The Vending Machine at work

[royalfan5]

So periodically need some junk food to help keep me going while breaking commodities, so I venture down to the vending area. The people who stock the vending machine seem to do so at random. So somedays you'll buy something and then see something way more awesome behind that previously wasn't available. And then I'm made that I only got frito's when I could have had honey bbq fritos. Or see reese's peanut butter cups, one row back. Does anyone else have a vending machine crapshoot like this.

 

[Trekker4747]

The soda vendors at my job seem to be just as hap-hazzard at stocking the machines in the employee lounge. Much of the time pressing one of the buttons on the face of the machine will deliver a different can. Oddly, despite Pepsi, 7-Up and Coke all having their own machines in the room, it won't always be a soda from the correct vendor!

 

[Shatmandu]

Does anyone else have a vending machine crapshoot like this.

The vending machine guy probably makes $8 an hour and doesn't care if you are alive or dead.

Bring a snack. It's much cheaper, and you get what you want.

Joe, BBQ chip lover

 

[Aragorn]

I want to know who the hell in their right mind buys sandwiches from the vending machine.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Ever been to an automat?

 

[May 20]

When I was pregnant with DS, I was still teaching HS. And I craved root beer. Naturally, the pop machine in the teacher's lounge never had root beer, so I'd send a volunteer upstairs to the students' machines to get one for me when I wanted one. One day, the students' machines were out, so I wrote a note -- "Please put root beer in this machine. You'll make a pregnant woman very happy." -- and taped it to the machine in the teachers' lounge. The next day, I had root beer.

So, I liked my vending machine guy.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When I was pregnant with DS, I was still teaching HS.

O, I C.

 

[Timby]

Our vending machine is through a Cadbury-Schweppes distribution affiliate, but we have the world's worst selection. We have Diet Rite, as a calorie-free option, but no Diet &W Root Beer. God damn it!

 

[Mr Awe]

The soda vendors at my job seem to be just as hap-hazzard at stocking the machines in the employee lounge. Much of the time pressing one of the buttons on the face of the machine will deliver a different can. Oddly, despite Pepsi, 7-Up and Coke all having their own machines in the room, it won't always be a soda from the correct vendor!

I thought you worked at a grocery store? If so, you could buy any food item. Or am I remembering incorrectly?

Mr Awe

 

[Trekker4747]

The soda vendors at my job seem to be just as hap-hazzard at stocking the machines in the employee lounge. Much of the time pressing one of the buttons on the face of the machine will deliver a different can. Oddly, despite Pepsi, 7-Up and Coke all having their own machines in the room, it won't always be a soda from the correct vendor!

I thought you worked at a grocery store? If so, you could buy any food item. Or am I remembering incorrectly?

Mr Awe

I do work in a grocery store, but sometimes buying through a vending machine is a heck of a lot easier, not to mention cheaper since the pops out of the vending machine are 35c, to go to the vending machine in the lounge than it is through the hassle of the checkstands.

 

[backstept]

what I hate is when things get stuck . . . they need to invent a better way to dispense items than the common corkscrew method

 

[Robert Maxwell]

what I hate is when things get stuck . . . they need to invent a better way to dispense items than the common corkscrew method

It already exists!

At my last job, we had a machine with a more "clever" method of dispensing. Instead of corkscrews, every selection was a conveyor belt with hinged segments. The hinged segments formed a little barrier between the items, so they were convenient slots to put everything in. When you bought something, it would roll the conveyor belt just far enough to fold down the segment holding your item in place, so it would drop down into the slot for you.

It probably sounds more high-tech than it is. I never once had it fail to give me a food item.

There was a soda machine, however, that used the same mechanism, and the bottles had a habit of getting stuck against the protruding parts of a lower level.

We had yet another soda machine that avoided this problem by having a vertically mobile conveyor tray. It would go up to the row where your soda was, the soda would be pushed onto the belt, the contraption would move down toward the bottom, and then it would roll your soda over to the retrieval slot. It normally managed to make the bottle stand right-side up, too. Kind of impressive.

 

[Misfit Toy]

Our vending machine is through a Cadbury-Schweppes distribution affiliate, but we have the world's worst selection. We have Diet Rite, as a calorie-free option, but no Diet &W Root Beer. God damn it!

I just tried Diet A&W last week - I was amazed at how good it was.

 

[Lindley]

I always liked the refrigerated ice cream dispenser at my high school. It had a vaccuum head which would move to the right bin, "suck up" the snack, and then drop it down a hole for you.

 

[Mr Awe]

The soda vendors at my job seem to be just as hap-hazzard at stocking the machines in the employee lounge. Much of the time pressing one of the buttons on the face of the machine will deliver a different can. Oddly, despite Pepsi, 7-Up and Coke all having their own machines in the room, it won't always be a soda from the correct vendor!

I thought you worked at a grocery store? If so, you could buy any food item. Or am I remembering incorrectly?

Mr Awe

I do work in a grocery store, but sometimes buying through a vending machine is a heck of a lot easier, not to mention cheaper since the pops out of the vending machine are 35c, to go to the vending machine in the lounge than it is through the hassle of the checkstands.

Back in High School, I used to work in a grocery store. It was pretty sweet. You could pretty much choose anything under the sun for your meal or snack! It was almost like one humongous vending machine I suppose. We didn't mind going through the checkstands.

Mr Awe

 

[FPAlpha]

It's pretty well sorted but once in a while something gets stuck on the way out.

You then have the option of taking the same thing again hoping both will fall out or run riot and bang the machine until it spits it out (much more fun).

The real hardcases go fetch a forklift and lift the entire damn thing so the chocolate or whatever falls out (usually only done on night shifts when there's no boss around ).

 

[melancholymecha]

I always liked the refrigerated ice cream dispenser at my high school. It had a vaccuum head which would move to the right bin, "suck up" the snack, and then drop it down a hole for you.

I love those ice cream vending machines.

 

[Major Chord]

A few year back my High School got a Milk vending machine. Sold stuff like string cheese, yogurt, and 1 pint bottles of deliciously creamy chocolate milk (instead of the 1/2 pint cartons sold with lunch). They kept it well stocked for about 2 years...now, it sells the same crap as the other vending machines. Little Debbie type things, fruit snacks, pop tarts...all things you could easily get in the lunch line.

 

[Warp Coil]

The vending machines at my work have stocked the exact same things for years now. I kinda wish they'd bring in something totally new and different just to spice things up. But, to be honest, that would probably be a bad idea... I don't want to be tempted to visit the vending machines! Overall, I do a pretty good job at avoiding them.

 

[Lookingglassman]

I know what yoou mean. Our vending machines at FT Knox are stocked like that and the moron who does it doesnt put the stuff in right so when you press the button your stuff gets hung up on the rings and wont fall. Of course I jsut grab a bunch of Soldiers and we rock the thing back and forth until the stuff falls.

One good thing is the Army units have unit stores where you can buy soda or candy or chips for far less than the vending machines. A bar of candy is $1.00 in the machine, but I can buy the same candy bar for .50cents upstairs. I rarely spend money on the vending machines at work.