Expensive Vending Machine Items

Most people assume that the items that are for sale in vending machines are inexpensive.

They picture getting a sweet packaged treat, a vegetarian salad, a soda pop or maybe some ice cream. But none of these things are very expensive and many of them are paid for by the change in a person's pocket. Even the machines that use credit cards are for the same kind of items. Recently that has changed. Venders are putting everything into these machines and people are finding it surprising what they can now buy through them that they thought was only available at the stores. And if you find the right product, expensive vending machine items can bring in a whole lot of money for the seller.

Some of these items are causing surprise while others are causing controversy. For example just over a year ago a vending machine that could sell cell phones was shown off to the public for the first time in the United Kingdom. The plan was to make this a popular and easy way to let customers purchase these phones. For a very reasonable price the customer was able to pick from a few cell phones and pay for them by using a credit card or a debit card. Along with a fully charged cell phone the customer would be able to put on as much credit as they wanted. This could be done with the phone or at an ATM or in stores like it is now. There were three different phone models to choose from and the plan was to consistently be updating the model choices as new and more interesting models came out.

The reactions to this were quite interesting and equally varied. Many people thought it was a dumb idea and feared it was making it far easier for a terrorist to own a cheap throw away phone that would be all but untraceable. In the day we live in this is not an unreasonable concern. Terrorism is on the rise. But the truth is that they will always find ways to get what they want. The fact is that machines like this will appeal to tourists who want something cheap for making calls while they are visiting for a few days in England.

Others have pointed out that these vending machines were in the stores of the phone company so that it did not offer the advantage of being available after stores hours. While still others reacted with a laugh like the person from Eastern Europe who commented that they had tried the same thing a few years before and found that no one bothered using the machines and they were taken back to the companies that had put them out. Overall the feeling seemed to be that it was silly idea and it would not catch on.

Yet it seems that very few things do not sell well in vending machines. After all they have been around since the late 1880s in one form or another and the idea of putting expensive items into them is an idea that seemed to have come into its time.