old vending machines

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the ones that seem to have been forgotten by time, but still somehow remain stocked with soda and snacks. often they're in some remote corner of an office building, or behind a gas station on a nearly-deserted stretch of state highway. often the goodies inside are much cheaper than the usual; i just got an iced tea for 50 cents. in rural michigan not so long ago i used to get coke in glass bottles from a machine near a drugstore. in high school, i worked on stage crew, and in our woodshop was an old machine which dispensed mountain dew and orange crush for 40 cents a can. (i drank a lot of orange crush in high school.)

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

who maintains these machines and how can they afford to charge so much less than the usual for sodas, twinkies, and bags of potato chips?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I suspect the involvement of elves.

― Huk-L, Friday, 4 February 2005 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

correction: not orange crush, but minute maid orange soda ("nectar of the gods" in my high school parlance).

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Ooooh, that's the good stuff.

― Huk-L, Friday, 4 February 2005 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

They remind me of Capricorn One everytime.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

There's an ancient cadburys machine in a forgotten corridor of Fazakerley hospital and if you mash the keypad it has been known to dispense 2 Time Outs for the price of one, and just once an extra Double Decker.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

today i found an old vending machine not far from the freight elevator in the office building where i work. you have to pass through a few empty hallways to get there. it looked somewhat lonely. the stickers on the buttons looked to be at least 15 years old. one person passed by as i contemplated the scene and gave me a slightly odd look like she had never expected anyone to actually *use* the machine in question. i felt like i was doing something vaguely illicit.

xpost
is "fazakerley" a real place? if so, where is it?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

You should take some photos of these things, Am.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the Horn and Hardart automat at the National Museum of American History

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the names of your American candy bars. In Canada we just have Universal Health Care and Oh Henry.

― Huk-L, Friday, 4 February 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh it's real, say it in a scouse accent.

If I tell you where it is you'll find the vending machine and my days of free Double Deckers are numbered.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

old vending machines with the metal coil system for dropping the product down into the tray always seem to be stocked with slightly odd snacks like chuckles, fifth avenue bars, and potato stix.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, Time Out and Double Decker are brit bars?

― Huk-L, Friday, 4 February 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

my candy bars often get stuck on the aforementioned metal coils. :-(

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

("candy bar in your coil" sounds like a good double-entendre blues.)

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i would always get very anxious waiting for my candy to dispense. the release of the coil was so agonizingly slow, and there was the fear that the wrapper would get stuck.

haha! xpost.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

old vending machines with the metal coil system for dropping the product down into the tray

there are newer forms of vending machine?!

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Fazakerley is somewhere vaguely near Wigan, isn't it?

Double Decker: chocolate-covered bar with crunchy chocolate stuff on the bottom half and nougat on the top half

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah

http://www.thechocolateshop.org/shop3/Cadbury%20Timeout_small.jpg

http://www.sweets-direct.co.uk/productimages/chocolate_bars/double_deckers.jpg

The Fazak' is just near Aintree in Merseyside.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

glass coke bottles, in an old machine with the glass door, where you have to put the money in and pull it out, rule.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

our (new) vending machines with the 'golden-eye' utility where it turns the coil again if nothing drops out, means you often get two for one!

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

also, zingers. i remember zingers dusted with red sugar as an integral part of the old vending machine system.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Mitch Hedberg to thread.

― Huk-L, Friday, 4 February 2005 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

this:

ihttp://members.aol.com/caledcode/coke110e.jpg

or this:

http://www.coin-newbies.com/nsh/cokemachine.jpg

or something like this:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/lorejj20/ToyRoom/coke-tinmachine.jpg

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

THe laundromat I used to go to had a coke machine somewhere in between those two. It had the knobs you turn.

― Huk-L, Friday, 4 February 2005 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was 9, my family was passing through Deadwood, South Dakota, and we found a vending machine with my favorite, A&W Cream Soda. Feeling lucky, I put in the 50 cents, then hit the button twice in quick succession, and voila: two cans of soda.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

something about the way you told that story is absolutely adorable.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 February 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread is cool.

In the very early 80's when I was 4 or 5, I lived in semi-rural upstate NY in a tiny "city" of a few thousand people. There was an oil company across the street, and it was cool to have antique style tankers and pumps in the view from my bedroom window. (It wasn't so cool the time there was a leak, and we had to evacuate and let the fire department in the basement for a few minutes.) The place had a vending machine with glass soda bottles locked in racks- you could open the door, but not get a bottle out until you paid. At night, kids would open the door, pop the tops and suck out the soda with straws, leaving empty bottles in the racks.

I go to a mechanic who's pretty old- his shop has been going since the 50's. Most reliable car guy anywhere. The shop is really neat- like a time capsule. It's well organized in the work spaces, fresh painted walls, clean swept floors, but the corners are crammed with clutter and a layer of soot on everything. It's a really old building with high blackened wood beam cielings and a glass skylight that's all cracked, but there's chicken wire in the glass so it's not broken. The office walls are papered 7 layers deep with brown, curling notes and flyers. In the corner, they have an old blue pepsi machine with an aerodynamic front door that's probably 35 years old.

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 4 February 2005 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Mmmmm... delicious Universal Health Care. I could go for one of those right now.

― Dan I., Friday, 4 February 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

so, what new-fangled vending machines DON'T use coils? they're all i've ever seen, on new machines as well as old.

― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 5 February 2005 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Fifteen or twenty years ago, my local swimming pool had one which didn't use coils for things like bags of crisps - it had a belt with a series of clips on, which the bags dangled from.

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 5 February 2005 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

At my work we have a pretty new vending machine, with like both drinks and snacks in it and now that I think about it I can't remember at all how it works even though I used it about an hour ago. I know it has an elevator shelf thing that goes up and gets what you want, but I can't remember if there's coils or not. I know that the drinks make the chips get cold and it's kinda gross.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Monday, 7 February 2005 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

http://southsidecallbox.com/ilx/img_0365.jpg

― oskar shindig! (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 February 2005 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

o god if i was some young internet millionaire punk i'd totally buy that

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 7 February 2005 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i miss the coke machines where you have to open the door and yank the bottle out.

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 7 February 2005 04:01 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.kshs.org/cool3/graphics/cokemachinesm.jpg

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 7 February 2005 04:07 (twenty-one years ago)

YES!!!

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 7 February 2005 04:11 (twenty-one years ago)

HACK THE PLANET

― he does guitar with his mouth lmao mint (ex machina), Monday, 7 February 2005 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

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