I assume your link is the same as this one, basically: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...3689-2002Aug29.html

It's right up the road from me--I walk by it when I go out for dinner. I'm very amused by it. Me and a friend stood and watched while someone bought something just so they could see how it works (and we weren't the only people stoping to watch, including, ironically, the 4 or 5 people in there who were working inside it.) And please, so it's not that cute. At least it's cuter than a parking lot. :) It's all refridgerated, cause it has milk or some such, so you could buy refridgerated toilet paper, if the spirt moved you thus.

It's a new millenium for the Mob.

I can't seem to read the Times article to see if they've mentioned this (or if you are talking about something entirely different), but York, PA actually had the first Shop2000 as of May of last year. Here are some pictures.

This is great. All the convenience of a convenience store, none of that annoying "interacting with people" stuff.

The company's website (http://www.shop2000online.com/) gives
no indication of what these cost. Given that a regular
vending machine runs at least $1000, and that the projected
revenue (according to a press release) is $12,000 per month
on one of these, I'd guess they cost about $50,000 to $100,000.

I used a similar machine several years ago in Europe. It
was fun and memorable.

Brings back longings for Horn & Hardart though.
http://www.theautomat.com/inside/history/history.html

One of the Good Morning America Today AM shows had a demo of the Washington RoboShop. Pretty neat.

I could picture these being set up at commuter rail stations. Say, the CalTrain line (SF to San Jose) or the Portland light rail line.

If these things ever make it to San Francisco, they'll have to think up a way to keep squatters from setting up camp in the coin return slot.

Any idea how much one of these babies costs? Rough ballpark?

I've had a link bookmarked for a few years to a website with pictures of a Japanese RoboShop [ http://www.theimageworks.com/Robo/roboftur.htm ].