[Ads-l] ATM = Vending Machine

[Thomas R Howell]

In Japan, ATM  refers only to machines which provide access to the user’s bank account, to get cash, transfer money, etc. Vending machines, and machines in restaurants in which the customer buys a ticket to pay ( to prevent the food preparers from having to handle money with their hands) are not called ATMs.  Although Japanese refer to ATMs (ay-tayee-aymu, ay as in “hay”), most don’t know what the  abbreviation refers to (auto-teller machine).


> On Aug 28, 2019, at 5:04 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Japan is famous for having a wide variety of vending machines. I found
> a message in a forum that referred to a "ramen ATM", i.e., a
> vending-type machine for ramen noodles. The date on the forum post was
> 2005. Since the date was on the website itself the accuracy is
> uncertain. Someone created a Wayback Machine snapshot, but the
> snapshot date is 2015 (rather late).
> 
> I looked at some articles and YouTube videos about automated systems
> for ordering ramen noodles. It seems that older systems enable a
> customer to order and purchase the noodles. However, the noodles are
> not cooked within the vending machine. Instead, the customer is given
> a ticket which is relayed to a cook who creates the noodle dish in a
> conventional restaurant kitchen. Full-fledged ramen noodle vending
> machines exist, but I do not know when they were introduced.
> 
> The term "ramen ATM" is surrounded by quotation marks in the excerpt below.
> 
> Forum Website: mouthfulsfood.com
> Forum Participant: Orik
> Message Timestamp on Website: 13 July 2005 - 09:33 PM
> Topic: Tokyo Restaurants
> 
> http://mouthfulsfood.com/forums/index.php/topic/4314-tokyo-restaurants/page-2
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> I think they had an English menu. In some Ramen shops you make your
> purchase using a "ramen ATM", which is normally in Japanese only. You
> can try and memorize the letters for the differnt types, or you can
> use prices from www.worldramen.net as reference (typically each item
> is priced differently).
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Here is a link to the Wayback Machine snapshot of October 4, 2015
> https://web.archive.org/web/20151004143532/http://mouthfulsfood.com/forums/index.php/topic/4314-tokyo-restaurants/page-2
> 
> Here is a link to a website about a "Pizza ATM". The phrase is a
> registered trademark.
> http://pizzaatmllc.com/
> 
> Here is another somewhat recent example:
> 
> Article: Food ATMs Could Be The Evolution Of Fast Food
> Date: February 10, 2017
> Author: Curiosity Staff
> https://curiosity.com/topics/food-atms-could-be-the-evolution-of-fast-food-curiosity/
> 
> [Begin excerpt]
> What if instead of getting a dry bag of pretzels out of a vending
> machine, you could get a juicy hamburger? If this is what your
> gluttonous dreams are made of, you're in luck. Fast food is getting
> even faster as it moves towards unmanned ATMs for cupcakes, pizza, and
> other delights.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> Garson
> 
> On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 6:04 AM David Metevia <djmetevia at chartermi.net> wrote:
>> 
>> An interesting use of ATM in a recent Atlas Obscura post (
>> https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/worlds-first-salmon-atm):
>> 
>> "In January of 2019, a new ATM was unveiled in Singapore’s Wisteria
>> shopping mall. Instead of cash, however, this machine dispenses 200-gram
>> fillets of frozen salmon from the fjords of Norway. Today, dozens of salmon
>> ATMs dot the island city-state."
>> 
>> Further,
>> "The company decided on Singapore because of the country’s vending-machine
>> culture (Singaporean machines vend everything from ice cream to luxury
>> cars) and affection for Norwegian salmon
>> <https://www.intrafish.com/marketplace/1792764/meet-the-man-behind-the-norwegian-salmon-atms>.
>> "
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org