Adults-Only Vending Machine Debuts from Kraft
239 Comments | Written on December 21, 2011 at 1:00 pm, by Lesley Kennedy
Kraft
Of all the jobs we thought couldn’t be threatened by technology, we never thought we’d see those women who hand out free samples in the grocery store replaced by a machine. Guess we were wrong. As USA Today reports, Kraft Foods has teamed up with Intel to unveil a new high-tech vending machine that doles out free samples of Jell-O Temptations desserts — but only if you’re an adult.
The sci-fi gizmo uses a camera and (creepy-sounding) “Anonymous Video Analytics technology” to determine, among other things, a customer’s age — baby faces will be asked to back away from the machine.
Sorry, kiddies, your pudding will have to be purchased.
“This is wow,” Steven Keith Platt, director of research and consulting company Platt Retail Institute, tells USA Today. “I’ll now have the ability to interact with a cool device that dispenses a unique product vs. walking up to some old lady with a white apron on.”
Hey, call us Luddites if you must, but we quite enjoy snagging a sample from that old lady in an apron. However, given that the food and beverage industry spends a whopping $1 billion a year on samples, according to the newspaper, we guess we can understand why companies might want to streamline things and ensure products are reaching the right target audiences.
But does that mean adults will be kept from trying foods targeted at kids, like, say, the latest offerings from Trix, Bagel Bites or Cheetos? Because if that’s the case, we’ll definitely take the old lady. The cool quotient only goes so far.
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Food News | Tags: Casseroles, Chicken, Chili, Healthy Meals, Slow Cooker
239 Comments | Post Your Comment
These people don’t know the persuasive power of kids. Anyway, if you’re an adult why would you buy that fake-o jello crap when you can get quality stuff like Kozy Shack or real chocolate mousse from the bakery?
Humm, It has an eye that can see you or film you, You push a finger print reader to order your flavor, they now have your image and fingerprint and know what your favorite flavor is.
Not necessarily. You can always use your knucles…
Those little old ladies in white aprons should get trained on repairing these things and unionize.
heres the best post of the day in my opinion
from Bruce Rubin…
“I cant wait to a midget sues them”
That is exactly what I thought when I first started reading the article!
what Liz said… this is gonna be really funny if i a Midget sues the company…
Its not just height, but face detection as well.
Or it discriminates against someone with Turners syndrome? Legally, this machine really doesn’t seem like their best bet
Most of the parts or the machine is built in China and other low wage locations, shipped to USA and placed in malls and around critical locations. It’s not a news, its already has happened and continue to happen. The big question is that for how long can it continue? I just wonder if where is the Govt. with the over all schema of for the people and by the people. Oh, I forgot, small Govt is doing raising funds in these same corporate jets and are out of town. How did I forget whats so obvious obvious?
Doesn’t the government have anythingh better to do?
My gosh! They can’t protect us from killers and robbers, and sexual predators, but they want to protect us from ourselves.
GO FIGURE!
You’re confusing levels and branches of government. Also, no one can protect you from criminals. They can only catch them after the deed is done, and even then, only if the crime is very serious.
These machines are not new, I think they used to guard top secret corporate data installations but now the mega corps have access to improved technology and are now cross marketing the obsolete tech into something still useful and profitable.
I offer my freelance consulting services for a modest salary only to organizations which value transparency and fairness which have become rare in the business world lately.
Remember when Billy Madison chose business ethics as the final challenge question to his greedy relative?
You go LM, I’ll head to mines, we’ll meet at BS AFTER CAP! GOO!
I cant wait to a midget sues them
Oh, how could I forget! The manufacturer has to have a place to build these machines. So how many construction workers have to be hired to build the plant? How many truck driver’s have to be hired to haul in materials? How many architects and draftsmen did it take for the plans? I could go on and on but, let’s just say, we’re talking many millions of dollars to get it off the ground and maybe thousands of jobs overall. Somehow, I think that would mean a bit more to the economy than a few hundred sweet little ol’ gray haired ladies on minimum wages across the country. Don’t get me wrong, I like them and I do prefer human contact but please, let’s be practical here.
Really. Do you really think they will be building a new plant, hiring brand new truck drivers, architects and draftsmen? No, they won’t. The factory is already built. There are companies that are already set up to build these, no new factory needed. Truck drivers? They will be shipped with companies that already have trucks and drivers, no increase in personnel needed there either. So no, there will not be thousands of new jobs overall. All these contracts will be given to companies with the ability to complete them. There will be a loss in jobs of the little old ladies, but no increase.
Yes, Really. Don did not say “new” jobs in his post, only “thousands of jobs,” you added “new.” New jobs are what many of us would like to see created, but Don is correct in pointing out that many who are already employed, will benefit from this (and other) technologies.
Personally, I’d prefer to see a REAL person handing out samples since I sit in front of a computer most of the day.
The reason it has to be an adult is not only because it is targeted to adults, but they cannot provide the samples to children without the adult’s consent. Many times I have told my son to get a sample and they would not let him have it unless I was present and told them ok – so many kids have allergies/etc they cannot risk giving the child a sample without the adult consenting.
so if you’re a “small person” as they call them nowadays, you can’t have some either i guess.
No, it uses facial recognition – read article
No, facial recognition identifies unique people, it uses video analytics, which determines age, read the article…
Soon kids will sue and anyone will be able to get Jell-o samples. The price of Jell-o will go up. Kraft executives will short their own stock then beg Congress to loan them billions of dollars if they want people to be able to get Jell-o. The executives will pay themselves huge bonuses and not make more Jell-o available.
Ten we will find out that Greece has bought tons of Jell-o…
you my sir, are amazing!
Excellent!
Frankly, I don’t want anything off of those plates or from those machines.. assorted nastiness. Jello samples from a machine, who thought of that and do we really need something like that?
woot! … I could get paid in Jell-O!
But if it rained on my way home with the boxes I could become entombed vis a vis Dwight Schrute’s stapler at the hands of JIM
“I’ll now have the ability to interact with a cool device that dispenses a unique product vs. walking up to some old lady with a white apron on.”
—
Wow…I bet this DB gets his pleasure from a blowup doll, too.
I had the same thought. What do you suppose he calls his doll? Ken? Ralph? Eddie?
excellent JT lol
Obviously none of you watch enough tv to know the reasoning behind the new machine.
Jell-O Temptations is a pudding dessert that is being marketed directly at adults. I can’t remember the exact byline, but it’s something about “finally a pudding made just for adults” and “something you’re not going to want to share with the kids”
The machine is marketed to adults because they want adults to indulge for themselves, not the kids.
You’re right! I waste my time reading all day and I could be watching Jello TV ads with you. Wow, I’m such a loser!
Yes, reader, you’re right about one thing… you’re a loser…
Don’t you know dionysius guys finish last?
On a more serious note.
My mom was 4’11″ (if she stretched) and I have an aunt who is 4″8″ tall.
The question is if the machines can tell the difference between a small adult and a child.
If the machine turns away someone with a temper like my mom had, it will not be pretty.
I hope that Kraft is ready for the fallout from this machine.
Read the article. It has FACE recognition.
This might have FACE recognition, but I just tried it and it turned me away… and im not a kid.. looks like they need to work out the kinks.
The reason kids are excluded is for safety reasons. They may be allergic to the product being offered. The sample reps will not give samples to children without an adult present either.
samp reps give food to anyone who will try it ….. kids run parents .. think about all the stupid shit we buy because they MIGHT eat it.. like corn.. with dora the explorer on it..
I do not think it is for safety. Kids will go back adn back and back not satisfied with one sample and run the machine out every ten minutes.
My wife is a demo lady in COSTCO and people bring their entire families in for lunch and dinner with no intention of buying the products. And they are among the rudest individuals you will ever come across. She has seen it all, like the lady who dashed full speed to a demo cart, cutting off other customers to grab the last chicken wing.
Your 4’11″ mom has to have a baby or child face as well because the machine does not only test for height
It also distributes lube, condoms, and Playboy.
All of you up in arms over the lost “little old ladies” jobs: really? There’s a wealth of employment opportunities handing out free samples where you live? While I agree with any who think this is a silly application of technology, it’s not that big a deal – hardly the start of the robot wars…
“Hardly the start of the robot wars” Not trying to sound paranoid, but the biggest things in history have started with small steps. a reverse example would be equal rights (for blacks, women, etc) it didn’t happen overnight, it happened in small steps that got bigger, and more support. A good example would be the Holocaust. Hitler didn’t just wake up one day and say “I want to kill millions of people because they are inferior to me.” It started in his early years, and as time went by, he slowly manipulated things around him to get him to power, and then started the killing of the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, etc.
Not that I believe in the robot wars, but I hope you see my point.
I cannot believe you would compare a vending machine to the holocaust or civil rights. Shameful.
Robot wars compared to civil rights and hitler. This discussion has devolved to include everything needed for a flame(fail) war… except furries and bronies. Which it now has.
They are missing the point. I always shop with my little girl and if she doesn’t like it, I won’t usually buy it (beer and wine are notable exceptions). There have been lots of sampled items that my daughter liked that I turned around and bought due to her asking even though I had no interest in them myself.
So, you are saying that even if your little girl doesn’t like the beer and wine, you’ll still buy it?
That’s mean. You shouldn’t buy her beer and wine she doesn’t like. Spring for the good stuff, just like you do in the chip aisle.
You all are idiots.
Please, lady. They aren’t idiots. They’re just having a little fun. Where is your sense of humor? I got a chuckle out of their comments. Don’t take it as a personal attack on you and you might get a smile from it, too.
I will defy the machine’s wishes and give the samples to my kids anyway. Let the workers keep their jobs, and let kids have samples. Kraft is just another example of the corporate greed that is crushing our nation. Occupy the Jello aisle!
Bet those are some fat kids. Mom too?
“Occupy the Jello aisle”? ::::bangs head on keyboard::::: Let’s hope that they don’t have to storm the gates of ‘Jello Park’ to protest. Will they set up a drum circle or a pudding cup circle? Good Lord it is TOO late to be up – I need sleep! I’m geting a TAD silly here……
In your case, I agree with Jen’s comment!
Actually, I think this is the opposite of corporate greed. I am pretty sure that this is driven at least in part because Kraft is trying to avoid marketing sweets to youngsters without oversight. That may be on their own or because they don’t want the kind of publicity these companies got a few years back for advertising so heavily during cartoons.
Sadly, people will yell corporate greed either way. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. THAT is what is crushing our nation.
Botox docs put them up near their offices … advertise that if you use this machine AFTER your treatment, it will reject you! The docs will then make MILLIONS!
If all the jobs are mechanized who will have money to buy anything? Guess we can try to survive off of free samples dispensed by machines…
the people building, designing, repairing, programming, and filling the mechanized machines will have jobs.
Yep. And Jack will still be able to chew his jello. It’s a WIN WIN situation.
You have no idea what you are talking abou. The machines have already been built. There will be no jobs created by this. Do your research before you spout off at the mouth.
Are we supposed to believe that all video captured here will be held in confidence just like that of all of the Federally funded video cameras canvassing the nation today?
Can i borrow your hat? I do not want my leftovers to get freezerburn.
I bet you are talking about a tin foil hat, aren’t ya? Lol
How many of these machines will Costco have?
Ok, I am now waiting for the first lawsuit when a little person is denied a treat. SUE SUE SUE. You know it will happen.
These lawsuits that happen every time someone sneezes in the wrong direction are SO far out of hand, it’s just insane! Before the infamous McDonald’s hot coffee suit, this didn’t go on and the saddest thing? If you Google it, you will find out that suit was not frivilous. The woman had some serious damage done to her body BUT since she sued McD’s, everyone started suing everyone for a lotta nothing – and the beat goes on. People HAVE to KNOCK OFF the suing everyone for every little thing that happens to go wrong in their lives. It’s pathetic!!
I hope that I am fortunate enough to come across one of these machines. I’d really like to see them and how they work.
Her lawsuit was frivolous because the injuries she sustained were through HER own negligence. The genius tried to fix her coffee while propping it between her legs and driving. Consider this – if she’d run someone over instead while fixing her coffee, it would have been viewed as her negligence. I will NEVER understand why McD’s setteled with her.
The woman sustained serious injuries as a direct result of the excessive temperature of the coffee she had been given. Normal hot coffee would not have produced the burns this woman received. She was responsible for where she put the coffee, but McDonalds was responsible for the incredibly excessive high temperature the coffee was served at.
And if it were cold she would have complained so either way Mc Donald’s would have lost.
@ just me: “but McDonalds was responsible for the incredibly excessive high temperature the coffee was served at.”
Nice that you put your own spin to it! “incredibly excessive high temperature”? Wow! Since when is 10 or 12 degrees “incredibly excessive high temperature”? She still would never have been burned if she hadn’t put it between her legs while driving! The woman was stupid and blamed McDonalds for her stupidity. McDonalds settled because they could afford it and because they didn’t want any negative publicity from this “poor little old lady who was scalded and disfigured for life from this incredibly excessive high temperature coffee”, that you dreamed up. People with no common sense always blame others for their lack of it. I suppose now you’ll want warnings placed on all the coffee cups telling the public to not put the cups between their legs while driving. Yup! I thought so!
“Since when is 10 or 12 degrees “incredibly excessive high temperature”?”
If you had a temperature of 108 or 110 degrees, I would call that excessive.
Also, you clearly have NONE of the facts.
1. She was NOT driving, she was a passenger, and they were parked so she could put creamer and sugar in it.
2. The coffee was 187 degrees, in a styrofoam cup (the old kind).
3. She got 3rd degree burns on 16 percent of her body.
4. They wanted to get McDonalds’ insurance to simply cover her medical bills. They had over $10,000 in medical bills, and McDonalds offered $800.
5. The plaintiffs wanted to settle out of court for only a matter of tens of thousands of dollars but McDonalds pushed for a jury trial. McDonalds did NOT settle.
Way to be an ignorant lemming.
An old lady in an apron with a card table cost them so much overhead that it was worth their while to invent and mass produce what looks like a $10,000 machine to replace her?? Yeesh!
So they are just trying to replace the women that hand out food but not the men that do it also? Isnt that sexual discrimination?
really? that’s all you got out of that article? …on your way to a PC convention by any chance?
I really, really hope you are joking. Otherwise you are possibly the dumbest person on the planet.
“The cake is a lie”
They need a Portal vending machine.
“Open the pod bay doors and give my my pudding, Hal.”
“I’m sorry Davy, you’re too young to have this treat.”
Kraft, are you serious? “Sorry kid, you’re too young to appreciate indulgence like this, Please step away, so the grownups can get their free treat” And the kid responds with a can of spray paint and a pipe.
What about small people how will the machine be able to tell the difference because if it goes my height and size alone there are going to be some angry customers.
I think it also uses facial recognition to figure out your age. It’ll be similar to the facial recognition technology many things are using such as Picasa, etc.
OK, this will NEVER work near the botox studios in Hollywood … or maybe it will … if it says you’re too young and you’re really 40, women will DEFINITELY go to THAT doctor for their treatments! ROTFLMBO
Small people will back up and ask a 6′ tall fifth grader (who enjoys several 8 oz. glasses of hormone-laden milk each morning) to get them a sample.
AND FOR THE MORONS WHO CAN’T FIGURE IT OUT… If the machine dispensed to KIDS the parents would not be able to shop — they’d be cashing after their crumb crunchers who went from machine-to-machine, testing their output, and discarding countless cups on the store’s floor. Nobody is going to stop a parent from getting a sample and giving it to their child. This is just Kraft allowing a parent to exercise a little parental direction. Chill, babe. This is not a big deal.
How would you feel if your kid ran up to a machine and got a cup of ice cream automatically and you had to take it away. You’d be ticked at the grocery.
Great, lets eliminate MORE jobs.
there still are jobs teaching spelling…just check out the next comment.
Bob, quit making me laugh, this is serious stuff here.
How cares! Just give me the free food!
Human interaction is always better. You cant talk to a machine and enjoy its smiling face during the chitchat. In one year you will no longer hear of this type of vending machine. FLOP!
So…..the Japanese technology is FINALLY arriving in the US – YAY!!! I seriously missed the vending machines that scanned who the customers were!
The Japanese copy everything American, why not copy back? Great to see the Japanese finally starting to use American smartphones and even the Internet, although Wi-fi is still hard to come by.
@FC Don’t buy the “gloves = clean” hype. I’d rather have a pair of freshly washed hands touching my food than gloves that have sat in a porous cardboard box exposed to everything for who knows how long. Gloves are nasty and wasteful.
gloves definitely dont = clean
saw one cook wearing gloves grab some raw chicken to put on the grill then take cooked french fries in his hand to place in the serving dishes. (yes, I complained to the manager)
hmmm prolly at least 15k to produce this top o’ the line new-fangled thingy-ma-bob, plus maintanience, restocking, electricity…etc. or $8 an hr for an elderly person to stand there and engage customers with a smile….i think kraft is the fool here
LIKE!
(there was no ‘like’ button)
I agree, look at all of those jobs they’re creating! Where once you only had one little old lady employed, now you have an army of engineers and factory workers and repair techs!
You are the one who is mistaken. Kraft will do what is in their best interest, evaluating all factors including customers’ attitudes and reactions. If they feel this is a better plan then more power to them.
People who try to dictate how others run their business when they have no skin in the game — just a big mouth opinion — belongs in places like China, Russia and Greece (where government makes most decisions).
Please let us be free to make our own decisions. Some will be right, some will be wrong. But by trying many different things we GET THE BEST — it filters it’s way to the top.
That is why your healthcare is going to SUCK in a few years when Obama has taken it all over. Nobody will give a crap that you wait in line for 50 minutes to check in (BMV), get rude service (post office), are doomed to die for lack of care because you didn’t check box 6 on line 2 of page 4 on your check in sheet (IRS).
Meantime, though, the bureaucrats running the system will get world-class care on your dime. Heck no, they won’t be in the system. They’ll be in the federal system.
I guess if they could outsource the actual “old lady in an apron” job they would. This way they can.
My girlfriend’s mom still gets carded.
I can just picture Paula cursing like a Navy Seabee if the machine told her that she was a child, and to step away from the machine.
Lawsuit in the making. Just a little thing called discrimination — against vertically challenged adults. What about those adults who are confined to a wheel chair.
It does not look at height only.. It “calculates” the age. How accurately? … I don’t know, but I guess they would have tested it.
How ’bout next time you bother to actually read the article before commenting. Hmmm?
I’m not so sure he didn’t read the article. I think it has more to do with comprehension skills, or lack thereof. And there are too many “mother’s” that don’t watch their children while buying groceries. Just last week I saw 2 kids, taking handfuls of pineapple chunks on tooth picks from a sample case in the fresh fruit section. They emptied it in under a minute! Even putting handfuls in the “mother’s” cart while she watched! That’s enough reason for me to understand why a machine should be programmed to NOT be allowed to dispense to children. Stores spend a lot of money for samples in hopes of increasing sales, NOT to feed your kids’ lunch! Not to mention the cookie section where “mother’s” allow a kid to open the box, eat all the cookies and then, just miracuosly, the empty box winds up on another shelf, 5 aisles over, so she never has to pay for it. What is that teaching your kids? And you wonder why we have so much crime in this world? They are taught at a young age that it’s OK to steal! And you wonder why groceries are so high? It’s because of YOU! Yeah, just keep eating all those grapes before the few remaining ones are weighed and paid for at check-out!
You people are idiots and need to learn how to read. Go back to the article but this time actually read further than the headline. maybe you’re family and friends have bigger problems if they are concerned with being denied pudding from a machine. Again, READ the article.
Having a machine do this will provide data you would not get any other way. The machine will probably record who takes the sample, then Kraft will take your information and graph it out. So Big Brother lives now with samples. Just like how Cell phone companies records everything you do on your phone.
This is great! I NEVER eat those old lady samples, because old ladies are often hygenically challenged. People in general for that matter. Give me a nice, germ-free machine any day!
Are you a bit OCD? Wash you hands much?……lol
ps. what about ‘vertically challenged’ adults?
personal interaction is much better than a machine. the machine cannot up-sell or add a face to a company or a product.
humans are so disconnected as it is from each other due to technology, geesh kraft, let an old lady give out jello for goodness sakes.
I totally agree. I think it is a stupid marketing move, my kids always stop for the samples even though most of the time I would not and then I usually buy whatever it is because I don’t want to hurt the old lady’s feelings. I won’t stop for a machine that won’t serve my kids, ever, and I definitely won’t buy whatever they are hawking unless I already intended to buy it because I can’t hurt a machine’s feelings.
steven keith platt seems like the kind of person who is infesting this planet with the disease of inhumanity
Ha Ha, I totally misunderstood what an “Adults Only” vending machine would dispense, particularly from Kraft…
bad idea pudding snack to me should go to both adult and kids cause the power of a whining kid I want go way farther then a parent opinion it taste good.
Another way to put people out of work. I would rather interact with a human handing out samples of products.
Just another step continuing to isolate people and stop human interaction. this is NOT a good thing.
As long as said human being is wearing gloves and not coughing all over the place, I’m good.
I personally enjoy the contact with a human handing out samples. Plus, that way it will be sure to get the kids as well. We have to keep the human contact going, plus it helps to give part time jobs to the public who need them.
Linda Smith — No button here..but, LIKE!
I agree with most of what you said but, consider this: a minimum wage for a part time lil’ old lady OR a manufacturing company that makes these machines that hire hundreds of people, including designers, draftsmen, programmers, metal workers, salesmen, suppliers, repairmen and a complete office and adminstration staff? Hmmmmm. Tough choice, huh?
Follow the money, Don.
It’s safe to assume that Kraft wants to spend less – not more – to get their puddings sampled. It follows that Kraft sees these machines as a way to do just that.
So on the one hand, we have, let’s say, a $40K machine. That price covers all the development/manufacturing/overhead/sales/distribution costs. Kraft should be able to lease a $40K machine for under $5K/yr. Let’s also assume the machine can be serviced – refilled, cleaned, repaired – for about $5K/yr. So the cost to Kraft, per machine, per year, might be around $10K.
On the other hand, we have a human, working for (let’s hope) at least $10/hr. So $10K should yield 1000 hours of human sampling time, right? Since the normal shift for sampling is 4 hours, that’s 250 shifts/yr.
Of course, most supermarkets are open 16 or more hours/day, 360 days/year. That’s over FIVE thousand hours of sample time available – and the machine will always be there.
So in this scenario – and please, feel free to make up your own if you don’t like mine – ONE machine can replace FIVE human samplers. Good for Kraft? You betcha.
Good for the economy? No.
Why? Because for every $10K formerly earned by ‘little old ladies’, the machines will generate perhaps $2K – that’s 1/5th – in overall wages. For the machines to generate the a net gain in wages, they would need to be valued at over $200K apiece.
As someone mentioned previously, how large is the sampling job market in your town? Most of the people who do the sampling carts are not hired to simply do that but also have other responsibilities. I am sure these people would rather be doing something else than handing out food to fat, lazy people and their children on Saturdays at Costco.