Picture a Dutch wall vending machine: the gleaming windows emit heat and the smell of food. You tap your card, a door opens to release the goods — it doesn’t get better than this.
Or does it?
We know Dutchies love eating their favourite fried food from vending walls. But now there’s much more on the menu of these machines, RTL reports.
READ MORE | What your favourite Dutch FEBO snack says about you
Looking for flowers, fast? Need bike lights badly? Kids craving cotton candy?
You can now find all these and more in one of the 50,000 wall vending machines across the Netherlands.
They come in all shapes and sizes
For example, the Hoog Catharijne shopping centre in Utrecht is where you’ll find your cotton candy fix from a recently revealed machine. 👇
@uncoveredjourneys In Hoog Catharijne in Utrecht staat deze leuke suikerspinmachine met allerlei vormpjes en kleuren 🍬🥰 Echt leuk om een keer uit te testen! 🤩 #food #foodie #utrecht #hoogcatharijne #suikerspin #suikerspinmachine #foodtok #foodtiktok #foodguide #foodreview #foodlovers #cute #nl #vlog #cottoncandy #cottoncandymachine #foodspot #snack #snackbreak #snackidee #leuk #hoogcatherijne #hotspots ♬ That Couch Potato Again – Prod. By Rose
You’d also be forgiven for confusing some of Utrecht’s student accommodations with a swanky hotel based on the products available in their lobby’s vending machines.
Elsewhere, it’s common to find vending machines that dispense medicine in pharmacies, cleaning products at car washes, and tampons in toilets.
Some offices even have machines that offer USB sticks or phone chargers, so they truly range from the practical to the pretty (the flower machines take the crown there). 😍
A vending machine for flowers in the Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/eJYBIUCXo6
— Chris? (@Stat_Zombie) October 1, 2017
They can even double as fridges for chilled groceries like milk, eggs, or meat.
Since the machines are cooled, contactless, and quick, the options are becoming endless.
This is why Marco Brouwer, director of Jaski Automaten told RTL, “we’re going to see more and more of them”.
READ MORE | 15 weirdly cute things Dutch people do
In the end, it’s all fun and games. Literally: if you’re playing sports, many gyms will have vending machines for equipment.
And in some hotels, Easytoys provides equipment for other kinds of adult, ahem, fun. 👀
If you could buy anything from a vending machine, what would it be? Let us know in the comments below.
