Comments on: Just look at this banana vending machine in Shibuya, Tokyo.

By: NelC

NelC — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:43:00 +0000

Yeah, I slipped up, there.

By: sigdrifa

sigdrifa — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:43:00 +0000

Goes right along with DelMonte’s individually packaged banana :)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-7-2011/intro—pantry-of-shame

By: DreamboatSkanky

DreamboatSkanky — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:52:00 +0000

For the sniper on the go!

By: Roger Vaillancourt

Roger Vaillancourt — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:23:00 +0000

Doesn’t the bag trap the ethylene and make the banana ripen crazy-fast?

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:56:00 +0000

Regrettably the last Automat closed in 1991

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/11/nyregion/last-automat-closes-its-era-long-gone.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm

By: Festus

Festus — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:35:00 +0000

Newbie/lurker here: Please, can someone explain the history of the banana gag? I luff it.

By: greggman

greggman — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:43:00 +0000

I don’t get why this is interesting. I’ve seen bananas in vending machines all over the world. Here’s an example:

http://www.idealcoffee.com/images/vending_snacks_rotating_big.jpg

and the concept goes back until at least the 1920s
http://www.profimedia.si/picture/1920s-1930s-1940s-1950s-series-automat-cafeteria/0120465744/

Individually wrapped bananas in the US/UK

http://www.arktimes.com/EatArkansas/archives/2011/03/10/should-you-wrap-your-banana

and i’ve certainly seen them in other countries as well

I guess because it’s “in Japan” it somehow becomes exotic/cool even when it’s not?

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:45:00 +0000

There’s a flower vending machine at the Vegas airport. Make of that what you will.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:42:00 +0000

At one of the highschools i visited there was a candy apple machine that ‘made’ them (punches stick in apple, applies sheet of ‘caramel’ to apple, heats it to melt it). It was broken when I saw it but someone explained it to me and I wondered if some dude comes by regularly to replace the apples and why wasn’t there an option just to sell the apples by themselves. I could of used them in my painting class when we needed to do a still-life, the cafeteria only had bananas.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:36:00 +0000

Ya know this doesn’t make feel so bad when I order something and it’s a box within a box.

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:47:00 +0000

Bananas get bruised easily, but the bruise takes time to develop.

Moral: Eat your vending-machine banana RIGHT NOW!

By: jhoosier

jhoosier — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:12:00 +0000

Even weirder than banana vending machine is the fresh flower vending machine.

Beer vending machines are a godsend, however.

By: jhoosier

jhoosier — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:10:00 +0000

It probably has a plate that lifts up to the level of the banana, which is then pushed onto the plate and lowered down. They wouldn’t do it any other way.

By: jhoosier

jhoosier — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:08:00 +0000

A bag of individually wrapped cashew nuts. Just picture it. I had a photo at home, not sure if it’s still there.

Some places are trying to get out of the packaging obsession. Lots of people have eco-bags (bring-your-own canvas/nylon bags), and you can get a small ( 2yen) discount if you don’t use any bags. But if you go to a fast-food restaurant and order a value meal, you’re going to get the hamburger in a paper bag, the fries in another paper bag, your drink in a paper bag with a cardboard insert to prevent it from tipping over, and then each of those bags placed in a large plastic bag. It’s ridiculous.

By: tacochuck

tacochuck — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:03:00 +0000

Odd that every one is the last item of the row.

By: sloopy312

sloopy312 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:29:00 +0000

i am not eating anything that doesn’t come in a wrapper in a wrapper

By: Kevin Catolster

Kevin Catolster — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:42:00 +0000

I mean, maybe not the bottom-row bananas, but definitely the ones on the top row.

By: Kevin Catolster

Kevin Catolster — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:40:00 +0000

Wouldn’t this lead to every banana coming out bruised?

By: echolocate chocolate

echolocate chocolate — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:06:00 +0000

According to this page on the Dole website: http://dole.co.jp/products/fruits/banana01.html (just look at it), they mostly come from the Philippines. I assume they go to Japan directly cause bananas are pretty common in the supermarkets.

By: tyger11

tyger11 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:53:00 +0000

Are these coming from Ecuador (assumption) through the US, to Japan, or straight from Ecuador (or wherever) to Japan?

By: echolocate chocolate

echolocate chocolate — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:44:00 +0000

Very roughly twice as expensive. { Fruit is expensive } x { exchange rate to US$ sucks }.

Yes, individual servings of fresh fruit in a vending machine are crazy expensive, fancy that.

By: echolocate chocolate

echolocate chocolate — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:37:00 +0000

Or at a local supermarket hundreds of km from Tokyo. Fruit are given as gifts in Japan and the very best, most attractive ones attract a huge premium. Fruit is expensive anyway because farm land is at a premium and the farmers in Japan have huge political clout so imports are expensive.

Also: I bet you can find a watermelon for more like $500 in one of the upmarket shopping areas in Tokyo.

—

Edit to add: here is a $4000 watermelon: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/22/japanese-watermelon-auctions-for-4000-consider-that-a-bargain/

By: echolocate chocolate

echolocate chocolate — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:32:00 +0000

Maybe a slight exaggeration, but not by much. Certainly the packaging culture is so ingrained that even when you ask for the item without a bag, they will stick a small sticker on the item to indicate that it has been purchased.

And everything is packaged in individual servings–no giant bags of snacks. The first time I saw a box of 12 individually-wrapped McVities Digestive Biscuits at the supermarket, it blew my mind.

By: sam1148

sam1148 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:23:00 +0000

Now I think off it, the packaging probably helps keep the machine clean more so than the banana.
I’d bet after a few months of those metal spirals rubbing on the banana they’d probably attract flies–plus they look they’d be a PITA to clean.

By: DevinC

DevinC — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:16:00 +0000

I cannot look at this banana vending machine. I”m too busy looking at the ground so I don’t step in frozen banana shards and at the rooftops for banana snipers.

By: Lemoutan

Lemoutan — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:12:00 +0000

The one in Afghanistan?

By: Lurking_Grue

Lurking_Grue — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:01:00 +0000

There is always money in the banana stand.

By: sam1148

sam1148 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:50:00 +0000

Most time when produce is pre-packaged, It’s for things like grapes where they can fall on the floor and people slip on them.
And when they want to speed checkout with pre weighed packages for self-checkout.
Quite a few discount stores only sell things like bell peppers, bananas in unit priced bag with scanner codes.

By: Shawn Goldwater

Shawn Goldwater — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:41:00 +0000

I live in Montreal and have noticed, for the first time, bunches of bananas in plastic bags in some supermarkets. I assumed it was a spoilage thing as I read somewhere — maybe here — that plastic wrapping fruits and veggies is actually “greener” in that they last longer?

By: duncancreamer

duncancreamer — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:10:00 +0000

Single banana from Japanese vending machine: ¥130 ($1.47 in US Dollars)
Single banana in Costa Rica: 0$ (US in US Dollars)