There’s no doubt about it, vending machines have a bad rap. It’s true. Tell someone you drank coffee from a vending machine and they look sympathetic. Tell someone you had to assemble your lunch from a vending machine and they offer you a chair. Tell someone you’ve been eating from a vending machine for a week and they call social services and get you into a treatment program.
But, what if vending machines were filled with things that are good to eat? Would you use them? A company in Denmark is testing this idea out by providing vending machines to farmers so that they can work in their fields and sell their wares to the public, too. The idea is that they fill them with freshly harvested foods and then people driving by stop and buy the chilled, fresh fruits and vegetables.
Likewise, Spain’s Lofresco is marketing a vending machine program that will make fruit snacks and other healthy produce foods available wherever you buy a Coke.
Would you buy farmers’ market fare from a vending machine? What about healthy snacks like fruit salad?
SugarApple wrote:January 12, 2010 @ 10:13 am
Now that’s a vending machine I would mind in my daughter’s school.
Dana McCauley wrote:January 12, 2010 @ 12:42 pm
Do you mean ‘woudln’t’ mind?
Charmian @Christie's Corner wrote:January 12, 2010 @ 12:56 pm
Fascinating idea. As long as the produce was replaced frequently enough I think this would be a welcomed change.
Imagine being able to buy an apple or pear instead of being forced to choose between sweet junk food and salty junk food? Hope this takes off.
cheryl @ 5secondrule wrote:January 12, 2010 @ 8:18 pm
This is so much better than the trend I read about a while back about pizza and pasta vending machines. Seriously, they fresh pizza and pasta while you stood there. Didn’t appeal.
I must say, I love produce of any kind, but just as I have trouble buying it underground in places like the Boston subway system, it might take me a little while to get used to buying peaches from a machine. It’s better than beef jerky, though.
Diva wrote:January 13, 2010 @ 2:15 pm
If I knew the stuff was fresh, sure, why not? I might even be motivated to choose the crudite over the Cheetos!
Vending Machines wrote:January 13, 2010 @ 4:05 pm
I would love to have a nice fresh piece of produce from a vending machine. This is what is needed to take that sigma off of the vending industry. You can get a good product from a machine.
Barb wrote:January 13, 2010 @ 5:34 pm
What a cool idea! It would be interesting to see how or if it would take off. I used to work at a place that had “coffee trucks” cater lunch and/or coffee breaks. I asked one of the fellows to carry apples and oranges once in a while for a change. They did and they didn’t sell. At the end of the week they took them off the truck and threw them away. I felt really bad that I caused them to lose part of their profits.
Sharon Haslam wrote:January 13, 2010 @ 8:35 pm
Is this one of those ideas that sound better in theory? If it’s something that helps out the local farmer then I’m all for it–I’m just not sure if it’s practical? I believe I sit firmly on the fence for this one!