Friday, February 08, 2008

Vend Your Anger.

Just what you have all been waiting for, Mike’s Soapbox is back on form.
I am just anger and frustration all the way with this post.

Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall has asked you all to pledge not to eat factory produced chicken produce any more. I took this pledge.

Now I am making a pledge of my own, and I ask you all to do the same.

“I pledge to never use another vending machine again.”

My reasons for this are many.
Firstly it is a faceless transaction. Many small traders are going out of business because of theses.
There is the potential that this machine will break take your money and not give you the product you asked for. And then whom do you complain to. And is it worth getting irate over 40pence for a chocolate bar.
Well I believe it is. Vending machines are notoriously over priced often with short dated items in them and if you encountered an over priced item in a shop you wouldn’t accept it and walk away why do people allow it from a machine you could never barter with.

Half the time you’d be better off in a casino playing the one-arm bandits than using a vending machine.

Here are some facts lifted from this helpful website. http://www.vending4you.co.uk/facts/

There are 510,000 refreshment vending machines in the UK.
UK Vending machines use 1.5 billion litres of water ever year.
And consumers spend 1.5 billion pounds every year in them (pound for a litre of water?)
And more people are killed by vending machines than in shark attacks.

And according to these guys an average business can spend around £85,000 of its annual wages bill on time lost making coffee and tea. Does any one else think this is an evil money-grabbing statistic?

You’ve heard some of the facts there are more to find too.

Everyone has had a vending machine horror story now its time they stopped.

Take my pledge and boycott all vending machines.