Mmm, Food Court Fish Eggs: California Mall Introduces Caviar Vending Machine

Perhaps you just can’t find the right course to follow that trio of Cinnabons paired with a food court coffee and have an extra $500 just burning a hole in your pocket. If you like fish eggs and happen to be at a mall in Southern California, you’ll be in luck: A company there has just introduced a caviar vending machine, where customers can buy a tin of the stuff for anywhere from $12 to $500.

CNNMoney takes a look at the machine, which holds $50,000 worth of frozen caviar packed tightly inside the machine, ready to be dispensed at the push of a few buttons.

Its owner says it’s a machine for anyone from the casual customer to the discerning gourmand.

“It’s very accessible and very convenient on every price point,” she says.

But as the reporter points out after eating a bite, “It is caviar out of a vending machine, in a mall,” there are critics of the system.

A chef at a nearby seafood restaurant who prides himself on his caviar says the delicacy should be “served with a little more flare, not with food court fudge,” while one shopper adds that eating it “on your lunch break it doesn’t really add up to me.”

And then there’s the necessity of sticking a lot of money in the machine if you want the good variety. Would you put $500 in a vending machine? Most shoppers said no, with one adding, “Would you buy eggs out of a vending machine, much less fish eggs?”

The target consumer would definitely be this guy, who admitted: “I’ll buy anything out of a machine.”

Ding ding ding, you’ve got a winner, caviar company.

$500 caviar from a vending machine [CNNMoney]

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