Vendos, from being the easiest way to accumulate junk food, is now becoming the sole vendee of not only junkfood but also food itself and accessories and necessities. Below are a list of some of the world's most famous, yet strangest, and, not to mention, the latest.
FRESH PIZZA
Location: Italy
If you came all the way to Italy to see a guy toss pizza dough in the air—well, a vending machine is still pretty cool, right? The “Let’s Pizza” machines, found in a few shopping malls and airports—such as Malpensa in Milan, and Palermo and Trapani in Sicily—will make an individual pizza from scratch in just under three minutes. Push a button for your desired toppings (tomato, bacon, ham, or fresh vegetables), then watch through the little window as the machine mixes and kneads dough, adds toppings, and bakes.Price Range: $5-$8
GOLD BARS
Location/s: Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt, Bergamo, and Moscow Airports
In case the dollar or euro fails during your flight home, you can always shore up your assets by picking up a few gold bars at a Gold to Go vending machine, debuting in the above airports in May 2010 after a successful 2009 test run at Frankfurt. You can also buy South African Krugerrands, Canadian maple-leaf coins, or even a $100, one-ounce Australian Kangaroo coin.Price Range: They fluctuate, supposedly pegged to real-time prices. We were quoted $50 for a one-gram gold bar, complete with fancy gift box.
EGGS
Location/s: Japan and California
In a country that sells bags of rice out of vending machines, it’s perhaps no surprise that you might find bags of fresh eggs inside vending machines along the side of the road, set up by local farmers. But you need not go all the way to Japan for fresh eggs from a machine. At Glaum Egg Ranch, outside Santa Cruz, $3 gets you 24 cage-free-chicken eggs, accompanied by a “live show” performed by dolled-up stuffed chickens (as in Beanie Babies, not former egg layers).Price Range: $3
GOLD HANDCUFFS
Location: Mondrian South Beach Hotel, Miami
Hotel gift shops—so passé. At this chic South Beach hotel, one full wall of the lobby is taken up by the Semi-Automatic, an enticingly mod, purple vending machine. Some go-to items: a feather vest ($400), a $28 T-shirt emblazoned with the word recession, or, our favorite, the 24-karat-gold handcuffs ($350). You can even buy a nearby condo, or rent a 1953 Cadillac DeVille convertible.Price Range: Ranges from $10 to $1.2 million. For the super-high-end items—say, buying a car or condo—you pay a deposit, which you lose if you later opt out.
LIVE BAIT
Location: Across the United States
Finally, a way to buy leeches at 2 a.m. Placed in fishing-friendly locales across the U.S.—with several in Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, and Illinois—these 24-hour machines have filled a gap left by bait and tackle shops that went under due to competition from big-box stores. PA Live Bait Vending owner Gary Harsel says that the machines’ best seller is probably the dozen night crawlers, but some machines also offer live minnows, crayfish, bloodworms, and leeches. They also carry non-living items such as hooks, bobbers, sinkers, motor oil for boats, and, of course, frosty beverages. (Good news: unbought bait doesn’t stay in the machine longer than a week.)Price Range: $3/ dozen
BICYCLES
Location: The Netherlands
In this pedal-happy nation, it’s actually surprising that we hadn’t seen bicycle vending machines before now. The new Bikedispenser machines—currently found at railway stations in Arnhem and Nijmegen and coming soon to Delft, Duiven, and a dozen more locations by 2011—rent out bicycles for up to 20 hours. Just bring them back to the same station.Price Range: About $16 your first time, then about $4 for each rental during the following 12 months.
SHOES
Location: England
Price Range: $10-$75
BOOKS
Location: England
Price Range: $10
*All contents of this blog, from pictures to description to price range came from
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-35991769
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