Did you think that you can get practically anything you want from vending machines in Japan? Well just about. According to What Japan Thinks, “Vending machines in Japan serve many purposes; not just the obvious machine-based vending of items, but also some collect money for charity, others provide free drinks in the event of an earthquake, and even help you escape from crime!”
But not everything is currently available in vending machines. A goo Ranking survey disclosed what things Japanese would most like to try once if there was such a vending machine close at hand.
The unanimous favorite was stamps at 100%, followed by medicines (65%), umbrellas (56%), fried potatoes (54%), and sanuki udon (53%). Other popular items included supplements (48%), nuts and other beer snacks (47%), pizza (46%), bento lunch boxes (46%), and sushi (46%).
Some other items that Japanese consumers would like to see in vending machines include mobile phone chargers ((42%), hot spring water (40%), mangas (36%), miso soup and rice (29%), toast (27%), fresh flowers (17%), business cards (15%), and o-higen supplies (14%).
Some of these machines seem to exist already, like the toast machine below, but maybe are not numerous or handy enough. But there must be many ideas for marketers in this survey?
For those who don’t already know, fried potatoes = french fries.
Sushi from a vending machine? Uh, how fresh could it be?
some of those choices are suprising
nuts and beer snacks…i can get those out of the machine at work
manga…you mean no one has actually thought of this yet
french fries…no one has ever heard of mcdonalds
I hardly ever see any snack/candy dispensing machines and I wish I did. I guess they must be out there somewhere or else I suspect they’d be on the list of most wanted…at least, higher than something totally unappealing like sushi.
Seriously, who wants to eat sushi from a vending machine? Ick!
It’s nice to want things. Especially crazy things from a vending machine.
But isn’t the land in Japan already oversaturated with vending machines? I read in one of the Wai-Wai reports over at Mainichi Shimbun’s English site that a weekly did a story on how these vending machine companies would fight tooth and nail over new locations to install machines. This one insider they interviewed even shed light on how they would report to the authorities when their competitors’ vending machines were jutting out into the sidewalk by too much (apparently there’s some regulation about this), only to immediately procure the landlord’s permission to install one of their own ’super-slim’ machines.
I’ve been to Tokyo twice, and I don’t think I’ve seen a vending machine that offered anything else from drinks and smokes. And maybe condom.