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Having lived in Korea and visited Japan, ubiquitous vending machines is an absolute game-changer. Especially with a choice of hot or cold drinks, vending machin

Having lived in Korea and visited Japan, ubiquitous vending machines is an absolute game-changer. Especially with a choice of hot or cold drinks, vending machines really make life super convenient. Pretty cool to see the Victorians had this idea over a century ago.

warning26 5y ago
Completely agree; I'd love to see it in the US, but it's really a shame that Americans are completely incapable of not destroying a vending machine that isn't under 24/7 surveillance...
- arthurcolle 5y ago
  Vending machines for everything seems pretty unsustainable. Is everything made of paper or something?
  - bobthepanda 5y ago
    Cans have an extremely high recycling rate because (unlike plastic) it costs a lot more energy to get the stuff out of the ground than to melt it down and reuse. Cans are also fairly easy to get back clean (unlike plastic), and they don't degrade as much as plastic does. In the US, which is not very good at recycling at all, the EPA estimates that 70% of cans are recycled: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/ferrous-metals-material-specific-data https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-... In Japan, recycling rates for cans are about 94%. https://recycling.world-aluminium.org/regional-reports/japan/ https://recycling.world-aluminium.org/regional-reports/japan...
    - fomine3 5y ago
      Also collection rates for PET bottles is above > 90% in Japan. Some are recycled, other are "thermal recycled" that means just burn as a fuel. (IMO just burn is better because it works as a fuel instead of brand new fuels) https://ccet.jp/events/growth-pet-bottle-recycling-japan https://ccet.jp/events/growth-pet-bottle-recycling-japan
    - arthurcolle 5y ago
      Is aluminum used for both hot and cold items? I haven't been to Japan so just curious. I was just imagining little disposable thermoses and thinking that maybe that isn't the move - but yeah it's an interesting subject. I try to avoid plastic cups a la $SBUX when I want to just grab a coffee so go to a place with little ceramic espresso demitasses instead of some plastic shell that will become a waste product. I just moved down to Miami and it is pretty crazy how bad communities are about recycling down here. I rarely see specific recycle bins in almost any establishments, and my apartment specifically didn't have dedicated recycling dumpsters. Not sure if maybe they hide it or something, but definitely something to think about.
      - bobthepanda 5y ago
        I've only visited; when I've had one, I would call it "warm" rather than "hot", mostly because when I think of hot coffee in the US I think of things that are too hot to drink like that McDonald's lawsuit. Google says there are a few ways around the "hot metal can" problem, like an insulated label. Interestingly enough, Japan has some public trash cans, but not a whole lot in general; the cultural expectation is to bring it home and sort it there. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/where-are-all-the-trash-cans-in-japanese-cities https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/where-are...
        dustintrex 5y ago
        Japan used to have quite a few public trash cans, but they were widely removed particularly from public transport as a security theater overreaction to the Tokyo sarin subway attacks in 1995. But drink vending machines do nearly universally have a trash can next to them, which is (supposed to be) used only for recycling cans.
        handrous 5y ago
        > like an insulated label. I've had beer cans in the US that used these. They feel really, really weird. Can's been in the fridge for three hours, but feels barely under room temp (because you're touching the insulated label, not the metal)
  - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
    The vending machine in my local shop has a stack of paper cups you pull from, I don't see why you couldn't bring your own cup.
- smegger001 5y ago
  I have never understood that compulsion, why do people here constantly vandalize anything unsupervised. What is the motivation of these people they don't get anything out of it. Why break something when it wont benefit you to do so. Why do people rub feces all over public restrooms, break vending machines or graffiti hate filled messages on others property. why make to world a worse place for everyone including yourself for no gain.
  - gremloni 5y ago
    That’s easy. America is a very individualistic society. A lot compared to Asia and a reasonable difference to Europe. It works well with our “rebel” mentality and the almost pathological requirement to stand out. It works really well when it comes to innovations and fostering a productive society but there are downsides and things like this are some of those side effects.
  - bobthepanda 5y ago
    The people who are doing that are generally not thinking rationally in the first place. Mental healthcare in the US is absolutely awful, and so is the safety net.
  - smabie 5y ago
    Because you are angry and unhappy and want to make other people angry and unhappy. schadenfreude is a very human and common emotion.
  - bloqs 5y ago
    If you are looking for a serious answer, vandalism is generally explained as a response to a social hierachy. When you feel you are at the bottom of the pile in relation to others around you, it has a variety of psychological effects. One of the most notable is that it increases your impulsivity and irrationality, and also causes you to feel "judged" by other people simply being near you, even inanimate objects feel like a judgement (a nice car you can never afford, a building made to a high standard with so much visible cost it's insulting to your very existence). One reaction people can have to this is they can try to "dominate" their environment in the way it makes them feel dominated. Instead of facing the near impossible task of climbing the hierachy, they simply look to impulsively destroy it where possible.
- wahern 5y ago
  Beverage (e.g. fancy dispensers that dropped a cup and filled it with your choice of juice, coffee, etc) and food vending machines (sandwiches, microwavable meals, etc) used to be much more common. I'm old enough to remember them from the 1980s and 1990s, albeit as a kid, and they seemed very common, though in the 1990s they began to look antiquated--very 1970s'ish. At some point I stopped seeing them altogether. One of the last beverage machines of that sort I remember seeing was in a university break room circa 1997.
- caf 5y ago
  Japan: Ubiquitous vending machines. UK: Vending machines widely defrauded with scrap metal in place of coins. US: Unsupervised vending machines immediately destroyed.
Magi604 5y ago
Over 10 years ago as a poor student I made a trip to Japan. I spent three weeks in Saitama, which is near-ish to Tokyo, to see if it would be worth it teaching English for a year (spoiler: no). Anyways towards the end of the trip I was running out of money so my meals for that final week consisted of a 100yen (basically $1) chicken breast from their Lawsons (basically their 7-11) and a 100 yen can of warm corn soup from one of the many vending machines to be found on the street. It was cheap, tasty, and did the job of filling me up.
- dustintrex 5y ago
  Fun factoid: Japan is the world's largest market for 7-11, and Japan's 7-11 (officially Seven & I Holdings) bought the US operations back in 2005.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- sushid 5y ago
  I found your description of Lawsons kind of funny since Japan also has their fair share of 7-11s.
- themodelplumber 5y ago
  Konbini are totally there when you need them. Also yeah, associated with tragic poverty as well, e.g. in Japanese cinema. I got a bit nostalgic reading your comment. I lived off of some weird stuff when I was poor in Japan. Bags of donuts or bread found behind bakeries, basically in the trash. Unwanted produce that our Brazilian friends would bring over. They always had some other amusing garbage find too, like a G-Shock still in its original packaging. "SHIN-PIN, ne," they'd shout, laughing together. You couldn't talk about this to regular Japanese friends, some understood but most seemed to look away embarrassed. My favorite at any kombini was tuna onigiri and a meiji bar.
SECProto 5y ago
> Having lived in Korea and visited Japan, ubiquitous vending machines is an absolute game-changer Having lived in Japan, I found the ubiquitous vending machines to be neat (and very photogenic), but I didn't use them more than once or twice a year. If I wanted canned coffee as a (wretched) backup if I slept in, I had a few bought from the super for 39Y a can rather than the machine at 100Y. When skiing, I opted for the (much tastier) 550Y soba from the shop rather than the 150Y corn potage from the vending machine. Cold drinks when checking out tourist stuff in the hot summer was the key use I got from them. And they weren't as absurdly overpriced as north american vending machines (excluding the ones outside walmart and equivalent)

warning26 5y ago

Completely agree; I'd love to see it in the US, but it's really a shame that Americans are completely incapable of not destroying a vending machine that isn't under 24/7 surveillance...

arthurcolle 5y ago
Vending machines for everything seems pretty unsustainable. Is everything made of paper or something?
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  Cans have an extremely high recycling rate because (unlike plastic) it costs a lot more energy to get the stuff out of the ground than to melt it down and reuse. Cans are also fairly easy to get back clean (unlike plastic), and they don't degrade as much as plastic does. In the US, which is not very good at recycling at all, the EPA estimates that 70% of cans are recycled: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/ferrous-metals-material-specific-data https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-... In Japan, recycling rates for cans are about 94%. https://recycling.world-aluminium.org/regional-reports/japan/ https://recycling.world-aluminium.org/regional-reports/japan...
  - fomine3 5y ago
    Also collection rates for PET bottles is above > 90% in Japan. Some are recycled, other are "thermal recycled" that means just burn as a fuel. (IMO just burn is better because it works as a fuel instead of brand new fuels) https://ccet.jp/events/growth-pet-bottle-recycling-japan https://ccet.jp/events/growth-pet-bottle-recycling-japan
  - arthurcolle 5y ago
    Is aluminum used for both hot and cold items? I haven't been to Japan so just curious. I was just imagining little disposable thermoses and thinking that maybe that isn't the move - but yeah it's an interesting subject. I try to avoid plastic cups a la $SBUX when I want to just grab a coffee so go to a place with little ceramic espresso demitasses instead of some plastic shell that will become a waste product. I just moved down to Miami and it is pretty crazy how bad communities are about recycling down here. I rarely see specific recycle bins in almost any establishments, and my apartment specifically didn't have dedicated recycling dumpsters. Not sure if maybe they hide it or something, but definitely something to think about.
    - bobthepanda 5y ago
      I've only visited; when I've had one, I would call it "warm" rather than "hot", mostly because when I think of hot coffee in the US I think of things that are too hot to drink like that McDonald's lawsuit. Google says there are a few ways around the "hot metal can" problem, like an insulated label. Interestingly enough, Japan has some public trash cans, but not a whole lot in general; the cultural expectation is to bring it home and sort it there. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/where-are-all-the-trash-cans-in-japanese-cities https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/where-are...
      - dustintrex 5y ago
        Japan used to have quite a few public trash cans, but they were widely removed particularly from public transport as a security theater overreaction to the Tokyo sarin subway attacks in 1995. But drink vending machines do nearly universally have a trash can next to them, which is (supposed to be) used only for recycling cans.
      - handrous 5y ago
        > like an insulated label. I've had beer cans in the US that used these. They feel really, really weird. Can's been in the fridge for three hours, but feels barely under room temp (because you're touching the insulated label, not the metal)
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  The vending machine in my local shop has a stack of paper cups you pull from, I don't see why you couldn't bring your own cup.
smegger001 5y ago
I have never understood that compulsion, why do people here constantly vandalize anything unsupervised. What is the motivation of these people they don't get anything out of it. Why break something when it wont benefit you to do so. Why do people rub feces all over public restrooms, break vending machines or graffiti hate filled messages on others property. why make to world a worse place for everyone including yourself for no gain.
- gremloni 5y ago
  That’s easy. America is a very individualistic society. A lot compared to Asia and a reasonable difference to Europe. It works well with our “rebel” mentality and the almost pathological requirement to stand out. It works really well when it comes to innovations and fostering a productive society but there are downsides and things like this are some of those side effects.
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  The people who are doing that are generally not thinking rationally in the first place. Mental healthcare in the US is absolutely awful, and so is the safety net.
- smabie 5y ago
  Because you are angry and unhappy and want to make other people angry and unhappy. schadenfreude is a very human and common emotion.
- bloqs 5y ago
  If you are looking for a serious answer, vandalism is generally explained as a response to a social hierachy. When you feel you are at the bottom of the pile in relation to others around you, it has a variety of psychological effects. One of the most notable is that it increases your impulsivity and irrationality, and also causes you to feel "judged" by other people simply being near you, even inanimate objects feel like a judgement (a nice car you can never afford, a building made to a high standard with so much visible cost it's insulting to your very existence). One reaction people can have to this is they can try to "dominate" their environment in the way it makes them feel dominated. Instead of facing the near impossible task of climbing the hierachy, they simply look to impulsively destroy it where possible.
wahern 5y ago
Beverage (e.g. fancy dispensers that dropped a cup and filled it with your choice of juice, coffee, etc) and food vending machines (sandwiches, microwavable meals, etc) used to be much more common. I'm old enough to remember them from the 1980s and 1990s, albeit as a kid, and they seemed very common, though in the 1990s they began to look antiquated--very 1970s'ish. At some point I stopped seeing them altogether. One of the last beverage machines of that sort I remember seeing was in a university break room circa 1997.
caf 5y ago
Japan: Ubiquitous vending machines. UK: Vending machines widely defrauded with scrap metal in place of coins. US: Unsupervised vending machines immediately destroyed.

Magi604 5y ago

Over 10 years ago as a poor student I made a trip to Japan. I spent three weeks in Saitama, which is near-ish to Tokyo, to see if it would be worth it teaching English for a year (spoiler: no). Anyways towards the end of the trip I was running out of money so my meals for that final week consisted of a 100yen (basically $1) chicken breast from their Lawsons (basically their 7-11) and a 100 yen can of warm corn soup from one of the many vending machines to be found on the street. It was cheap, tasty, and did the job of filling me up.

dustintrex 5y ago
Fun factoid: Japan is the world's largest market for 7-11, and Japan's 7-11 (officially Seven & I Holdings) bought the US operations back in 2005.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
sushid 5y ago
I found your description of Lawsons kind of funny since Japan also has their fair share of 7-11s.
themodelplumber 5y ago
Konbini are totally there when you need them. Also yeah, associated with tragic poverty as well, e.g. in Japanese cinema. I got a bit nostalgic reading your comment. I lived off of some weird stuff when I was poor in Japan. Bags of donuts or bread found behind bakeries, basically in the trash. Unwanted produce that our Brazilian friends would bring over. They always had some other amusing garbage find too, like a G-Shock still in its original packaging. "SHIN-PIN, ne," they'd shout, laughing together. You couldn't talk about this to regular Japanese friends, some understood but most seemed to look away embarrassed. My favorite at any kombini was tuna onigiri and a meiji bar.

SECProto 5y ago

> Having lived in Korea and visited Japan, ubiquitous vending machines is an absolute game-changer Having lived in Japan, I found the ubiquitous vending machines to be neat (and very photogenic), but I didn't use them more than once or twice a year. If I wanted canned coffee as a (wretched) backup if I slept in, I had a few bought from the super for 39Y a can rather than the machine at 100Y. When skiing, I opted for the (much tastier) 550Y soba from the shop rather than the 150Y corn potage from the vending machine. Cold drinks when checking out tourist stuff in the hot summer was the key use I got from them. And they weren't as absurdly overpriced as north american vending machines (excluding the ones outside walmart and equivalent)