Selling iPods, cellphones, and digital cameras by vending machine
By Peter Rojas 
posted April 21st 2005 12:10PM
posted April 21st 2005 12:10PM
Apparently they're now selling digital cameras and iPods via the vending machines at San Francisco International
Airport (isn't this more of a Japanese thing?), right alongside typical airport vending machine fare like KitKat Bites
and Jelly Belly jellybeans (which means that all those hours we spent in college trying to figure out to use a coat
hanger to, um, extract a bag of Chex Mix from the vending machine in our dorm will be put to good use on our
trip to SF next month). Best part, at least if you're planning on doing things the legal way, is that you don't
actually need a stack of 200 perfectly crisp dollar bills to buy an iPod mini, the machine does takes credit
cards.
[Thanks, Gary]
Atlanta's Hartsfield airport has had these vending machinesfor some time as well.
OK, so I guess I get the camera and camera media, but the ipods? Are they selling them with songs already on them and precharged?
Won't it do some damage to whatever you're buying when it drops?
I get pretty pissed of when my snickers gets stuck in the dispensing machine- I wouldn't like to see someone when their $199 ipod won't drop down!
I think its a cool idea, unless they are charging double for the items or something like that :)
lets just hope that these things will take my dollar bills. the ones at my school suck! i've never had a more frustrating experience trying to get a damned poptart
and that's gonna be a lot of dollar bills and quarters.
and imagine if you actually got three hundred one dollar bills in there, and the iPod got stuck in the mechanism (as products invariably do in vending machines)
pity the fool who presses the wrong buttons on the machine and gets the wrong thing
That front glass had better be strong, easy score for afew grand in easy to sell stuff.
So does it just drop the products down like a food vending machine? I wouldn't be too happy to spend $250 on an iPod and then have the hard drive killed because the machine dropped it a couple of feet. Ditto with LCD screens.
Hmmm, I always liked the fact
that at the Madrid train station
they had a vending machine that
dispensed cans of beer. Too boot,
it was cheaper than a can of coke.
Hmmmm, beer or a coke...
LOL, Rick James is seen in the airport kicking the iPod vending machine. :)
That's neat, except unless you happen to have a notebook with a pile of mp3s, what are you going to do with an empty iPod on the plane.
Unless of course you just need a present for your kids.
or just want to play parachute!
If the FOOD at the airport is overpriced, I can't imagine what an iPod mini would cost there.
I've seen similar machines in hotels, last one I saw was in Sea-Tac. I was amazed that anyone would want to buy stuff like that from a vending machine. However I think the machines have been deisgned to not harm the products, I think it had padding and what not.
do you save on taxes as a result?? (you mentioned $199 in the article, and not $215 or whatever it is with taxes normally) -- that's pretty good, eh? :)
but yea, to go with what someone said earlier -- what's the point of having the ipod/camera, etc. there if the first two hrs are supposed to be spent charging it? (+ time to load songs, etc.) -- unless u've got a really long wait, I don't see the point of this.
Is there a way to find out how many products this sells in a week? (in SF/Atlanta)
As for dropping things: last I dealt with UPS, your stuff had to be packed well enough to withstand a drop of 3-4 feet, or they refused liability. I imagine any ipods shipped have seen worse falls than the vending machine.
Might suck if you needed to return something... I guess you could just shove it back in.
Sorry, hon, I thought I was getting a KitKat and ended up with an iPod Mini. Twice.
Humm in a day and age of where people rob corner stores for packs of cigiarettes it should take long till this thing gets cleaned out.
Wow, how cool....do they also have "Waranty Repair" vending machines if your iPod or camera decide to die?
If not, where would you claim you Waranty?
heh let's hope this thing have a good way of verifying the credit card. if not if you get your wallet swipe or lost the wallet with all your credit cards in it. the thief just run to the nearest vending machine and start swiping and geting one of each item. =
This is a great idea. I've read in forums, people from Europe asking where they can buy an ipod in New York City while there on a business trip.
Also picking one up for the Wife/Girlfriend on your way home from a buisness trip will make for a happy home coming.
So you've got the itch to get one of these devices out of the machine and the price didn't matter. What do we do with a dead (uncharged) ipod or digital camera anyway? That defeats the whole purpose of immediate gratification, doesn't it?
^^ you mean 'cuming' don't you? ;-)
What will they think of next? Great photo :D
22: You mean "cuMMing", don't you? XD
This will be a feast for would-be theives. Guess the security would be present, but some people wouldn't mind having a try at breaking into one of these things
how about some of those girls on Gary's website in a machine? Leer, leer!
Well can the soda machine hack thing be used on these vendors
I love 21 century. What will they think of next.
What will they think of next.... "Hookers in a vending machine", 100$ an hour?
Just image one of these Ipod vending machines on the corner of the street, at 1AM the whole neighbourhood will come jack it.