VENDING MACHINES
Last year, when I visited Japan, I found there were a lot of vending machines selling soft drinks , instant noodle and coffee etc. Some of the vending were really high tech. You can see how the beverage was being processed (top photo).
When I went to US last month, I hardly can find any food vending machine. All I could see were the newspaper vending machine (bottom photo )
The conclusion I had was difference country had it unique culture and life style. You can not copy the ideas from one and implement them completely.
4 comments:
Both Japan and US are high tech countries, but having different cultures is a fact, but what has installing of vending machines got to do with cultures? From my viewpoint, vandalism is the main culprit. In US and Singapore we have a common problem of vandalism especially when vandals are not being closely monitored, those graffities drawn in coffeeshops or public toilets is clearly one example of vandalism. Public civic-mindedness are lacking in US and Singapore which is reflected in vandalising of public and private properities and that includes vending machines. Companies only dare to place such machines in protected area such as shopping malls. In my view education has an important role in imparting civic-consciousness value to the people of a country.
Dear Zen,
Thanks for your comments. You are right, the US and Singapore have the problem with vandalism.
We need a lot of education to change the attitude and culture of the people.
In the US human rights are a core value to its society, very good, but if human rights are to carry to the extreme, problems will definitely emerge to undermine the interests of the country. Take for example some years back when an American teenage called Michael F. vandalised some Singaporean cars and was given a short jail term coupled with a few strokes of the rottan, there was a hue and cry in the US condemning the Singapore Govt. The US president then appealed for the withdrawal of the rotton treatment but was rejected (it was reduced to two strokes) by the local govt which wanted to administered equal punishment to all guilty parties (culprits) irrespective of the nationalities involved. A noticeable thing happened, during the APEC meeting the US president was seen deliberately ignoring our own PM, showing his ill feeling towards Singapore just because of the caning of Michael F. Now we know why America is having so much social problems, particularly from their youths.
The present govt is a great believer in selp-service that is why we have many machines placed in strategic (protected) locations like ATMs, Bus card top-up, and so forth, supposely able to save manpower and to increase productivity. The irony is this: while saving manpower, it also causes unemployment to many and indirectly bringing hardship to many particularly the elderly. For the betterment all round, a balance has to be struck. For example, a Japanese food stall in one coffeeshop introduced self-service trying to save cost but in the end cause inconvenience to the customers. The customers in the queue have to wait for a long time for the food to be served because Japanese food are not fast food and need time to be cooked. Gradually customers would lose patience and bolt for other stalls. In other words, sometimes using auto machines or introducing self-service has its setbacks.
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