Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Bulk Vending Machine

 Get exactly what you pay for.
  (+19)(+19)
(+19) 		  [vote for,
against]

Ok, so you have a pocket full of spare change you want to get rid of but not the whole dollar twenty-five for a soda. Dump your change into the machine and it counts your money and dispenses whatever amount of the product you've paid for into a cup. Peanuts maybe, or coffee, or a few cigarettes, or the cheapest grain alcohol available. I admit, I had vagrants in mind when I thought of this, which makes me a terrible person. So bone me.
—Wisconsin, Feb 10 2005

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       Good idea - I frequently have five or ten cents less than what I need to get a sugar fix after hours. Would it kill them to implement a system to give me, say, 95% of the standard amount?   

       (Disclaimer: as much as I hate vending machine crap, it's my only option sometimes.)
—Detly, Feb 10 2005
   

       bulk might be the wrong word. I imagined vending machines for flat pack furniture and the like.
—po, Feb 11 2005
   

       maybe "Vending PerCent". I like the idea.
—ORISIS, Feb 11 2005
   

       I immediately thought of the different end of the economic scale. Imagine a bulk vending machine - a bloody huge one - that was essentially a B2B wholesale outlet, but entirely unmanned. Works using a credit card. Dispenses large quantities of whatever it sells, using a fork-lift appendage, which is guided onto or into the back of a vehicle, using extreme technological cleverness and reliability.
—Ian Tindale, Feb 11 2005
   

       +, more of a high granularity vending machine, really.   

       Not at all what's being proposed, but came to mind anyway: Little kid takes dime from left hand with right hand, inserts dime to get part of $1.00 Tootsie Roll, watches as machine robotically portions candy with meat slicer, much whir-flash-spin-clanking yay!...takes one of the remaining 9 dimes from left hand... (Yeah, so it was really a 40 year old kid doing it when the thought first occured to me)   

       Other stray thought germs:
* Vending machines that act as savings accounts - dump in spare change when you pass the machine - machine keeps track of credit - buy when you have enough credit - fingerprint identification of customer
* Combine bulk coin counting functionality of CoinStar machines with vending machines, machine takes a percentage for cash value or lesser percentage for immediate purchase of soda, candy, trinkets, etc. from attached vending machine - good impulse sales potential - where else ya gonna spend all 'em pennies?
—half, Feb 11 2005
   

       A furniture vending machine [po]?   

       Mmmm..yep.   

       Gotchya.
—skinflaps, Feb 11 2005
   

       This would be good for sampling a bit of many different items.   

       [half], those thought germs sound like ideas worthy of their own pages. Then we could heap highly granular criossants on them.
—robinism, Feb 11 2005
   

       Thanks, [r]. Maybe I'll do that later.   

       Now that I think about the title again, that could apply to most, if not all vending machines. I know that's where some of my bulk came from.
—half, Feb 11 2005
   

       Slices off tenth of a croissant, gives to [W]. Slices off another tenth of a croissant...
—Etymon, Feb 11 2005
   

       Delicious. Though I must I admit I thought it would be a vending machine that held 10 times as much stuff, which I also would have bunned.
—yabba do yabba dabba, Feb 11 2005
   

       we wuz all fooled.
—po, Feb 11 2005
   


 

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