by: John Rodriguez
Usually if you don’t have time to actually head out of the office, or if you’re at the doctor’s office, or simply waiting for class to start and you’re hungry a vending machine become you meal machine. And with a simple entry of a dollar and some change you get your favorite treat simple by browsing and selecting a letter along with a number which goes along with it. However, what if your vending machine doesn’t carry your favorite snacks? In fact, what if your vending machine happens to carry…worms or crabs? Well, in some areas in the world there are vending machines for everything.
In Poland, if you’re outdoors and near a lake and want to go fishing well why not go to the nearest vending machine and get some needed supplies. In a lakeside vending machine, worms for bait and other fishing supplies are dispensed for fishermen who just so happened to live such essentials when heading out to fish. And for the best catch, the worms are kept in the machine at low temperature to keep them alive and squirmy.
In Nanjing, China potato chips or candy bars aren’t exactly a main course meal on the hurry. Instead, live hairy crabs are. Located in local delicacies, the vending machines dispensing live hairy crabs and will only cost you around 1 to 7 dollars and some changes if you just so happen to need a crab-on-the-go. The crabs are kept within a 41 degree Fahrenheit machine to keep the crabs sleepy without killing them. You would want that?
In Japan, if you don’t want a crab or worms and decide you’re not in the mood for something sweet and sugary why not vend yourself a bowl of rice? In a vending machine located around Japan, you can purchase a 22-pound bag of rice for $30 to $40 dollars depending on which of the eight varieties of rice you select. Not only that, but in some parts of the island country in Asia you may even come across a vending machine which vends chilled Bananas if you want a fruit snack. The Japanese do know how to stay healthy.
From Japan we head West to Spain. In Spain at the convenience of a vending machine you can purchase quality whole milk. Yes, at the press of just two possibly three buttons and you can have milk. The milk vending machines come to Spain due to the falling milk prices which have hit the country, and wanting to cut out the middle man (grocery stores and supermarkets) Milk Farmers invested in vending machines to sell the produce provided by their cows. You can many of the milk vending machines in Girona, Spain where they have been popping up and selling directly from the farm since 2009.
Let’s jet from Spain to the United States of America where, believe it or not, vending machines around this fast-paced country of ours developed a fast-paced favorite delicacy of ours on the go with…French Fries. Think of it as the ultimate fast food restaurant without the hassle of dealing with an unenthusiastic cashier, precooked in hot oil before being frozen and stacked into the machine the press of some buttons releases them from their icy slumber. Heating the frozen fries in an oven, the fries are then served to the customer in just 45 seconds.
In this technological expanding world of ours, where the creation of social media sites have made socializing nearly non-existent in-regards to face-to-face interacting will the development of more vending machines that produced meals and oddities like the above expunges further interaction when the brief social exchange between consumer and provider is cancelled out? Don’t honestly know, but have to say these machines are pretty impressive. Wonder what else could possibly be vended out in a vending machine.
