I was astounded by the PSP vending machine in Logan airport, and the iPod one in JFK, that I saw over my holiday travels.
Vending machines are getting complex.

here in Tennessee you can get live bait from a vending machine

Yum. I love Tombstone pizza.

I had a little Digiorno pizza at a movie theater recently. I hadn't had dinner and this little pizza hit the spot.

I think those movie rental vending machines are cool. I haven't used them, but it's a great idea.

The iPod vending machine is beyond my understanding. So, I'm travelling to/from New York, and I forgot my iPod with all my favorite music. So, yeah, I buy a new iPod at a vending machine in the airport, and suddenly all my troubles are gone - I can spend the whole trip listening to the 10 sample songs that came with it (does the iPod even come with sample songs?).

Or I have my laptop with my music with me, but forgot my primary player at home, and got enough disposable income to buy a throwaway fucking $200 iPod instead of a cheapo $10 chinese player that will last through the trip just fine.

Can someone enlighten me with a more plausible scenario?

Pizza vending machine is just wrong. For one thing, it'll be crap pizza... see the example of coffee from vending machines. Secondly, it's PIZZA. The food is famous for being delivered. My telephone is a pizza vending machine - for pizza made properly, and cooked in an oven.

Well if you were to get an iPod touch out of the machine then you can just download music, podcasts and video using free wifi. I've been sitting in the Singapore airport for the past 5 hours and I easily grabbed a dozen podcasts, a new album and several YouTube videos. Hooray for technology. I wish I'd left my laptop at home.

The electronics vending machine at Logan seemed actually quite competitively priced, so I don't think they're after distress purchases. I think the idea is that it's just somewhere you buy your iPod if you're a busy, rich traveller.

And perhaps, you might pick up an iPod because you are on your way home after a long business trip without a gift for the kid.

Japanese vending machines pool on flickr. Careful, some might be NSFW.

These ones are more interesting and labelled.

Maybe they work best in context. I always thought it'd be nice to have a vending machine on the beach that had sunscreen in it. it'd be cool if they were recycling machines, too. So if you rented a towel or umbrella, you drop it back off at the same machine.

I got the same impression at Logan- the stuff all seemed to be at msrp, no crazy airport markup.

The accessories were a good idea, though. chargers and the like.