flowerpot. It looked like it had a fairly elaborate mechanism to deliver the plants to a little door (well actually a pretty big door) without harming them.

The wierd thing is that all of the above were not in obvious `specialty' locations (e.g., near a nursery for the plants), but just in front of fairly average train stations, or just on the street in the middle of nowhere!

I do not understand...

Re:This may be new in the USA

[shyster]

Convatec (a Bristol Meyers Squibb company) had this same sort of vending machine in their main lobby for more than 5 years now. You insert money, press the corresponding button and a mechanical hand picks out the item and gives it to you. So its not even new to the USA, its just new to slashdot.

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.

i like this...

[edrugtrader]

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.

live bait slashdotting

[Ando[evilmedic]]

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...

Dehumanizing?

[plurrbat]

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.

Porn vending machines

[DrXym]

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?

Re:Porn vending machines

[theDEFT]

speaking for the entire community, can you tell me a little more about the sex cup please.

You might be a Redneck Geek if...

[Nick Driver]

...you've ever slashdotted yer live bait website ;-)

LOL!

Mad Magazine predicted this in 1957

[joechip]

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...

Old News in Japan

[MDMurphy]

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.

dehumanising?

[kevin lyda]

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.

Here's a picture of it

[Lumpish Scholar]

The NYT article didn't include a picture, but this page on the Shop 2000 web site does.

bad puns.

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

a woman walks into a bar. she asks the bartender for a sexual innuendo.

so the bartender gives it to her.

Wal-Mart Nation

[David Wong]

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.