Building a vending machine to do hot and cold was a master stroke. There's also a niche for vending machines with a small microwave to heat noodles.
https://x.com/yannseznec/status/1492105643649601552
(I don't even want to tell you about the tvattstuga. It's better you don't know.)
Anecdata, but a vending machine at the local rapid transit station (one of those two-sided hot drinks / soups and snacks combo machines) had its output chute filled with (very visible and smellable, probably human) feces for a week after(!) calling the service number and only then the owner cleaned it. Mhhh. Didn't inspire confidence in their general cleaning routine, for me.
I have no idea how our machines stack up against the ones from Japan or other parts of the world in the vandalism department, though, in practise and outside of city centres. They might face similar problems, I don't know.
Alternatively, if a company operates for decades, they can make a very, very stable product. Only bugfixes. I'd imagine some of these vending machines are manufactured like that.
Which means, a weekly drive by is enough to inspect, refill, drive on. I used to deliver meats to very rural locations, 10 deliveries over a 300+ km circular route from/back to the packing plant. At 80km/hr, the stops are the big slowdown.
Another way to think of it, is that remote often means little traffic, fewer stop signs, and higher speed limits.
I live 8km from a large city. It's often far faster for me to drive 15km to a corner store in a small nearby town, because I can do 120km/hr the whole way there almost, on my rural road, with no stop signs or lights.
Drive to the city, there are 5 stop lights before the first corner store, that's each way, so chances are high to hit a light. And even one light is 2 or 3 minutes delay.
So rural servicing and deliveries can be quite fast and efficient.
I wondered that myself, after seeing some unlucky porter hauling cases of tea up to the vending machines at the top of some mountain temple (maybe Nikko?) on foot.
It was like something out of Death Stranding. It defied physics, looked absurd and would have killed him if he slipped on moss.
As they became more popular I started seeing them on gas/petrol stations, rail stations and many other places.
However, the kind of machines I talk about always dispense cold cans, sweets, crisps, sometimes packaged yoghurt, but never hot stuff.
Any time I encounter a hot vending machine they are always within some establishment like a gas station where you're supposed to pay first, you get a cup and then you go to the vending machine. The staff of the place is responsible for keeping it clean. However in busy places sometimes there is trash around them (people dropping sugar packets on the floor etc). So perhaps you meant this kind.
It's nowhere near as common as in Japan but you will often find them in train stations or highway rest areas.
You can have a lot of nice things when you have a government (and a society) committed to law and order.
I think the core issue is that vending machines outside of Japan lack variety...there's not much in them.
That said in Europe (not really the UK though) you can always find little vending machine "nooks" filled with machines containing alcohol, drinks, medicines, condoms etc. I think the negative perception is because of these - they seem to get left dirty and homeless/general public just mess up the spot.
But when you think about it, that's less vending machines and more Japan's culture of cleanliness and lack of public disorder. Outside of Japan, well, people don't really give a crap unless it's their own property...
Purchased their CDs to listen to in the evenings until then.
Maybe yes maybe no. My water heater is in the basement and I don't have AC. It would all have to be very house-specific and customized. And it would tie together what would otherwise be independent systems. A lot of complexity which is usually a bad thing especially at small scale.
I miss swimming pool chicken soup.
A closed loop of beauty and perfection.
If I had to take a jab at the core difference between Japan and other countries, and why this stuff works there; Logistics prowess and manpower. Organised and affordable employees may be another way to word that.
I was pretty drunk so it didn’t matter, and it was fun to watch it mix flour and water to a dough, top it with sauce, cheese and pepperoni, then cook it in a matter of seconds.
But in the end there’s a reason we don’t usually go from flour-> eating in under 5 minutes!
It's not great but still way better than vending machine pizza.
We always keep a couple in the freezer for especially lazy days, but this was a one-off drunken “ooh, shiny? Also melted cheese...” moment.
* only buy 3 or 4 meat pizzas
* add some cayene and mustard seasoning
* add my own fresh veggies
This fixes the bland, and meat seems to freeze well, veggies not so much.
And it takes 5 or 10 for the oven to warm, so cutting up some onion, maybe a green pepper passes the time.
Anyhow, I find this method very palatable.
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As a side note, any kind of meat, especily pork, is really improved with mustard powder when cooking.