#625 – Crinkle
Posted on November 3, 2008 at 12:00 am by Chris
Chapter: Comics
The vending machines where I work only take $1 bills. And they tend to be picky about the condition that they are in. I see this as a good thing. I would wind up eating a lot more junk food if the machines took $20 bills. That would be scary though if the machines had some sort of food item that cost $20. Maybe they will in another 5 years or so.
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This comic is up an hour early! DAY LIGHT SAVINGS TIME FTW!
ah I remember the good ole school vending machines that wouldn’t take any of my money or just eat it…out of about 5 times I only got food twice 🙁
I am not sure if people that live here will get this, my time spent in the US was well spent.
Those however, are not as annoying as the coin eating vending machines we have here.
Man this brings back memories. At the nearby bowling alley we had a few vending machines and man those things were stubborn, the dollar had to be exactly the right crispness, the right size, and you had to slide it in exactly right. The thing was a pain but it was interesting to see the different ways us kids would come up with to make the dollar work properly…step on them, roll a bowling ball over it, the good old corner rub I’m sure there were others too
I never understood how Americans could stand those vending machines. But, at least a bunch of $1 bills weigh less than $1 and $2 coins.
Not the right size…the right year sorry about that but for some reason the old thing wouldn’t take dollars that were from anything past 1997. Anyone else ever see anything like that?
We don’t have those machines here, probably because we use the 1 dirham coin.
Still, those machines were annoying.
Just as a random note/heads up for any interested: As a former employee at two different arcades, a lot of different types of bill scaners actually have as much or more trouble with perfectly crisp bills as they do with badly crumpled ones. You want a medium level of crumplage and minimal tears. There are times where it is actually the best bet to crumple your bill up, then smooth it back out before putting it in the machine. Its really an art but practice does make perfect… I’ve only had one bill I couldn’t get a machine to take in the last 10 years or so.
Does Biff launder his notes before ironing them, I wonder?
The vending machines up here in Canada take $1 and $2 coins… besides quarters, nickels and dimes… It’s alot easier to use them though sometimes they still let your coins drop through repeatedly…. Still, easier then using bills I bet….
~ Kel
Biff’s idea is actually……. practical!
Wait….Biff….PRACTICAL?!!!
It’s a sign of the apocalypse!!
Well that’s a rather unique way of beating the vending machine. I like using coins myself because they’re less fuss.
The vending machines at my college are really picky about both coins and bills. They really like the nice crispy ones, but they sometimes don’t give back change, and change usually has to be the right TEMP to go through. It has to be about room temp, not pocket temp, which sometimes means asking someone to borrow their pop they just got from the pop machine. It’s a real hassle, but it’s kinda funny how these things work.
PS. First comment ever on a Biff comic ^^
My University just got vending machines that take credit and debit cards.
Now if only I had some money on said cards…
Over here in Japan there are two types of 500 yen coins (worth about $5), the old ones and the new ones. Beware the old ones, because vending machines don’t accept them and they’ll get stuck if you try. Vending machines also don’t accept 1 and 5 yen coins making those even more worthless than they already were. Some vending machines accept 5000 and 10000 yen bills, but most won’t go above 1000 yen (which is the smallest denomination in paper form, below that it’s all coins).
The most annoying thing however is vending machines that don’t use 500 and 50 yen coins when giving change. If you buy something that costs 420 yen and you pay with a 1000 yen bill, you get back 5 coins of 100 yen and 8 of 10 yen, that’s 13 coins even though only 5 are needed if they did use those coins.
The only ones that need bill in my school seems to be the sandwich one. (yeah, vending machince sandwich, 1.5 minutes to warm it up too, not bad really)
I hate machines that stubbonly refuse to accept my coins >_< (or worst, take em and nothing comes out DX)
@Dunro;
The weight of coinage in the pocket is one of the principle reasons we still use low denomination bills, instead of coins. Coins are a lot cheaper on the treasury, in the long run, but the uptake is poor over here.
I’m very good at the art of finessing the bill-acceptors.
Hopefully there will be $20 vending items soon…I would enjoy a fresh fillet mignon with mashed potatoes and today’s vegetable on the go sometimes. xD
I’m sitting here going, “That’s actually a good idea…”
And then I thought, “I’m starting to think like BiffAAAAHHHH”
@starseedjenny: Don’t Panic. I’m with shorty. I think Biff is the one who is thinking unusually normal today. Maybe he’s just phasing himself into normality in preparation to vote.
There are vending machines that take debit cards, cuz in some places there’s basically whole entire grocery stores in these big vending machines. Great comic!!
I hardly ever have a problem getting vending machines to take notes, probably because Australia has fancy colourful plastic money 😛
http://www.aussie-info.com/tourist/money.php
I’m more worried about vending machines that EAT money 🙁
The Anytime Banker at Riverside Bank ALWAYS has to take my money in three or four tries, making it take about 5-10 minutes just to take it…now I can iron money and be in and out in 20 seconds, after ironing the money in only…30…minutes.
That’s not a bad idea at all. The vending machines at work are as finicky as a three legged cat
A good trick is to hold your hand over the bill acceptor once it takes in the dollar, then it can’t spit it out at you.
Now why didn`t I think of that?
I’m glad that all you have to do with loonies is occasionally fling them into the slot to get it to go.
I’m all in favor of phasing out dollar bills for dollar coins, especially since vending machine sodas cost MORE than a dollar now. However, Americans are stupid when it comes to money. The mint introduces new bills with anti-counterfeit features, and I hear wisecracks about Monopoly (TM) money. Likewise, when I was working at the gas station and handed out Commemorative Presidential Dollars as change, most people would ask “Can I get a real dollar?”… um, that IS a real dollar. It’s issued by the frakin’ government… and to think that a century ago, people complained about whether paper money was ‘real’. [/rant]
The vending machines where I work usually aren’t too bad, but they haven’t been reprogrammed to accept the latest fives, only the older series.
i.half4 – “Normality” is entirely the wrong frame of mind for voting. Especially in this election.
Heh, I’ve ironed dollar bills before. Not to put in a vending machine, but because I found them wadded up in the pockets of a pair of pants I was already ironing and decided to flatten them out. 🙂
“Fight the (Vending) Machine” week?
“What do you know about ‘The Machine’?!” – Stewie Griffin
(Still posting as “Reynard” on non-Gravatar sites.)
Biff is money laundering?!?
You guy thought you had it bad?
Once vending machine didn’t know whether to eat my money or spit it back out and ended up splitting it in half.
Ah, good to see fellow Australians around. I love our money, because it’s nigh impossible to tear, and it doesn’t wrinkle.
I actually have friends that do that to make their dollar bills nice and crispy… like bacon… X3
The new one dollar bills 2007+ vintage will self unfold and dewrinkle. I did cashier work and hate them. They would stick together as if glued. They also don’t wear like the old bills but eventually they loose that adhesive effect.
reminds me of a slot machine i once played.
you had to scratch the coin on the side before trying it.
luckily, i was the only person playing that one, i actually think it was rigged to work better >:D
@Azon is quite correct. The best chance of getting a bill accepted is not to have it be perfectly smooth. Crumple it up a bit and it will work.
…wow. That’s actually a pretty good idea. No more hassle from the vending machine…