I see Scotland is on the verge of banning completely cigarette Vending Machines. The main concern appears to be the continued access to these machines by the under 18’s who are now banned from purchasing tobacco products in the UK. With shops and other over the counter outlets increasingly being caught out and fined with test purchasing by police and trading standards the cigarette machine is the easy route for young smokers to get their nicotine fix. This got me thinking back to the early 1970’s and the first two vending experiences I can remember and how things have changed.

Firstly as a 14 or 15 year old the corner shop less than 100 yards from our school had a Players No6 cigarette machine conveniently located outside that took 2 shillings (10p) and gave you 10 cigarettes and some change tucked in the cellophane wrapper! Clearly popular at the time with many teenagers they have long since been banned from these types of locations.

The second even earlier vending “experience” I can remember was in the local shoe shop which had a foot x-ray machine! You would put your feet through a slot in the bottom of the machine and the bone structure could be seen through eye pieces on the top. It was a shilling in the slot for that experience and again is something now consigned to the social history scrapheap. Introduced in the 1930’s it was only in later years the potential cancer risk was appreciated and there are stories of shoe shop assistants in the USA dying from cancers linked to long term exposure these machines. Known as Fluoroscopes the first vending experience of my life clearly carried a potential health risk. In effect these were the worlds first and I am sure last radioactive vending machines!

Written by: Colin from KSV.