Mr. BitternessMy local hardware store just installed a vending machine out front of it, in case you need things when they're closed.
I love it.
I love it.
Epic Null@wdormann As the hardware store in question, I bet they have a good sense of what items are the most likely emergency items. Based on the supplies, I see toilet repair, glue and flashlights make the list.
WesDym@Epic_Null Yeah, I recognize a lot of these as stuff we need 24 hours in housing maintenance. FSM bless the folks who standardized the innards of most water closets years ago, and condemn the companies who keep frustrating that. (Looking at your, Kohler.)
javensbukan@wdormann Okay but like this is genius. 🧠 💰
I love that they threw in some snacks and...a pack of cigarettes?! 😂
@javensbukan
Haha. They're candy cigarettes. 😂
Haha. They're candy cigarettes. 😂
@wdormann Ah okay 😜 I was like dang, must be one hell of a repair job.
Ho Ho Ho Like The Slur@wdormann @javensbukan hold up... Candy cigarettes still exist? Ones that could reasonably be mistaken for real cigarettes??
As a child I caught the tail end of them in australia, they were just barely identifiable.
@coolandnormal @wdormann We used to have "Popeye" branded ones here but they were re-labelled as "Candy Sticks".
@javensbukan @wdormann we had FAGS (a white stick with a red tip), which became FADS (no red tip). Evolution below.
They were clearly meant to be cigarettes, "fags" was one of the most common words for cigarettes in australia at the time. As far as I recall they never had a packet that looked convincingly like a cigarette packet.
M.S. Bellows, Jr.@coolandnormal @javensbukan @wdormann It would be surreal to revisit my childhood and see all the incredibly inappropriate things we didn't blink at then.
marilyn@coolandnormal @javensbukan @wdormann
As a kid, I especially liked the ones that you could blow through to create a cloud of powdered sugar "smoke" - but those became impossible to find for some reason
As a kid, I especially liked the ones that you could blow through to create a cloud of powdered sugar "smoke" - but those became impossible to find for some reason
@coolandnormal My understanding is that 'fag' is still a common street-level term for cigs in many Commonwealth countries, from the term's older meaning of 'burning twig'. It's been used in British TV as recently as just a decade or so, and not ironically, just how the characters talk. (Father Brown said it, for example.) It's fallen out of favour because it's also been used as an anti-gay slur, but my own view is that offense follows from intent, not usage by itself.
@javensbukan Licensing deal ran out. Happens all the time.
@wdormann @javensbukan I would love to know what the evolution of that was. Whether they were never regulated in the first place. Or (like the supplement industry) regulation used to be considered an important right of every american until one rich guy in the 80s.
@coolandnormal I'm Mur'can, and I'm honestly not sure what either of you mean.
Anti-smoking movements in the US reduced the popularity of candy cigs and also led to their design change, in an effort to discourage kids from smoking. But they were 'cool' for kids of half a century ago and earlier, when adult smoking was much more widespread and accepted.
Bob K Mertz 
@coolandnormal
There's no chance of someone actually mistaking the sticks themselves as a real cigarette. The boxes keep the same design but no longer have the "cigarettes" label and they are most often sold as nostalgia items for those of us born in the 80s and earlier.
My niece and nephew had absolutely no clue what they were and made no connection... You have to know what they were to make the connection.
NGL though... Still one of my favorites candies
EDIT: Speaking as a US resident
@bobkmertz They used to more closely resemble real cigs, but changed because of a movement to discourage kids from taking up smoking.
Passwordsarehard4@wesdym @bobkmertz right around when Joe Camel pulled a “my dad”. Went out for smokes and never came back.
@bobkmertz @wdormann @javensbukan I remember getting FADS at my 5th birthday (shout out ScienceWorks), immediately recognising them as cigarettes and all of us kids playing a game of smoking with them.
They were these ones and at 5yo we knew they were cigarette advertising (and loved it).
@bobkmertz @wdormann @javensbukan for a few months after discovering FADS we were pretending everything was cigarettes. We walked around with top pockets full of broken spaghetti pretending to smoke it at grown ups. It must had been wildly annoying, there were about eight of us little kids around that house.
@coolandnormal
I'm talking about the ones that are in the vending machine that were ubiquitous in the US in the 80s and 90s. I never saw the FADS here then or now. The ones in the US were not really branded and if you got a box they had multiple packs in the box with different designs. A golf pencil looks more like a cigarette than the candy "cigarettes"
@wdormann @javensbukan
I'm talking about the ones that are in the vending machine that were ubiquitous in the US in the 80s and 90s. I never saw the FADS here then or now. The ones in the US were not really branded and if you got a box they had multiple packs in the box with different designs. A golf pencil looks more like a cigarette than the candy "cigarettes"
@wdormann @javensbukan
@bobkmertz @wdormann @javensbukan I would be very surprised if children can't work out they're meant to be cigarettes.
Seems fanciful to imagine they look otherwise tbh.
@coolandnormal
Please stop trying to manufacture outrage. With the state of the world I don't care to worry about how anything stick shaped could be used by a child's imagination to emulate something bad. This is just ridiculous.
@wdormann @javensbukan
Please stop trying to manufacture outrage. With the state of the world I don't care to worry about how anything stick shaped could be used by a child's imagination to emulate something bad. This is just ridiculous.
@wdormann @javensbukan
@coolandnormal Still around, yep. Along with many other things you might think are gone now, too. I'm occasionally surprised by stuff I remember from my youth but haven't seen in years popping up unexpectedly.
RealGene ☣️
Burning Joint USANot sure I want my snacks that close to D-Con, but I appreciate the idea.
@grimacing It occurs to me that that placement might actually violate food safety laws, but it would require an inspector to notice. I can say that this would have been illegal in every restaurant I worked in or ran. But it's usually okay if human-consumables ('food') are ABOVE toxic substances. The rules worry about poison falling onto food.
@javensbukan Candy. There's no such brand as "Kings", which is a generic term for a SIZE of cigs. It's put there as a joke, for those who remember coin-op sales of tobacco products and their popularity with repair guys.
Matt Willemsen@wdormann One pack of smokes and no duct tape? Time for restocking.
Thibaultmol 🌈@wdormann have you put it on OpenStreetMap yet?
https://mapcomplete.org/vending_machine
Makes it quite easy, plus you can add that image to it
https://mapcomplete.org/vending_machine
Makes it quite easy, plus you can add that image to it
Tarus
Crispy Gnome Chomsky
Jim Spath
Comrade Weez@wdormann They're turning Japanese, I really think so
DamonHD
Le Néandertal se sent las, las
SupermoosieThis is the type of company innovation we need.
My local shops has a music vending machine.
So you can get your guitar strings, mic cables etc.
As there are no longer music shops around.
@SuperMoosie When I lived in a good-size city with several live clubs, I always wondered why no one was selling that stuff late at night. Could have made a killing. If you're the guy selling a working XLR cable at 11 p.m., you can probably name your own price.
Velocipedestrienne 🇿🇦@wdormann Plumbing... pest control... adhesives... Goo Goo Clusters, and cigarettes. Okay.
@HayiWena Coin-op sales of tobacco have been illegal in most Western countries for decades now. Those are candy cigs. (There's no brand of cigs called Kings. 'Kings' is a size of cigarette. This would be like a fake candy bar named King Size.) I get this joke, too. I used to have a parts drawer labelled 'Freshmakers' with Mentos in it. They have some other munchies in there, too, I note.
@wesdym I guess the $1.45 price tag is a giveaway too. Who knew candy cigarettes were still a thing. They were chalky and gross in the 80s.
khm
Felis_Catus_Domesticuspretty good choice of items, too.
Bill
Play Ball and Fight FascistsThat is a fantastic idea!!
KanaMauna
toddbuddy@wdormann @donaldham love that they have shutoff valves available at night!
ben moretti@wdormann @Slater450413 fabulous idea
ytscorp
Nicole J. LeBoeuf (she/her)@wdormann There's a bike shop in downtown Boulder that does this! Such a great idea.
Asbestos@wdormann
That has a good selection of the kinds of things you'd want after hours. With the glaring omission of duck tape and WD-40
That has a good selection of the kinds of things you'd want after hours. With the glaring omission of duck tape and WD-40
@Asbestos
There are two units, and my picture only caught the edge of the other.
Both are present there.
There are two units, and my picture only caught the edge of the other.
Both are present there.
Justin
the kamala harris of going to bed at a reasonable time@wdormann weird al would lose his shit
Viss
europlus 
@wdormann @decryption oh, so good!
halcy 
For a minute I thought it will contains USB chargers, cords and such. Hardware store, eh.
@chx1975.bsky.social Nah, that would be redundant, as those things are sold at gas stations -- some of which also sell some of these other things, too, for the same reason.