Vending machines are to last-minute needs what virtual reality and the metaverse are to the digital future: a futuristic illusion. The second has been overtaken by artificial intelligence and the first time, delivery. Progress (besides being inscrutable) is gradual. It is rare to see braking. In other words, the disappearance of vending machines is almost chimerical.
This progress can also be seen in terms of geographic dispersion. Italy, for example, is a country that even sells beers in its vending machines -prior scanning of the document equivalent to the ID card. Something similar is happening with tobacco in the transalpine country.
The Italian casuistry seems peculiar, but Madrid has a number of vending machines of supreme rarity. There is always a time when a refreshment is urgently needed, might think a staunch advocate of this mode of sale.
But what about a cachopo, cotton candy or pizza at 5 AM? Is that also necessary? Some people think so, which is why Madrid has vending machines that are rarities in themselves: works worthy of study in the anthropology courses of 150 years from now.
Pizzodromo
A vending machine for pizzas open 24 hours a day sounds like something you’d like to find in the wee hours of the morning to satisfy the hunger that always comes after a night out. And, undoubtedly, it is something that the ideologists of Pizzodromo had to think about when they decided to place the invention in the vicinity of Moncloa, a university zone.
For 8,50€ (or for 8,30€ if you take it home frozen) you can try some of their pizzas (peasant, barbecue, chicken, 4 cheeses…) which are made in 3 minutes and, although they are not the best you’ve ever tasted in your life, they are certainly an emergency resource.
📍 Calle de Hilarión Eslava, 38 (Moncloa)
Cotton candy
how long does it take to transport you back to your childhood or to a day at the fair? This machine in Príncipe Pío takes just one minute: that’s how long it takes Colorín to make a cotton candy. For five euros this machine prepares cotton candy in four different flavors, with a choice of strawberry, raspberry, apple or cloud. In addition to the flavor, you can also choose to give the candy different shapes, such as flower, heart or butterfly.
📍 Príncipe Pío Shopping Center (Paseo de la Florida, 2)
The flowers of Bravo Murillo
who, besides the protagonist of the sitcom of the day, needs a bouquet of flowers immediately at an ungodly hour? That’s the first question that should have been asked by the owners of the florist Jardín when they were debating whether to put a vending machine at the ticket entrance of their premises.
The bouquets are priced at 10€ (not expensive, honestly) and you can choose them by entering the classic combo of letter and number. As if you were choosing between KitKat and Oreo and not between saving your relationship (or not) by forgetting an anniversary, a Valentine’s Day or the corresponding ephemeris.
📍 Calle de Bravo Murillo, 37 (Quevedo)
The Wine Shop
It is not a machine: it is a transformer.
Seriously now: they don’t even define themselves as a vending machine (although it’s tempting to think of it in those terms). In the words of The Wine Shop’s Instagram bio, it is, “the world’s first automatic refrigerated wine cellar at altitude.”
In other words: to save the little space they had, they built a five-meter high cabinet to which the waiter in question has access to reach some of the two hundred references of wine that they have stored, as the ideologists tell in an interview with Telemadrid.
📍 Canalejas Gastronomic Market (12 Alcalá Street)
Those who are no longer with us
Gold bullion
For a (brief) period of time, Madrid had a gold bullion vending machine. It was located in the lobby of the Westin Palace Hotel and allowed guests to choose between one, five or ten gram 24-karat gold bars. In addition, it gave the option of buying coins made of this valuable metal.
The price of gold in this machine was not fixed, since it was governed by the London market price, varying every ten minutes; although the minimum cost of a one gram ingot was 50 euros. Of course, a vending machine only suitable for the thickest wallets. Its withdrawal took place a few years ago due to contract disagreements between Gold to Go, the supplier, and the hotel. However, cities such as Nuremberg (Germany), New York (USA) and New York City (USA) have been the most successful. The US) or Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) continue to hand out gold like chocolate bars through these machines.
Book Vending on public transport
At the same time that the Bibliometers book vending machines also began to appear at some Madrid suburban stops -there are now 12 in total- around 2005. They were located in some stations such as Nuevos Ministerios and Príncipe Pío and were maintained at least until 2018. The selection was not very broad and focused on best sellers. There is no trace left of either the machines or the company that carried it out.
Spain leads below the reading data lists for Europe, both in terms of comprehension and expenditure on books and newspapers, are usually the most comprehensive. Although public transportation is usually used to concentrate on books, and thus take advantage of the time, this entrepreneurial initiative was risky to say the least.
The cachopos machine of Atocha
It sounds like a scene from a post-punk movie, a joke from the Asturian newspaper Nueva España or directly a dreamlike situation. In 2016 unpacked at Atocha the wet fantasy of any countryman from La Pola: a machine of cachopos. For less than 5€ you could choose between the different types of cachopos available: chicken or beef and stuffed with ham, cheese, cecina, garlic mushrooms or goat cheese.
the name of the machine? Rising to the occasion, of course. Cachopomatic.
This article has been written by Alberto del Castillo, Isabel Nieto, Miguel Ortiz y Elena French.