[Ads-l] ATM = Vending Machine

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Wed Aug 28 21:46:04 UTC 2019


Thomas R Howell wrote:
> 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).

Thanks for your insights, TRH. It looks like the message using the
phrase "ramen ATM" on the mouthfulsfood.com forum was written by an
English speaker communicating with other English speakers. The profile
of Orik who wrote the note says he is male, but it doesn't indicate
his nationality. Orik talks about food in New York in other messages,
and he may be American, I am not sure.

Since Japan has so many vending machines I hypothesized that an
English-speaking tourist would call one of the vending machines an
ATM.

LH's remark suggests that searching for "beer ATM" might yield
something interesting. There certainly are some matches in recent
years in the U.S.

Article: This Bar in Brooklyn Has a Beer ATM
Author: ANDREA ROMANO
Date: JULY 28, 2017

[Begin excerpt]
People are obsessed with convenience.
They want everything right now. No waiting. It seems like your can get
everything from an ATM these days: cash, cupcakes, pizza. And now:
beer.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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

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



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