 If you find yourself at a self-serve gas station in Padua, Italy, fuel isn't the only thing you'll be able to fill up on. Items such as condoms, vibrating rings, dildos, personal massagers and even adult DVDs are now available through public vending machines in several Italian cities. These machines require age verification and bear a silhouetted image of a naked woman to distinguish them from their less sexy counter parts.
Italy isn't the first country to do this though; sex toy vending machines have been available to London club goers since early 2006. Newcastle, an English company, provides sex toys, lube, condoms and other novelties for club patrons as well as hair salons, of all places, through hot pink dispensers labeled "Tabooboo" (pictured). Business owners claim that these machines, which can be found both in restrooms and out in the open, are highly popular with women.
Sex toy vending machines are a natural progression given the wide variety of products sold from vending machines across the globe. You can now buy iPods and other small, pricey electronics from vending machines inside department stores and malls in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia. You can pay a vending machine to fix frizzy hair in the UK. People have also been known to buy entire meals from snacks and hot drinks to entrées and ice cream -- all from vending machines.
In Japan, they sell used "school girl" panties in vending machines at public train stops. Speaking of Japan, this island nation has a variety of unusual vending machines including ones that sell live seafood! You can rent bikes through vending machines in the Netherlands. And here in the US of A, truck stops and clubs have been selling condoms and feminine products through vending machines for many years.
[Unfortunately, I could not obtain a picture of the new Italian sex toy vending machine with the naked female silhouette. Please feel free to send me a note or comment if you have a link to one.]
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