CityLab Daily: Can Japan’s Vending Machines Evolve and Survive?
Also today: The Gecekondu homes of Istanbul, and is there a better way to make a monument?
Photographer: Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg
Out of service: Many love vending machines for their convenience, but perhaps nowhere are people more enthusiastic about them than in Japan, often known as the vending machine capital of the world. Now, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they might be reaching the end of an era. Monthly sales volume of beverages across the nearly 3 million machines in Japan dropped more than 35% earlier this year, Lisa Du and Grace Huang report.
To reinvent the $44 billion industry, vendors are looking beyond short-term solutions like selling masks and offering cashless payment options. Operators could increase merchandise variety and invest in upgrades to provide real-time consumer data. They could even repurpose some vending machines to serve as private data storage. If vending machines can't adapt for a post-pandemic future, they risk becoming a novelty vintage item. Today on CityLab: Vending Machines Aren’t Tailor-Made for the Pandemic After All
-Jameelah Robinson