Vending Machine Envy

the latest hi tech vending machine from Japan

 

 

Why can't we have cool vending machines like they do in Japan?  Several of the Jvloggers (Japan Video Bloggers in case you didn't know) I follow have done some posts about vending machines in Japan.  They are pretty cool, and offer a hell of a lot more choice than I can get in Canada.



availability

Is it a population density thing?  Is Canada just too big with smaller concentrations of people to place vending machines in convenient places?  Granted, I haven't seen any outside in a long time, but I have seen them in schools, hospitals, community centres and other places where either the service was needed, or somebody thought they could make a buck or two.  (Okay, I sometimes look at business pessimistically--It might be different if I were getting a cut)

Perhaps the powers that be just don't want to put vending machines on the streets where they could get vandalized.  I can understand, though not agree, with this argument.  And in reality, it has been a long time since I came across one outside and don't really miss them.  I don't like paying convenience store prices, but I have found enough alternatives that it doesn't matter so much.



Choices

However, for the ones that we do have, why can't they be cool like the ones they have in Japan?  Why do I have make do with four or five choices when most Japanese machines have more than 20 (hot and cold)?  The newest ones have considerably more.

It can't be a coin issue because Canadians have one and two dollar coins (the loonie and the twoonie).  The ones in Japan take bills--I even used one once that took the Japanese equivalent of a one hundred dollar bill.

Is it just wishful thinking?

Turkey Effects

 

 

Every year around Thanksgiving we hear various stories and old wives tales (maybe this is no longer the politically correct term...if someone knows what that would be please leave me a comment in the box below) about how turkey makes you sleepy.  Is there any truth to that?  Does it need to be a combination of wine and turkey?  What if you just drink beer and watch hockey?

I do not know.

Maybe turkey has an effect on your sleeping.  I really can't say for sure.  What I can say for sure is that it surely has an effect on a person's ability to operate a motor vehicle.  I don't base this on extensive, or even efficient , laboratory testing.  Mostly it is anecdotal.  Driving home on both Sunday and Monday of Canada's Thanksgiving long weekend, I was witness to a spectacle of pure driving folly.  So many turkey addled drivers were unable to make wise and useful decisions on the road.  So many made me want to pull my hair out--I didn't, because that just wouldn't have been fair.

Left turns that took up three lanes.

Ignoring advanced greens (and consequently obnoxiously loud horns--and not just mine).

Talking on cell phones while driving.

Improper lane changes.

Poor musical choice on the stereo.

I saw it all this weekend, and I can never unsee it.  That is what makes it really bad.

Perhaps we need a new campaign.  "Arrive alive.  Don't eat turkey and drive!"

The Gift Card Season

 

 

While I am by no means so organized that I am shopping for Christmas right now, I am thinking a bit about it.  Perhaps that is because is will only be another day or two before the Christmas decorations rear their pretty heads--I haven't actually been shopping, so it might have already happened.  This blog is not a rant about selling Christmas before Halloween is over, it just has a Christmas theme.

Family traditions are what they are, but lately, I notice that more people give gift cards rather than actual presents.  There are several reasons for this, and they seem sound.

1. It's easier than shopping for something.
2. The people getting the gift have given no hints (subtle or not so subtle) as to what they want.
3. They are likely to return your gift anyway, so this saves the intermediate step.
4. They can get what they want (though if they couldn't give you any hints, it probably means they don't know what they want.)
5. Gift cards are an easy fallback--and for all those guys doing their shopping on the 24th, what a great fallback it is.
6. Gift cards are easily re-gifted.
7. They are easy to wrap.  They often come with their own envelopes.
8. Transporting them is easy.
9. They've become so popular you can even get them at the gas station.
10. People, except young children, do not express disappointment in getting them.

I guess, I just miss the excitement of getting a gift.  Usually when people ask me what I want, I can give them about ten ideas.  I usually keep a list of things that I want, and when people ask me, I email it to them.  I have even gone so far as to point out which stores offer the best deals on that particular item (and yes, it is often Amazon).

I do not know what Christmas has in store for anyone in my family, but I am starting on my list today.  And to make it easy, I will even include some ideas of where I want gift cards from.