Vending machines and culture

In Hong Kong, I saw this umbrella vend­ing machine. In Ghent, Bel­gium, I saw an entire store­front made of vend­ing machines, sell­ing a huge vari­ety of stuff, includ­ing Hoe­gaar­den beer.

Why is it that machines in North Amer­ica mostly sell food and soft drinks? We could sell a much greater vari­ety of things, mak­ing our lives that much more con­ve­nient. We wouldn’t have to employ shop keep­ers to work at 3 am. (Those same shop keep­ers could drive around the city refill­ing machines, dur­ing nor­mal wak­ing hours.)

What we don’t put in those boxes is reflec­tive of the boxes we put our­selves in.