06.25.08
Posted in Personal Anecdotes, Random Goofiness at 9:24 am by Benjamin Ross
In a country where raw materials are proportionately more expensive than labor, it doesn’t make much sense to invest in machinery to take the place of human work…yet. At least not as much as it does in more developed countries with higher wages (see vending machine situation in Japan). Accordingly vending machines still haven’t made much of a dent in the Chinese market. This is why several days ago I was quite surprised to see two vending machines right smack dab in the middle of a busy intersection in Tianjin. Until that point, the only vending machines I have ever encountered in the Middle Kingdom have been the ones in the Shanghai Pudong Airport which sell bottles of water and Snickers bars for 20 RMB.
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| The machine on the left sold the usual mix of cold drinks…Coke, Sprite, Red Bull, fruit juice, and so on. |
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| But the machine on the right was no ordinary vending machine. Here are some of the products I found inside. |
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| snacks, including peanuts, dried peas, and Japanese rice candies |
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| men’s “long lasting oil,” little fish ornaments to hang from your cell phone, Wrigley’s Doublemint gum |
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| cigarettes and various inuendous objects such as the “Spicy Sister” women’s wet towel |
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| playing cards and “sexy underpants” |
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| and even cute little bear toys for the kids, right behind the sexy underpants |
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| I’m not exactly sure how to translate the product on the left, but I can tell that it is some kind of oil (anybody know what 神油 is?)…and then my own personal favorite, a Japanese product called “The Magic Finger.” |
…And who is to say that the Chinese aren’t “open” (or extremely efficient for that matter)? At least now you know where to go the next time you and your partner want to play cards and eat peanuts while chewing Doublemint gum, and then have a wild long-lasting, well-lubricated, sexual escapade (with protection), smoke a cigarette afterwards, and then call each other the next week with fish-ornament-draped cell phones to find out the results of the pregnancy test.
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Matthew Stinson
said,
June 25, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Yeah, these vending machines literally litter Hexi District, but I haven’t seen similar machines in, say, Heping or Nankai.
Tora
said,
June 25, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a vending machine during my time in Shanghai, in fact I even completely missed the ones in Pudong airport but that’s probably because I don’t usually pay much attention to them. And 20 rmb for a Snickers? Are you frickin’ kidding me? That’s like a 500% markup from the regular street price.
That is a pretty strange collection of stuff to put in a machine, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pregnancy test in one before. The oddest thing I have seen in a vending machine was a seemingly space-aged dildo at a Japanese love hotel. It was around 8500 yen (80 dollars) and I was amazed that such an expensive item could be sold in a vending machine, even if it was indoors.
thug
said,
June 25, 2008 at 6:54 pm
dont know what you guys are talking about, but there are plenty of vending machines in china, in office buildings, in subway stations. everywhere. maybe in the rural back waters not many, but you guys obivusoly havent been a round china a lot to make such a trivial, over generalizing observation.
Sue
said,
June 25, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Haha, I am certainly happy that you are back to the Middle Kingdom and this blog is an interesting read again
:)
James
said,
June 25, 2008 at 11:32 pm
神油 is the same thing as“long lasting oil”。What’s“The Magic Finger.”? A sexual toy?
Tora
said,
June 26, 2008 at 3:03 am
Thug, I lived in Shanghai for nearly two years and cannot say I’ve ever seen a vending machine there. Maybe things have changed since 2006 or maybe it’s because the regular 阿姨’s just doesn’t tend to sell their stuff in office buildings so they put in machines. So where do you live that has so many of them?
Alan
said,
June 26, 2008 at 4:11 am
@thug
You have an interesting screen name. Is there a goon as well?
Gabrielle
said,
June 26, 2008 at 4:57 am
I didn’t see a whole lot of vending machines in China either. I did see one however at Er Wai(Beijing Second Foreign Language University) in Beijing. It sold candy, cigarettes and a few other odds and ends, but no sexy underwear or anything. Things were pretty fairly priced, too, unlike some of the vending machines I saw at the airport – but that was to be expected.
Michelle
said,
June 26, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Nice. I’ve never seen 神油, those characters together before in Japanese. I’m sure the meanings are the same in Chinese, though, right? “god-oil”. or maybe “spirit-fat”.
Yu
said,
June 26, 2008 at 4:35 pm
There are many vending machines in some of the subway/elevated train stations in Shanghai.
You forgot to mention getting the toy for the kids, so the wife won’t suspect anything.
Or was that not the price of the pregnancy test?