Vending Machines

[Twocky61]

Who remembers those strange vending machines from the 70's?

+ Chip vending machine that actually fried the chips often placed on filling station forecourts. Now what mindless cretin thought of that? A filling station forecourt that sells petrol? Later ones microwaved the chips

+ Hotdog vending machines

+ Parafin vending machines; take your own five litre container

+ Milk vending machines with the milk in a triangle carton

Preston bus station (largest bus station in Europe back then) had all of these vending machines

Who remembers any others?

[Arran]

Re: Vending Machines

I have seen a few vending machines for batteries and one back in the 1990s for camera film when it was still commonly used.

[amethyst]

Re: Vending Machines

I remember the milk and orange juice cartons on railway stations,also the nestle chocolate bars machine

[stuckinthepast77]

Re: Vending Machines

i have one of those little machines that newsagents always used to put outside their shops,either chained up on a stand,or in a wall mounted metal cabinet with the dispenser inside-this one still has its 5p sticker displayed in it too

[Twocky61]

Re: Vending Machines

I have a Klix vending machine in my house

[darren]

Re: Vending Machines

YES I REMEMBER THE NESTLE CHOCOLATE ONES ALL RIGHT.



BUT CANT QUITE REMEMBER THE OTHERS U MENTION.

I remember the milk and orange juice cartons on railway stations,also the nestle chocolate bars machine

[Arran]

Re: Vending Machines

I'm sure I saw a floppy disk vending machine at a university in the 1990s. If you look in the right places you can find a few vending machines for tins of food.

[Richard1978]

Re: Vending Machines

YES I REMEMBER THE NESTLE CHOCOLATE ONES ALL RIGHT.



BUT CANT QUITE REMEMBER THE OTHERS U MENTION.

I remember on trips to London seeing mechanical chocolate machines like this one on almost every station, probably originally Rowntree Mackintosh but rebranded Nestle.

[sixtyten]

Re: Vending Machines

Was Pot Luck if you actually GOT a small bar of thick rock hard choc out though...

I remember them well

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Vending Machines

There were also vending machines that sold videotapes in the mid '80s.
Often seen in cinemas.

[Big Tim]

Sorry to "bump" an old thread. But I remember vending machines for all sorts of weird and wonderful things. I do remember the hot snacks one mentioned in the O.P., but I don't think any frying took place, so it was probably the later micro-chips setup that I saw - I think possibly it was in a motorway service area, or at least a garage on the side of a busy dual carriageway.

The only place I tend to see vending machines regularly now are on the platforms at railway stations (I sometimes use the ones at York, as even though a bottle of pop is overpriced, it's actually cheaper than buying in the WHSmith / Whistlestop shops), or the occasional one on the sea front at Scarborough. My local barbers still had a "Klix" (Maxpax look-alike) machine until about five years ago, but I never bothered using it in over 25 years of being a customer there!

We used to have to buy cards in a vending machine at University (Dundee) in the time I was there (1998 - 2002) which were a piece of card with a magnetic strip glued on, as credit for photocopying and printing documents in the IT Suites and Library - there was a primitive card reader linked to the machines which debited your card for each sheet of paper used.

I also used vending machines at golf driving ranges to get a bucket of balls. I remember one clown putting their money in and pressing the button before putting the bucket under the dispensing chute. Hey presto - 100 golf balls fired out all over the place, including one which hit a bloke smack-centre in the shin, and he was less than happy, voicing his displeasure with gusto!

The weirdest one - and it was a fixture for at least a decade - was at a local independent petrol filling station / Spar. Located on the forecourt, so at least not where food was on sale - but it actually sold live maggots! There was a river about half a mile away. Presumably local anglers must have made this a viable business proposition! Never seen one anywhere elsewhere, ever. This would have been late 80's to around about 2002, when the garage closed down to be redeveloped as private flats.

[W1 Rover]

Re: Vending Machines



I remember on trips to London seeing mechanical chocolate machines like this one on almost every station, probably originally Rowntree Mackintosh but rebranded Nestle.

They were certainly to be found on many of the London Underground stations. We learnt to avoid them, they had a tendency to take the money and not give you the chocolate. There was a drawer system at the bottom of the unit which could be very reluctant to open.

[Semi42]

Long thin metal vending machine in a random city location down toward the quayside in Newcastle that sold tiny packets of beech nut chewing gum for 2p