3rd Hypothesis:
Economic incentives for installing vending machines may include their
ability to help lower labour costs for store managers.Employing someone for
24hours can be very expensive. Installing a vending machine in place of
a person could initially be an expensive investment
(costing as much as 1,200,000 yen)[1] , but eventually the money gained
by not employing a person for the job may effectively lower the costs of
labour. This means that products can be sold cheaper, raising their
relative demand.
4th Hypothesis:
There are about 5.4 million vending machines in Japan and 48.8% of themsell beverages. Although irregular vending machines are currently few and
far between, the demand for convenience may see an increase in the numbers. Vegetable vending machines such as the daikon vending machine located
between ICU and Musashisakai station, may have been installed because of
how daikon production factors. The most important production factor may be
how the farm growing this product is located in Tokyo, a city of over 15 million
people. This limits the size a farm can be, and because of this, it is most likely
run by a family or in the form of a small business. This family may not be
able to maintain their farm, household chores, and selling produce at all
times of the day and therefore has settled on a vending machine to best suit
the needs of Tokyo consumers.
I went to visit three farms within 5 minute distance from ICU where there
were vending machines selling various agricultural products such as eggs,
vegetables and kiwi. However, I visited these places at least three times and
they were all closed or did not have anything inside of the vending machine
at the time I visited there. This proves my hypothesis wrong. I believed that
owners of the vending machines wanted them in order to lower labour costs
and have their products available 24 hours a day.
This may be due to their products not being in season therefore there was
nothing to sell.
However, I managed interview a farm with a vegetable stall (Mujin Hanbai).
I found a lady on the property and managed to ask her several questions.
Me: “why does the farm have a stall?
The lady: “Actually, there is almost always someone nearby, making sure
everything is ok. Customers like to touch the vegetables before they make
the purchase. Vending machines do not allow you to do so… in fact, we all
would like to have a vending machine instead of a stall.”
Me: “What makes your family want to own a vending machine?”
Lady: “ There is a shortage of labour. Stall will require someone to be
around in case there is something wrong, like no change. ..”
「なんでここは無人販売なのですか？」
「一応、人がついているんです。確認をしながら仕事をしています。手で触って触れて確認できるので、お客さんのなかにも自分で選びたいって言う人が多いですね。自動販売機だとそれが出来ないので…。本来ならば自動販売機にしたいのですが…」
「なぜ自販機を使いたいと思うのですか？」
「手が足りなかったり、ずっとついていないといけない。無人にしていても不具合のことがあるので。。。ずっとついている子は出来ない。 午後からも仕事があるんですが」
The interview with her suggests that farmers decide to have vending
machine for the reason of shortage of labour.
