Why don't we have cool vending machines in the US?
Why don't we have cool vending machines in the US?
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.
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Is this cool because it has Japan signs? Has it any more features than US machines? Or US has no vending machines at all?
There are vending machines but they generally don't serve hot food or nearly the same amount of variety as Japanese machines do. Usually only soft drinks and shelf-stable snacks like candy bars, chips, cookies or crackers.
The US could have more hot drink vending machines, but I think the sort of clientele that wants a hot coffee wants it to be highly customized like the shit you get at Star Bucks. Highly customized, burnt coffee.
I think you underestimate how many Americans just want a cup of Joe with cream and sugar. A whole lot of us are out there drinking gas station/convenience store coffee or brewing a cup or pot every day of store brand pre-ground.
And the ongoing joke about people getting frustrated with just wanting a "large coffee" and being confused by starbucks calling it a "venti" and spouting off about how they don't want any fru-fru mocha-chino late bullshit even though no one asked.
I think the bigger issue is that of how Americans get around and how available real estate is.
Japan has a lot more people who can/will walk, take the train, etc. that's a lot more opportunities for them to walk by a vending machine.
Americans tend to get around in our cars, so if you want to sell them a coffee, snacks, hot meal, etc. they need to be able to park somewhere.
And vending machine food isn't exactly a huge draw, people probably aren't going to go to your parking lot with a row of vending machines just to grab something to eat, so you kind of need something else to draw them in, some bathrooms, gas pumps, or at least convenient parking to other stuff they need to get to, so you might as well stick a gas station there, and since you're going to need a cashier you might as well move that vending inside and you can get more and more variety of merchandise on shelves that you can cram into some vending machines so it might as well just be a convenience store.
This looks like it's serving hot food. US vending machines only have cold or room temp packaged stuff. They're very basic. The range of machines in Japan is seemingly endless, and many of them are far more complex machine wise than what we typically have here.
This is not exactly accurate. There are vending machines in the states which produce full cooked products. I've mostly only seen them in Airports ,and they generally cost more than a comparable meal at an actual airport restaurant .
And to be fair, didn't we invent the Automat? Basically a giant vending machine general store in, like, the 50's? I'd love to see one of those. They sounded rad.
Those automats had a fully staffed kitchen behind them, cooking and placing the food in slots to be bought
Yeah. There are vending machines that will cook you a pizza. It just turns out there isn't that high a demand for vending machine pizza.
OK, hot food seems a fine reason to be excited
This vending machine is serving good that comes out already heated/ at the very least warmed. It's not just bags of chips