Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Vending Machines

The idea of vending machines is cool. When you're out and about, and you're starving or thirsty, all you have to do is pay a machine a few dollars or so and you get a good snack or drink that can take the hunger pangs (pains?) or thirst away while you sit in class or work and study or...work.

As far as I can tell, vending machines should do two "constructive" things. (These are not like consuming electric energy--that's "destructive" so that it can do these other "constructive" things)
First, it should provides food and drink quickly to a hungry and thirsty population.
Second, it should provides cash/economy/jobs/etc. for those who install the machines and sell the machines the product, etc.

Looks like everyone wins! NOT!!

Unfortunately, not only are REAL vending machines grossly incompetent at providing the general population with food, they are likewise incompetent with providing the "investors" with the money the receive from the population.

Take note:
FIRST OF ALL, in the "population" side of its incompetence, it either:
-doesn't have the change necessary to supply you with a product
-it either is out of your said drink/food (and for drinks, you realize this AFTER you put the two bills in, so you get a buttload of change back)
-It GIVES YOU THE WRONG PRODUCT. (this happened to me just recently!)

HOLY CRAP. I have around $7 of bills (2 $1's and 1 $5). A drink costs $1.50. So, since I want a diet cola (for the taste, not the actual "diet"-ness of it), I slide the only two $1's I have in, I press the diet cola button, and the idiot machine spits out a friggin' WATER.
Now don't get me wrong, water's great. I just wasn't as THIRSTY as I was looking for a TREAT. And many of you know very well that certain types of brands of water taste mildly bad when you're looking for a treat of a drink. (Obviously this isn't true when you are literally THIRSTY.) Anyways, I'm pissed off, and go to class with a stupid water as opposed to my lovely diet cola.

Now, I guess you could say it's the person who loads the machine that is incompetent in this last one. Well, I'll just group the entire "Vending Machine System" into incompetency for this one.

SECOND OF ALL, for the "Investors" side of incompetency, vending machines provide, I'd say, abut 30% of the revenue they could truly be taking in from the general population. Know why? Two reasons.

For one, vending machines ONLY TAKE SILVER COINS (i.e. no pennies) AND $1 BILLS. God forBID if you try using a five. It'll spit that thing back so fast your head'll spin around.

Second, PEOPLE DON'T CARRY AROUND PHYSICAL MONEY THAT MUCH ANYMORE! True, people may have dollar denominations because they just bought something with some cash they withdrew from an ATM, but people are withdrawing less and less money from the bank and are using their debit and credit cards more and more. I know I am.
And the only time you prepare and actually withdraw money from the bank is when you're going somewhere that you KNOW doesn't accept credit/debit cards, like a carnival or fair. There's no way in heck I'm withdrawing "vending machine money" from the atm. Not only is that a complete waste of my valuable time, it's also not going to work anyways, since THEY ONLY TAKE $1 BILLS, NOT TWENTIES.
I'm reduced to being a homeless man half the time, should I even be lucky enough to have a higher denomination on my hands.
"ANYBODY GOT SOME CHANGE? SOME SPARE CHANGE? I GOT A TWENTY, ANYONE HAVE CHANGE FOR A TWENTY?"
And of course, no one does. And I must go on being completely and utterly hungry/thirsty until I can go home or to a fast food joint.

The Vending Machine people should just install a credit/debit card reader on the front of the vending machine. The profits will go up a THOUSAND PERCENT, I GUARANTEE IT and people will actually get the convenience out of vending machines that vending machines promise, i.e. THEY'LL GET FOOD AND DRINK WHEN THEY'RE HUNGRY AND THIRSTY, not when they're just LUCKY enough to find a dollar bill in their wallets/purses.

Overall Gross Incompetence Rating:

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