Vending Machine Roundup #4

The months have gone by and I keep traveling. Being such, I keep running into new and interesting vending machines. This group contains some specialized machines that don't try to do everything, but rather just try to do one thing very well.

The MooBella machine is quite interesting. I found this one at the Logan Airport in Boston, MA. I've featured ice cream machines before, but this one is different as it makes the ice cream while you wait. All of the needed ingredients are handy in the machine. You select your base flavor and your mix in and the machine goes to work, freezing and churning the ice-cream while you wait. You can't get much more freshly made than this.

I didn't try this machine as I found it at 6AM. I hope to be going through Logan at a more reasonable hour soon so that I can give this ice cream a try.

Large vending machines that carry a variety of snacks are often branded by one of the major brands such as Coca Cola or M&M. This makes it difficult for smaller brands to take advantage of the visibility of vending machines. The solution- specialized machines like this one. All Pringles, all the time. Found in a Comfort Inn in Waterloo, Ontario

With vending machines branching out to sell expensive things, it was nice to see this new variant of the classic gum ball machine. Found in a Holiday Inn in Minot, ND.

Here's a machine that I haven't seen before. Found in a brewpub in Waterloo, Ontario, it's just a nice looking design for a bathroom.

Behold the future of vending machines. Currently residing in the gift shop at the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta, GA, this is the most advanced vending machine I've seen for a long time. Like most new technologies it was broken by the time I got to see it.

The front of the machine features a large screen which displays commercials on the top and bottom while the center of the screen is supposed to be an interactive menu. This wasn't working. The only thing active in the center section was a tab instructing me to insert money.

This looks like it could be the future of drink vending machines, but until they get the bugs worked out you probably won't see one of machines any time soon. I did try to get a video of this machine for you, but I was not granted permission to do so. A few pictures aren't a problem, but a video was forbidden, go figure.

That's it for this vending machine roundup. Until next time, keep your quarters and crisp one dollar bills handy because you never know what you might find.

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