Of all the varied kinds of vending machines in Japan
the one that ranks at the top, at least as far as size
is concerned, is the rice vending machine.
This monster is the absolute king of vending machines.
There are a couple of reasons why:
1.) It is absolutely HUGE! There is no tucking this
green behemoth in front of a convenience store or post
office. This baby warrants it's own parking lot. Heck,
maybe even it's own zip code! (Well, maybe it's not
really that big, but you get the idea)
2.) The thing accepts up to a 10,000 yen note. (That's
about the same as a $100 bill) I used to eat for less
than that each month during college! (Macaroni and cheese
without the milk, thank you very much,
and enough ramen noodles over a 4-year period to strech
from the Earth to the planet Pluto and back....twice!)
And now here I am in a country where people are sticking
that kind of cash into a vending machine for crying
out loud.
When you think about it, it kind of makes sense that
it has it's own parking lot. A person will be buying
at least one 10 kilogram bag of rice. Not something
you want to sling over your shoulder and hike home with.
very different from the typical vending machine impulse
purchase that can be consumed on the spot.
As you can see from the prices, the grades of rice
available vary considerably. I'm not sure if there is
really much difference between them, presumably there
is. But then again Japanese consumers are notorious
for there reluctance to "bargain shop" and
many times the more expensive of two similar types of
items will sell much better than the cheaper varaint.
Although the fact that the economy has been in a 18
year tailspin, with no end yet in sight, has gone a
long way to changing this mentality. But there are still
a lot of the old-schoolers out there left, and many
companies are tempted into offering different prices
for similar quality items, just for the fact that they
know a lot of people will choose the higher priced items.
Can't really blame the comapnies though, it's not their
fault that some people are dumber than a sack full of
hammers.
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