Have you ever been walking a dog or commuting home and thought, “I need three to four slices of ham or I’ll die?” For me, that happens everyday. Same for people in Paris. So much so that two entrepreneurial residents have begun installing vending machines throughout the city filled with vacuum-packed meat.
“We’re closed two days: Sundays and Mondays,” one of the geniuses behind the venture Florence Pouzol said to the Associated Press. “So this is to cater for customers over the weekend... The idea was also to serve people after the shop’s closing hours. We close at 8 p.m. but some people leave work very late and find the shop closed when they walk past it.”
The vending machines take cash and credit card and specialize in meats from the Basque Country, but they sell everything from beef carpaccio to duck confit to “faux-filet steaks”—which are either steaks that aren’t quite cut into filets or filets of fake meat.
Apparently, these meat machines have been around France for three years, but they are only making their way to Paris now.
“Our customers are young. There are also quite a few bars and restaurants along the boulevard,” Pouzol continued. “When we see them during the day they tell us, ‘Last night, I bought this or that and it was really helpful.’ We also have those who work in the cafes and restaurants who come off work at 2 a.m. They tell us they were happy to buy an entrecote or something else to eat.”
WHAT EVEN IS FRANCE!