Need a sausage in the middle of the night? Or a steak? Perhaps a baguette? You’re no longer out of luck when the stores close, as more and more merchants are putting their goods out in vending machines.
Among the latest, the machine above, installed in Graz, Austria in front of a butcher shop. In addition to the sausages, there are other cuts of meat and some vegetarian options. Another butcher, in the Vienna area, has a machine that’s stocked with barbecue cuts in summer and hearty winter fare later.
France is in on it, too, with several meat machines around the country, including one in Paris operated by a Basque butcher in the 11e; in addition to common cuts it has Basque ham and other specialties.
But one of the longest is also one of the most controversial. While opinions may vary widely about meat, when it comes to bread, what you hold sacred is not subject to challenge by what others may hold sacred. Therefore, some have taken great offense to Paris’s unique, and now 5-year-old, automated baguette dispenser, stationed outside a boulangerie in the 19e.
The boulanger, Jean-Louis Hecht, says his wife got tired of people knocking on their door after the shop was closed; he says that gave him the idea for the machine. Actually, his machine is more than a dispenser: the breads are loaded in the machine partly baked; when you put your 1€ in the slot, the oven starts up and finishes your bread.
