Why don't we have cool vending machines in the US?

TriflingToad@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 459 points –

with supply and demand and all... IM DEMANDING CANNED BREAD!! where's the supply 🥺?

It replaces workers with robots so it would probably save money too.

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Popcorn seems like the simplest to me. Saw one in a subway in Buenos Aires once. Its so cheap and once it pops, the smell sells itself

Needs to be cleaned every day.

By human or machine?

Having worked at a movie theater, I can tell you that the answer is "by a human"

If you can make a machine that cleans a popcorn popper well enough to pass a health inspection, you'll be a very rich person. Especially a small vending-machine-sized popper-and-dispenser all-in-one jobby.

I don't understand the question.

You have a vending machine in a train station cooking greasy popcorn all day. Is there a machine that can clean that ?

Baked on greasy-buttery-ness is very difficult to clean.

Pretty sure a machine that can be built to make popcorn can also.be engineered to self clean. Human maintenance one per week to swap out parts and re-top corn.

I'm sure it's possible but I suspect it's simply not cost effective.

Removing grease requires hot water, harsh solvents, and scrubbing. If you've ever cleaned an oven or bbq or whatever I'm sure you'd agree that it would be very difficult to automate.