Have you ever wanted to buy a gas-station burrito, but without the separate steps of interacting with the cashier and placing the burrito in the microwave yourself? Good news! Burritobox is the burrito vending machine of your dreams. [More]
vending machines
Coming Soon: Vending Machine Calorie Counts
By 12.30.13
The Affordable Care Act doesn’t just mean highly entertaining conversations over dessert amongst your relatives this holiday season. There’s one new requirement that’s been sort of overshadowed by health insurance exchanges and electronic medical records: companies that own more than 20 vending machines will have to post calorie counts for the items they sell. [More]
Someone Please Explain Why We Don’t Have Stores Here With Champagne Vending Machines
By 11.21.13
All the vending machines I’ve encountered in these United States are boring — the usual soda, bottled water, candy, gum or at airports, iPods and ear buds. Yawn. Boring. Not one of our vending machines (that I know of) dispenses the bubbly stuff. Yeah, you read that right. There’s a vending machine in the U.K. that delivers Moët & Chandon Champagne. [More]
Coca-Cola Tests Vending Machine That Changes Price Based On The Weather
By 10.10.13
When it’s hot as heckfire outside, an ice-cold beverage really hits the spot for most people; not so much when there’s a foot of snow on the ground. That’s why Coca-Cola has been testing a vending machine in Spain that charges a different price depending on the weather. [More]
Sorry: Vodka Vending Machine Not Coming To City Near You
By 9.9.13
A vodka vending machine recently appeared in the Ukraine, but don’t wait for one to appear in your local town or Wegmans. The machine, which began life as a coffee machine and dispensed shots and fruit-juice mixers, wasn’t legal. Since about a third of all vodka in the country is sold illegally, tax inspectors in particular are curious who might have installed the machine. [BBC] [More]
Magical Vending Machine Makes Fries For You In 90 Seconds
By 8.23.13
Want a snack? Vending machines that cook various foods for you are existed for years, but outside of a grocery store in Brussels, there is a machine that cuts and cooks French fries for you in only 90 seconds. The fries cook in beef fat and vegetable oil, since Belgium is the land where French fries were invented and anything not cooked in beef fat is a waste of perfectly good potatoes. [More]
Magical Kiosk Prints New House Keys For Absent-Minded People
By 6.26.13
Imagine this scene: you’ve locked yourself out of your apartment. You could climb in the window, call up a locksmith for emergency service, or finally put to use all of those hours you spent teaching the cat how to operate a deadbolt. Or you could walk to a nearby kiosk, provide a thumbprint, and receive an exact copy of your key. [More]
Coming Soon To A Mall Or Airport Near You: Straight Talk’s Prepaid Phone Vending Machines
By 3.28.13
Need a new phone or a replacement SIM for an off-contract device? Need it right away? Want to avoid pesky human interaction? In a mall or airport near you, there may already be a Straight Talk vending machine. [More]
In D.C., This Pepsi Machine Dispensed Malt Liquor
By 2.28.13
Imagine a wonderful, magical world where you could walk up to a soda machine and buy a bottle of malt liquor. That paradise on earth (for the underage) briefly existed in the Trinidad neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Since the booze cost $3, more than at nearby retail outlets, its customer base were all either underage or had exceptionally poor math skills. [More]
Have You Seen A Vending Machine That Imposes Credit Card Surcharges?
By 2.27.13
It used to be that if a retailer charged a fee or surcharge to use a credit card, that violated their merchant agreement with the credit card companies, and they got in trouble. Those heady days are over, and it’s now cool for merchants to impose surcharge on your purchases with plastic. And so it begins. Here’s one spotted in the wild on a vending machine. [More]
Such A Thing As A Pot Vending Machine Exists, Might Be Heading To Colorado & Washington
By 1.4.13
Now that Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana for recreational use, businesses are clamoring to get a piece of the action, and coming up with some entertaining ways to do it. For example, a pot vending machine already exists for medical use, so why not introduce the same kind of devices for anyone in those states looking to buy some legal bud? One company is working on adapting its vending machines for just that purpose. [More]
Mmm, Food Court Fish Eggs: California Mall Introduces Caviar Vending Machine
By 11.30.12
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. [More]
Pepsi Vending Machine Thinks You’ll Be More Popular If You Can Hand Out Drinks To Pals
By 10.9.12
Pepsi knows you’ve been struggling to convince your friends that you care about them after selfishly taking the last wing during last week’s game of whichever sport you were watching. And if you happen to live within visiting distance of five malls in the U.S. you’ll be able to not only play a game on a vending machine to win a free drink, but you can then send a code to your pal and surprise him or her with a soda. [More]
Coke & Pepsi Vending Machines Will Get Calorie Counts, Push Low-Calorie Drinks
By 10.8.12
Even though soda cans and bottles now feature large, clear calorie counts, the makers of the biggest brands of fizzy drinks have decided to go ahead and put calorie information on some of their vending machines starting in 2013. [More]
MGM Grand In Legal Fight With Michigan Over “Virtual Beer Pitchers”
By 10.1.12
If you’re splitting a pitcher of beer between pals and you’re all imbibing at a decent enough rate, the beer in said pitcher will stay reasonably fresh. But how about a device that lets you buy a pitcher’s worth of beer, but only pours it out when you want more to drink? The folks at the MGM Grand Detroit think it’s a pretty cool idea. Unfortunately, the state of Michigan seems to think it would violate the state’s ban on alcohol vending machines. [More]
Why Not Just Stuff Vending Machines With Healthy Snacks Instead Of Junk?
By 5.9.12
I remember an episode of My So-Called Life where Rayanne was trying to get an apple out of a vending machine at school and thinking, “That would be great. Why aren’t there more healthy vending machines? I’d eat an apple with Jordan Catalano.* ” Seems one school district in Dallas also saw that episode and is trying out just such an idea to promote healthy eating among its students. [More]
Buying Snacks & Sodas From Vending Machines Is Like, So 2006
By 3.22.12
Traditional vending machines are dying off like snack food dinosaurs after a meteor strike. But in this case, the meteor is just that less people want to buy chips and gum from a machine. Between 2007 and 2010,134,000 vending machines disappeared from locations in the U.S. [More]
Automated Cupcake Machine Now Available 24 Hours For Sugar Emergencies
By 3.1.12
Have you ever said to yourself at one in the morning, “I could really use some cupcakes,” but didn’t want to bake them yourself? Well, if you have the ability to get to Beverly Hills, cupcakery Sprinkles now has a pink cupcake kiosk installed outside of their store where you can buy fresh cupcakes, mixes, and even cupcakes for your dog. Of course there are cupcakes for your dog. [More]
