Although it was a very busy trunk road on an approach to the historic City of York and I had been crawling along in the car in heavy traffic for some miles I just had to take the first opportunity of making a "U" turn in order to get another look.
I am a fan of misspelt or grammatically incorrect signage be it found on the side of a van, a shop window or just on a piece of wood or cardboard attached to a piece of street furniture.
This particular notice was none of the aforementioned so why had it caught my imagination so much?
Well, it was because of the uniqueness of the idea announced on the sign in that it was advertising the availability of fresh eggs from a specialist vending machine.
In some respects this form of automation is impressive, especially in an agricultural application but there is an underlying sadness that it has been made necessary because those good old honesty boxes for farm gate sales have been shamelessly abused by passers-by who have been taking the produce without leaving payment.
It is a terrible indictment of our modern society that the expectation of a bond of trust between a grower and a consumer is tarnished by the behaviour of a few.
It turns out that the idea of a farm food vending machine is well established in Europe and these are in widespread use across the continent.
It's introduction into the UK is relatively new and indeed that roadside sign was the very first to notify me of their existence.
The large machines can be tailored to suit any size of operation from allotment grower to smallholder and through to the big commercial concerns and can vend anything from bulky vegetables to delicate eggs, cooled or not.
A typical machine comprises a bank of lockers each with a clear viewing window where the produce and goods can be displayed. The lockers can accommodate a workable minimum of a punnet of soft fruits or half a dozen eggs and up to 20KG of potatoes.
There is nothing clunky or primitive about the vending machine and it can be back-lit to present a very attractive marketing proposition to the potential customer. Some users have housed the unit in a small rustic shed or, in the case of eggs, a mock up of a hen-coop to give some rural style and authenticity to the modern equipment.
One UK based manufacturer calls one of their models for egg selling "The Eggspress" embodying the idea that it is possible to buys eggs 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
The locker type units simply pop open once the consumer has made their choice and submitted payment in cash or on a debit/credit card allowing the goods to be removed.
The more sophisticated machines can give change , utilise multiple language options and even cope with different national banknotes.
In the case of the Eggspress this has a series of individual stocked drawers from which a tray of eggs can be retrieved.
The whole idea behind the traditional at the gate sales and honesty box was to free up the farmer to attend to more important tasks around the farm.
The new vending machines keep this tradition to some extent but can be plugged into a PC for data analysis and can provide updates by text on stock levels.
There are also opportunities for machines to be branded specific to the producer giving even the smallest rural operations a prominent public image.
I embrace the concept of such innovation mainly to help farmers stop petty pilfering and show a return for their efforts but at the same time it is a shame that very soon there could be little or no interaction between country folk and townies. I will however be sure to keep a few coins in my car ashtray in order to try out this new technology for myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment