The recession is hitting everyone pretty hard, Japan included. So vending machine companies are following the lead of Wex Co. and spurring the trend of vending machine cafes.
These mujin (unmanned) cafes are becoming more popular as people find themselves more strapped for time and money. It’s as simple as it sounds: vending machine cafes are just shops that provide seating or counter space and a few vending machines so patrons can grab a quick, inexpensive meal. No waiters here just means no tipping. The only employees of these cafes are those who clean the cafes every few hours and or course a security camera.
This set-up is good not only for the customers, but for the vending machine companies. The first company to set one of these stations up in 1996 was Wex Co. They claim that cafes such as Drink Station (in Osaka’s Kita Ward) draw in around 600 customers a day. This is a much more substational number of sales than a normal, stand-alone vending machine would make.
Other companies such as Coca Cola and Nitto Acevending are starting to open up mujin cafes as well. In the case of Nitto Acevending, these cafes are helping to bring the company out of the red.
It should be interesting to see how other companies start marketing their products in a different way during this recession. Vending machine cafes probably won’t be the last in a series of redesign methods from companies hoping to stay in business in a time when money is tight