Nathan Crause

I while ago, I had to take a ferry from Vancouver Island to the mainland. As someone who lives on the island, I've had to make use of the ferries for over 6 years now. What was different about this voyage was a little trip down memory lane.

Many years ago, the BC Ferries terminal near to where I live had a small waiting area which was packed with vending machines. If it was vendible, chances are there was a machine for it there – hot coffee, hot chocolate, ice-creams, sandwiches, chips, soft-drinks, even fresh hot instant noodles with a little plastic fork (vending machines aren't limited to these, of course – I recall a trip to Switzerland where I came across a vending machine several meters wide which actually had groceries).

One thing of which I had become keenly aware was how much technology was actually involved in vending. All you had to do was watch the ice-cream vending machine use a robotic arm and a vacuum head to retrieve your choice to appreciate the technical merits of the machines.

Over the course of time, it seems BC Ferries opted for the more “human” touch, and removed all the vending machines and replaced them with a single small coffee shop. Let me say – the change was not a good one.

First of all, the coffee shop was exceptionally small. During summer, this one-person-at-a-time solution had to try to service several thousand people per trip. The queues were intolerable. This was easily handled previously by the 4 rows of vending machines (including offering vastly more choice).

Secondly, the coffee shop only operated during regular business hours. Considering the ferries run from 5:15am through to 10:45pm that left a lot of sailings with zero service. Again, the vending machines didn't suffer from this shortcoming, offering goods 24/7.

Third, and perhaps most surprising, was that the coffee shop's foods are always stale. To be completely honest, I've never had a stale product from a vending machine, and that's having travelled to some rather far-flung destination.

Having experienced how poor the “human touch” can be compared to a machine, it makes me wonder why the vending machines business isn't held in higher regard. By all accounts, these businesses can offer a much better experience than you'd expect.