May 24th, 2010
A Russian company has installed 33 vending machines across Moscow, including in the mayor’s office, that dispense glass jars and tin cans of red salmon roe.
This is a less-pricey version of the caviar, that Russians spread on toast and drink with sparkling wine for special events.
But those looking for the black sturgeon varieties — such as Beluga, Ossetra, and Sevruga — won’t find it in vending machines.
Black sturgeon caviar harvesting is limited to about 9 tons a year as many varieties have been hunted to near-extinction.
May 15th, 2010
Abu Dhabi’s top hotel, the Emirates Palace, recently debuted a vending machine that dispenses gold bars.
The machine, named Gold To Go, allows customers to trade cash for gold in quantities ranging from coins up to 10-gram bars.
Customers using the shiny machine — itself gold-plated — can choose from 320 items, including gold customized with logos.
The price of gold, which was up to $1,245 an ounce yesterday, is measured by the machine every ten minutes.
May 23rd, 2009
A German asset management company plans to set up 500 “Gold-to-Go” ATMs in Germany, Switzerland and Austria this year.
A gold-dispensing automatic teller machine (ATM) was on display at Frankfurt’s main railway station for a one-day marketing test this week.
A one-gram piece of gold, the size of a child’s little fingernail and about as thin, cost US$42.25-a 30% premium to the spot market price.
April 9th, 2009
In the market for a Bentley sports car, a Jean Paul Gaultier dress or a cell phone, but don’t feel like dealing with a pesky salesperson?
Literally at the touch of a button, visitors to the Mondrian South Beach can buy those items — as well as more prosaic hotel gift-shop staples like toothbrushes — from a new lobby vending machine called a Semi-Automatic.
March 10th, 2009
Designed by Mari Balestrazzi, the Semi-Automatic is a vending machine designed for the Morgans Hotel Group.
The design deals with the idea of a hotel gift shop, but instead of selling souveniers like a gift shop, or soda and candy like a vending machine, it sells a variety of luxe items curated by Kim Walker, the hotel group’s creative director.
The unique products range from 24-karat gold handcuffs from Kiki de Montparnasse, luxury cars for rent (a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow or 2000 Bentley Azure convertible), Fred Flare heart sunglasses, a 14-karat gold necklace by Kiel Mead, and Atari classics for Playstation.
