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The Holy Grail of Vending Machines


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My question for you all out there is, why on earth are there no Snickers bar vending machines? Or for that matter, just your ordinary garden variety over the counter Snickers bars.

 

There is nothing quite like getting a quick choccy fix on the chairs in between runs (especially as no one talks to you here, you may as well stuff your face).

 

I am not advocating the wholesale introduction of vending machines here. Far be it from that. I would hate to turn a sharp bend and come across a random vending machine, looking not unlike the Tardis in the middle of nowehere, with no apparent source of power which plays "its a small world after all" when you put your money in.

 

But at the same time, with vending machines at a rate of 1 per square metre in Tokyo, it is hard to imagine how ski resort operators here have not in some form cottoned on to the idea.

 

Perhaps the purchase of a snickers bar on mountain is akin to the holy grail - no bugger is ever gonna find it (unless you are Monty Python).

 

For now, I will pre-purchase at the 7-11 as always, only to end up with a squashed and melted choccy bar from my never ending stacks in the pipe.

 

Still, it tastes the same...right?

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My Snickers always get really cold and hard, it's like gnawing on a stick. And when I bite it, there's a mini avalanche of frozen chocolate into my lap (hey now there's a come on girls). Be warned that the last 7-11 on the road to Nozzle does not stock Snickers. Orange Kit-Kats are the best alternative, but they aren't nearly as shock resistant as the hardy Snickers.

 

Cigars are also hard to come by on the slopes - read, impossible. A friend gave me a box of fine Philippine cigarillos in a tasteful cardboard pack that I tucked into my chest pocket. Come the end of an exhausting day with many a violent wipeout, I sat down on a bench, put my hand in my pocket, and came out with a shredded box and nothing but fragments of tobacco leaves. Oh the disappointment! I'm not a regular smoker, but when I get in the mood, I really want something good. I still have bits of those stogies lodged in my pass holder and the creases of my mitts to remind me of the dangers of poor pocket planning.

 

If not right in the middle of the gelende, at least have some goodies in a machine next to the chairlift.

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It's no secret that Dy-Doo, Yakult, Coca-Cola of Japan and a major but nearly bankrupt Japanese automaker are testing prototypes of onslope mobile vending machines.

 

Last weekend at Kandatsu I thought I saw an illuminated polar bear picking its way through the trees under the lift.

 

Upon further inspection, it proved to be a roving vending machine full of drinks and snacks, horizontally mounted on small cat tracks with optical, motion and stalk-like antenna feeler sensors.

 

"biiru, koohii, hotto cocoa, sunikkas baas ikaga desyou ka" was the tinny mechanical refrain it spouted over and over like some space-age consumeristic litany, while a minor forest full of chipmunks, tit mice and grumbling bears rolled over in their troubled hibernatory slumber.

 

The program is not yet perfect. They need to teach it to get out of the woods, and paint it a color that's more readily visible than the standard white. Too hard to see on the snow, I thought.

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I think not that many Japanese people love "Snickers" or "Time Out" or thing like that.

 

I have not seem any japanese dudes love Snickers v. much....(many japanese pals do not like Snickers...'cos sticky they said. )

 

Also I have not seem any vending machines for snack in Japan except Hotels or Cinema or same big hall as well...

 

Generally Japanese people are not really addicted to sweets I guess.

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Nat, I don't like Snickers either, they're pretty disgusting really. But if you snaffle one down at 11 am, you can defer lunch until nearly 1:30, and there are advantages to that. Not stocking Snickers in your resort catchment area convenience store is cutting your nose off to spite your face.

 

badmigraine, you're too funny. Actually last time at Nozawa I got chased by a snowcat stuffed with grinning men in suits playing the opening bars of Chopin's 'Fuer Elize' repeatedly at ear-splitting volume. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dum, da-da-da-dum, da-da-da-dum... Scary. No snack food though. (That's the snowcat playing the melody, not the grinning suits, in case you were wondering.)

 

[This message has been edited by Ocean11 (edited 25 January 2002).]

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Okay so I had the flasks and the food in all my available pockets and yes I was comgin down through the trees, but I WAS NOT RAMBLING ANYTHING LIKE WHAT YOU SUGGEST BADMIG! Besides the screams of joy, there was other stuff said but I cannot detail this on this forum.

 

[This message has been edited by mogski (edited 25 January 2002).]

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  • 1 month later...

I always just want someone to rationally explain to me what good 15 machines in a row can do, and what the thinking behind it is. Theres even 1 place near where I live that has 19 machines - 17 of them drink machines, all lined up. It's unreal. Taken photos of it to send back home!

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