5 ms·

Yes, although almost all of them IME only sell drinks, which is a bit weird from my UK perspective where vending machines typically sell crisps and chocolate to

by pm215 4y ago

Yes, although almost all of them IME only sell drinks, which is a bit weird from my UK perspective where vending machines typically sell crisps and chocolate too...

tdeck 4y ago
That was my experience as well. I was so excited to see wacky vending machines in Japan but I just saw hundreds of drink machines, maybe 3 ice cream ones, and just a single snack machine. After doing some reading it seems the really cool ones that sell hot ramen and burgers and things are all at old roadside rest stops in the Japanese countryside. I suspect it's partly the cultural taboo around walking and eating in Japan.
- guestbest 4y ago
  It’s more of a cultural taboo to be overweight
  - tdeck 4y ago
    If that's somehow relevant to this thread why do they have plenty of shops selling food products of various types (including some amazing candy) in Japan? I've had the best cream puff in my life from a conbini.
  - Lio 4y ago
    Are you saying these drinks machines only dispense water? I'm pretty sure otherwise that most sugary carbonated drinks like Coke, Pepsi, etc are highly associated with obesity. Liquid carbs are even easier to absorb by the gut than any form of solid food.
    - burnished 4y ago
      I think the difference is one of degree, not kind. Two perspectives 1) harder to get many calories through beverages than it is foods. Mentally I’m weighing a coke against the burger mentioned up thread, so this one might fall down to a cursory inspection of liquid and solid offerings in nearby vending machines. 2) harder to get more calories when your selection is limited. If you would buy a coke and a snickers but you can only buy soda then you won’t buy two you will just skip the snickers. So, probably a couple other more reasonable perspectives to explore before resorting to obvious hyperbole.
      - cdcarter 4y ago
        It is famously easier to get larger amounts of calories through drinking (doesn't make you feel full) than eating.
        burnished 4y ago
        Does that hold for our hypothetical vending machine situation? Assuming your standard average test human only hits the machines once a day, getting a soda every hour would line up with what you are suggesting
      - Lio 4y ago
        The burger is not health food by any means but not all calories are equal. There’s more in the burger but the absorption rate is much lower compared to the liquid sugar in the soda which will go straight through the gut. Some of the burger is probably going to be passed undigested and the protein and fat are going to need energy to break down before they can be used. Meanwhile the sugar in the soda is immediately available to be used or stored as body fat. Pius you can keep drinking that stuff all day in between meals without ever feeling full.
        burnished 4y ago
        1) the real point is that there is no reason to hyperbolically ask if the vending machine is only serving water 2) good point, I should further clarify my assumption that I’m thinking of a McDonald’s hamburger that I last saw listed at 1200 calories, and I’m presuming a soda in the range of 300-400. At that point I’d believe that the caloric intake would be the dominant factor 3) if you want to get into the nitty gritty then the next step would be a case study, get an idea of offerings and popular items in different locales, that sort of thing.
        Lio 4y ago
        > I should further clarify my assumption that I’m thinking of a McDonald’s hamburger that I last saw listed at 1200 calories, and I’m presuming a soda in the range of 300-400. A McDondald's hamburger is only 250kcal here in the UK and even a US cheeseburger is only 300 cal. 1200 calories is more like a full meal including chips and, as it happens, soda. - https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/good-to-know/nutrition-calculator.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/good-to-know/nutrition-ca... https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/cheeseburger.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/cheeseburger.html
    - livueta 4y ago
      Might be worth noting that the variety of stuff you can get from machines tends to be better than in the west, e.g. http://www.hachiyoh.co.jp/master/products/kirin.html http://www.hachiyoh.co.jp/master/products/kirin.html / https://www.suntory.co.jp/group/sbs/business/vending/suntory/ https://www.suntory.co.jp/group/sbs/business/vending/suntory... where there's some soda, sure, but also various teas, juices, coffee, flavored water, sports drinks, etc with way more of the display space given over to non-soda stuff. Sure, you can get a water, a gatorade or maybe a tropicana juice but that's usually about it for the average American machine.
    - Mawr 4y ago
      > Are you saying these drinks machines only dispense water? Kind of? https://youtu.be/lr4MmmWQtZM?t=349 https://youtu.be/lr4MmmWQtZM?t=349 The healthy/unhealtly food availability ratio in the western world is like 10%/90% whereas in Japan it seems closer to 70%/30%. Personally, I have never seen a vending machine in the western world that had a healthy drink in it that wasn't plain water.
- milesvp 4y ago
  I remember hearing a story years ago of the first Baskin and Robbins (aka 31 flavours) opening in japan, and how no one would leave the tiny lobby until they’d finished their ice cream cone. Japanese norms totally broke that american franchise model. Not sure what happened after that, bigger lobbies maybe?
  - m463 4y ago
    Someone told me 7-11 in japan was "broken" in a different way. They sold the 10 best of something and didn't seem to be convenience at the expense of quality.
basicoperation 4y ago
I purchased some CalorieMate from a Japanese vending machine half-way up a mountain. I was taken aback as I’d assumed it was a fictional product as I’d only encountered it in the video game, Metal Gear Solid 3.

by pm215 4y ago

Yes, although almost all of them IME only sell drinks, which is a bit weird from my UK perspective where vending machines typically sell crisps and chocolate too...

tdeck 4y ago

That was my experience as well. I was so excited to see wacky vending machines in Japan but I just saw hundreds of drink machines, maybe 3 ice cream ones, and just a single snack machine. After doing some reading it seems the really cool ones that sell hot ramen and burgers and things are all at old roadside rest stops in the Japanese countryside. I suspect it's partly the cultural taboo around walking and eating in Japan.

guestbest 4y ago
It’s more of a cultural taboo to be overweight
- tdeck 4y ago
  If that's somehow relevant to this thread why do they have plenty of shops selling food products of various types (including some amazing candy) in Japan? I've had the best cream puff in my life from a conbini.
- Lio 4y ago
  Are you saying these drinks machines only dispense water? I'm pretty sure otherwise that most sugary carbonated drinks like Coke, Pepsi, etc are highly associated with obesity. Liquid carbs are even easier to absorb by the gut than any form of solid food.
  - burnished 4y ago
    I think the difference is one of degree, not kind. Two perspectives 1) harder to get many calories through beverages than it is foods. Mentally I’m weighing a coke against the burger mentioned up thread, so this one might fall down to a cursory inspection of liquid and solid offerings in nearby vending machines. 2) harder to get more calories when your selection is limited. If you would buy a coke and a snickers but you can only buy soda then you won’t buy two you will just skip the snickers. So, probably a couple other more reasonable perspectives to explore before resorting to obvious hyperbole.
    - cdcarter 4y ago
      It is famously easier to get larger amounts of calories through drinking (doesn't make you feel full) than eating.
      - burnished 4y ago
        Does that hold for our hypothetical vending machine situation? Assuming your standard average test human only hits the machines once a day, getting a soda every hour would line up with what you are suggesting
    - Lio 4y ago
      The burger is not health food by any means but not all calories are equal. There’s more in the burger but the absorption rate is much lower compared to the liquid sugar in the soda which will go straight through the gut. Some of the burger is probably going to be passed undigested and the protein and fat are going to need energy to break down before they can be used. Meanwhile the sugar in the soda is immediately available to be used or stored as body fat. Pius you can keep drinking that stuff all day in between meals without ever feeling full.
      - burnished 4y ago
        1) the real point is that there is no reason to hyperbolically ask if the vending machine is only serving water 2) good point, I should further clarify my assumption that I’m thinking of a McDonald’s hamburger that I last saw listed at 1200 calories, and I’m presuming a soda in the range of 300-400. At that point I’d believe that the caloric intake would be the dominant factor 3) if you want to get into the nitty gritty then the next step would be a case study, get an idea of offerings and popular items in different locales, that sort of thing.
        Lio 4y ago
        > I should further clarify my assumption that I’m thinking of a McDonald’s hamburger that I last saw listed at 1200 calories, and I’m presuming a soda in the range of 300-400. A McDondald's hamburger is only 250kcal here in the UK and even a US cheeseburger is only 300 cal. 1200 calories is more like a full meal including chips and, as it happens, soda. - https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/good-to-know/nutrition-calculator.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/good-to-know/nutrition-ca... https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/cheeseburger.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/cheeseburger.html
  - livueta 4y ago
    Might be worth noting that the variety of stuff you can get from machines tends to be better than in the west, e.g. http://www.hachiyoh.co.jp/master/products/kirin.html http://www.hachiyoh.co.jp/master/products/kirin.html / https://www.suntory.co.jp/group/sbs/business/vending/suntory/ https://www.suntory.co.jp/group/sbs/business/vending/suntory... where there's some soda, sure, but also various teas, juices, coffee, flavored water, sports drinks, etc with way more of the display space given over to non-soda stuff. Sure, you can get a water, a gatorade or maybe a tropicana juice but that's usually about it for the average American machine.
  - Mawr 4y ago
    > Are you saying these drinks machines only dispense water? Kind of? https://youtu.be/lr4MmmWQtZM?t=349 https://youtu.be/lr4MmmWQtZM?t=349 The healthy/unhealtly food availability ratio in the western world is like 10%/90% whereas in Japan it seems closer to 70%/30%. Personally, I have never seen a vending machine in the western world that had a healthy drink in it that wasn't plain water.
milesvp 4y ago
I remember hearing a story years ago of the first Baskin and Robbins (aka 31 flavours) opening in japan, and how no one would leave the tiny lobby until they’d finished their ice cream cone. Japanese norms totally broke that american franchise model. Not sure what happened after that, bigger lobbies maybe?
- m463 4y ago
  Someone told me 7-11 in japan was "broken" in a different way. They sold the 10 best of something and didn't seem to be convenience at the expense of quality.

basicoperation 4y ago

I purchased some CalorieMate from a Japanese vending machine half-way up a mountain. I was taken aback as I’d assumed it was a fictional product as I’d only encountered it in the video game, Metal Gear Solid 3.