Jan 05
Spotted at Atlanta International Airport, these Best Buy Express vending machines offer a wide variety of electronics for travelers, including digital cameras and headphones. The most interesting thing to us over here at OT? The inclusion of a DS system, as well as a number of games. This particular machine featured the likes of Guitar Hero: On Tour, Mario Kart DS, Brain Age 2, and LEGO Batman.
Interesting idea…hope it works out for them.
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When I was in Atlanta’s airport back in October they had IPOD vending machines o.O
They’ve had these in Las Vegas for at least the last six years. I’m pretty sure they have them in Japan too. I mean come on, you can buy a maid in a vending machine in Japan.
Aww Nick beat me to it, but i didnt see it in Atlanta, saw it in a Boca Raton FL mall.
bein’ an employee of a major airline at Atlanta’s airport, how come i never see anybody buying anything out of those machines?? They are a pretty cool idea though….
@Nick – i believe the iPods are still in the same vending machine.
That’s a great idea… hopefully the prices aren’t marked up too bad.
That…is SUCH a good idea.
@Mathew – According to the article, the prices are listed at retail. No airport markups detected at all.
Yeah, when I was in Atlanta I saw the iPod one as well. I saw a couple trying to decide what they wanted to get. My question was, “Do they know they come with no music on them?” Then I wondered if maybe they came with preloaded music.
All i can think about is you know as a kid, when you would be DYING for a packet of fruit pastelles or a mars bar. youd put in your change, spend ages making sure you got the code right, and then grit your teeth as the spiral spins and doesnt quite push your selection far enough for it to drop. devastating i know, but you would definatley feel worse if you had just shelled out, what is it for a ds now? nearly £130 into a vendor!
that and, surely the drop isnt good for electronics….
If the Ipods are at retail, then they are already heavily marked up. “Retail” on those things is about twice what you pay at any big box store.
Remember, the airport is where you can be charged $5.00 for water. What’s sad is that I have paid $5 for water at an airport…
I figure the drop is no worse than the standard shipping jostling that stuff probably already received. Those vending things give receipts, I think. Yes? (Dunno. Seen ‘em. Never used ‘em.) It should be a minor matter of getting someone to get your merch outta there if it messed up. (However, “should be” and “is” aren’t always in agreement.) My worry is getting one with a weak charge (or someone getting one without understanding what may trigger motion sickness).
Whoa, talk about impulse buy bait.
I saw one in Minneapolis and it was full of iPods, digital cameras, memory cards and such. I thought it would actually a pretty good idea. I use all those things when I’m traveling.
DFW Airport had a Sony vending machine very similar to this. It sold headphones, ebook readers and Sony PSPs.
The minute one of those… like say… the DS gets stuck, tilted against the glass, there’s gonna be touble, violence and arrests. Looks like a good idea at first, but just wait ’til that happens!
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But if it accidentally dropped 2, that would be sweet.
japs love vending machines. they put everything in em.
I wouldn’t want my DS to do a bounce before i took it out of the box.. right in front of your eyes too.. that just can’t be good for the hardware. Patrick from france and I spotted the iPod venders while in Vegas for the New Media Expo.
1) The machine doesn’t drop the item, it actually has a lift the comes and takes it down to the bottom. So rest at easy, they understand that dropping things isn’t a good idea.
2) My thought is, the DS is not going to have a charge . . . kinda makes instant gratification less gratifying.
I’ve seen iPod vending machines at airports (MSP and Denver)… they have all the models and retail prices. I just couldn’t justify dropping that much coin in an airport until my existing iPod died on the 8 hour flight out there.
Ended up “renting” a Zune from BestBuy for the ride back. It was a returned unit full of music that I returned at my local BestBuy when I got back – didn’t like it, no questions asked.