High-End Vending Machines Take "Cut Out the Middleman" to Another Level

Oh, yeah. Like when we see a movie in the "Big Red Box" that we want to rent about once every 3 months. Otherwise, they're sold out.

How is this even a story? Are we really running out of news how the sky is falling chicken little? low levels of inventory turns + high cost of inventory + risk of obsolecence + convenience factor = same cost as middle man

I agree with henry_dlodg completely.

This is stupid.... How am I going to buy a high end escort in a vending machine?!?!?!?! Whatever......

One should go to youtube and search, "vending machines + Japan". To see where it could go.

Whatever, but I just hope Johnny Ike, the illiterate cow, stays out of this and for once doesn't post a silly and incoherent comment.

This entire freaking economy is based on speculation aka "middleman". I am not saying that they should be gone I just predict a HUGE fall out before we become more intelligent as a society but it won't happen until the current generation(s) of dummies die out. Remember why Moses took Jews on a 40-year trip?

i wouldn't buy her flowers from a vending machine

This entire freaking economy is based on speculation aka "middleman". I am not saying that they should be gone I just predict a HUGE fall out before we become more intelligent as a society but it won't happen until the current generation(s) of dummies die out. Remember why Moses took Jews on a 40-year trip?

This entire freaking economy is based on speculation aka "middleman". I am not saying that they should NOT be gone I just predict a HUGE fall out before we become more intelligent as a society but it won't happen until the current generation(s) of dummies die out. Remember why Moses took Jews on a 40-year trip?

This entire freaking economy is based on speculation aka "middleman". I am not saying that they should NOT be gone I just predict a HUGE fall out before we become more intelligent as a society but it won't happen until the current generation(s) of dummies die out. Remember why Moses took Jews on a 40-year trip?

Why in the hell are the markets rallying for the 7th week in a row? What is fueling this huge irrational, irrepressible, and irritating bull sentiment? I just hope these crooked bulls get punished by a nasty plunge. Something is manipulating the markets...someone with deep pockets like the Treasury or the Fed.

She's so right. If they put one of those flower vending machines in my office lobby we would all use it on the way home.

Until we have computers in our brains and x-ray eyes to quality-check the internals of every single thing we look at, someone's going to be willing to pay for customer service. Think about how huge of a selling point customer service is to say, Zappos.com, or boutique computer companies. Or pretty much any website that sells something and is rated by customers on some other website. Etc... This is some kind of weird off-shoot of intense market concentration and/or substitutable goods. What about product differentiation and competition? Right now we have ipod vending machines - in 20 years is the height of technology going to be an ipod vending machine next to a samsung vending machine next to a iRiver vending machine next to etc etc... or are we just going to have a huge warehouse full of all this stuff in New Jersey and the ability to order it off the internet browser in my eye, shipped to my exact current location - known to FedEx because they can track my phone's gps beacon.

She's so right. If they put one of those flower vending machines in my office lobby we would all use it on the way home.

Just like the intergalactic department store on Lost In Space...LOL I have seen some of these vending machines at the airport, they seem geared to sell things to people that probably forgot the item at home and really need to get something fast. This seems a limited market to me....

Are you kidding me Beavis? This is not about politics you loser. I think your name says it all!

She's so right. If they put one of those flower vending machines in my office lobby we would all use it on the way home.

Henry Blodget can jog your memory about the Tech Bubble. Classic.

Ya Try to return you bad ipod back to the damn box.