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Vending machines

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phil beard

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In my case, the problem with these damn things is that the dispenser is so low. I am 6 foot 5" and have disablements to my back and cannot get my hands almost to the floor. No use at all. I won't even bother you with the problems I have with ticket machines...
 
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route101

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Oh, that's cool! Do you remember whereabouts the shop was? If it's close to the main stations (or Scotstoun) then I might be able to try it next time I'm passing through.

Mental munchies at Parkhead Forge Market . Its one of them stalls or places where they are buying off a american candy website . They are selling chocomel (Dutch brand of chocolate milk) seems to be popular .
 

trainmania100

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I know there's a vending machine at Lewes by the toilets. I assume it still gets used as there's also a cafe on the platform too. I think vending machines are still installed in quite a few busy stations, but I would only ever use one as a last resort as I know they're not cheap at stations etc
 
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I was at Bolton station today and feeling a bit peckish. Went over to a Selecta for a bag of crisps! £1.30!!!! Needless to say, I pushed the button to get my money back and went hungry. An absolute rip off (Apologise for bumping this thread but I really did want to point out my disgus at the prices)
 

jon0844

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The rotating wire ones are always a gamble. I think I win more often on a slot machine.

Wire turns, item doesn't drop. No infrared beam to detect if an item vended, so money lost. Think 'pay again and I'll get that but the next one' and, no, only the one stuck falls. And so on.

Get the number and phone up and get no answer, or a voicemail system with no response.

If they worked 100% of the time (the newer ones with the arm type system is fine) then I wouldn't be so upset about paying a hefty convenience fee.
 

Alex365Dash

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Brighton
What's the point of having a vending machine for food and drink right in front of a shop that also sells food and drink?

Always just use the shop whenever I get something whilst waiting at Havant Platform 2 instead of the vending machine.
 

Parallel

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What's the point of having a vending machine for food and drink right in front of a shop that also sells food and drink?

They come in handy when it’s late and/or the shop/cafe/buffet is closed, and you’re peckish!

We used to have a Cadbury chocolate vending machine at school going back around 16 years. It was completely random and would dispense 4 chocolate bars in one go! Other times it would give you something different to what you had chosen. It got removed after about two years. It wasn’t a wire one and you couldn’t see inside the machine so no idea what was going on in there!
 

Mugby

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Sheffield station still has a working Selecta hot drinks machine on Platform 2.

The price of a cup of anthing has gone up 50% from £1 to £1.50 though - and it is a very small cup!
 

apinnard

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I was disappointed at the ones on platform 1/2 at Colchester. They only accept real money. Who carries that these days?
 

Gostav

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I was disappointed at the ones on platform 1/2 at Colchester. They only accept real money. Who carries that these days?
When l was at Manchester Airport Station in January l found the Coca-Cola vending machine on platform 1(?) also only accept coins.

Just curious, which station has the oldest vending machine?
 
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Midnight Sun

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Does anyone remember the vending machine at Portsmouth Harbour in the 1980's located on the exit to the ferry. Instead of drinks, sweets and crisps this produced cones of chips which were fried within the machine.
 

Journeyman

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I remember the Nestlé machines. Dairy Crunch the preferred bar of purchase.

Are those the machines with stacks of bars behind glass, with a drawer at the bottom of each stack that you pull out? I remember those. I'm sure the bars were a special size and shape specifically for those machines.
 

Journeyman

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They come in handy when it’s late and/or the shop/cafe/buffet is closed, and you’re peckish!

We used to have a Cadbury chocolate vending machine at school going back around 16 years. It was completely random and would dispense 4 chocolate bars in one go! Other times it would give you something different to what you had chosen. It got removed after about two years. It wasn’t a wire one and you couldn’t see inside the machine so no idea what was going on in there!

Yeah, we had a vending machine at school that was hopeless - you'd randomly get anything between about zero and five bars out of it. If stuff got stuck, people would buy the item above in an attempt to dislodge it, but this frequently resulted in huge clusters of bars building up!

After a while, it rarely worked at all and got carted away.

When I was in the sixth form, we had a hot drinks machine. The products were quite evil but I was quite fond of the "chicken" soup (not sure it actually contained chicken). Drinks were 15p each, but the machine only accepted the older large size 5p coins, and the smaller ones were getting quite common by then. Large 5p coins were soon changing hands for 10p!

The machine disappeared one day. We only found out later this was due to a large colony of mice having taken up residence inside. Best not to think too hard about what we'd been drinking...
 

Ladder23

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The rotating wire ones are always a gamble. I think I win more often on a slot machine.

Wire turns, item doesn't drop. No infrared beam to detect if an item vended, so money lost. Think 'pay again and I'll get that but the next one' and, no, only the one stuck falls. And so on.

Get the number and phone up and get no answer, or a voicemail system with no response.

If they worked 100% of the time (the newer ones with the arm type system is fine) then I wouldn't be so upset about paying a hefty convenience fee.
nothing a good old rock can't solve. I laugh now, but I can remember doing this in the past various times. Damn machine won't beat me.

Summer evenings when your working up track and you have forgot your water or drinks bottle, they can be a god send, even at £1+ for a can of coke, its always worth it at the time!
 

SussexLad

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My experience is that they only get used a lot when theirs server disruption, I remember being stuck at Leeds for 3 hours once and every single vending machine on my platform had been raided an hour and a half in. Probably didn't help that it was a Sunday afternoon
 

Jayden99

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Last time I used one (at Bourne End station) I thought I'd get a bottle of Sprite, gave me a bottle that was 5 months out of date. That was a waste of £1.50
 

Journeyman

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Last time I used one (at Bourne End station) I thought I'd get a bottle of Sprite, gave me a bottle that was 5 months out of date. That was a waste of £1.50

After various soft drinks changed their formulations to comply with the sugar tax, vending machines were the best places to find the old full-sugar versions.
 

Trackman

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Are those the machines with stacks of bars behind glass, with a drawer at the bottom of each stack that you pull out? I remember those. I'm sure the bars were a special size and shape specifically for those machines.
They were, think it was 20p in the late 70's/early 80's same bar would cost 10p in the shops, but it was bigger at the stations.

I remember the Nestlé machines. Dairy Crunch the preferred bar of purchase.

It was like white chocolate with rice crispie bits in it IIRC.
 

Steddenm

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Clane, Co. Kildare
I remember the old Cadbury vending machines on Underground stations that also sold BT Payphones...

London_subway_Cadbury_machine.jpg
(Image shows a Cadbury vending machine selling Creme Eggs for £1 for 3 at a London Underground station)

There is also a Pizza vending machine somewhere in London...

041126_pizza.jpg
(Image shows a vending machine for hot pizzas)

But my favourite of all was at a pop-up store once...

6cde79bb-51b1-4b82-b58d-fdddd571d312-legovendingmachine-flickr.jpg
(Image shows a LEGO vending machine at a pop up event in Windsor)
 

Train jaune

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Lancaster
Just been to France. Wasn't at a station but very french idea
 

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py_megapixel

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Station vending machines seem to be the only places that stock Cadbury's Snack Shortcake, which must be one of the most underrated chocolate bars in existence.
Nope! The vending machines at Slimbridge Wetland Centre also stock these. Or rather they did when I visited a while ago.

Now how's that for a random bit of uselss trivia...:)

Edit: Oops! Always pay attention to the timestamp - the quoted post was made all the way back in 2019! Silly me.
 
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Journeyman

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This is all starting to remind me of the chaotically dysfunctional vending machines in Idiocracy - "ENJOY YOUR EXTRA BIG-ASS FRIES!"
 

py_megapixel

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It always astounds me that most of the continent is perfectly happy with cigarette dispensers on every street corner. I think they previously existed in stations but have been removed.

What's even more astounding is that it was only fairly recently that these were fitted with any form of age verification!
 

takno

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It always astounds me that most of the continent is perfectly happy with cigarette dispensers on every street corner. I think they previously existed in stations but have been removed.

What's even more astounding is that it was only fairly recently that these were fitted with any form of age verification!
I don't think there have been cigarette machines outside of licensed or age-controlled premises for at least 40 years in the UK. My old newsagent had one next to the door, but it wasn't in use and hadn't been for some time in the late 80s
 

Bevan Price

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I have not used a station food vending machine for many years. Most of them seem to contain either unhealthy food & drinks, especially over-sugared fizzy drinks, toffees and chocolate; some sell over-priced water, often something that you can buy a lot cheaper from shops outside the station.

Last time I used them fairly often must have been back in the 1960s or 1970s when you could buy cardboard cartons of "cool" milk or fresh orange juice for under 10p (or the pre-decimal equivalent of 2s.)
 

apinnard

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Kettering
I have not used a station food vending machine for many years. Most of them seem to contain either unhealthy food & drinks, especially over-sugared fizzy drinks, toffees and chocolate; some sell over-priced water, often something that you can buy a lot cheaper from shops outside the station.

Last time I used them fairly often must have been back in the 1960s or 1970s when you could buy cardboard cartons of "cool" milk or fresh orange juice for under 10p (or the pre-decimal equivalent of 2s.)

Did the stations have secure storage for your penny farthing back in those days?
 

YorksLad12

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Convert them to sell face coverings/masks... although, you're supposed to wear them on the station now as well, so at places like Leeds you'd need to be wearing one in order to buy one.

Haven't used one for 'food' this Millennium, I think!
 
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