A safety note

[tugrik]

While the Nuka Cola vending machine at the shop is set to $0.05 so everybody can enjoy, please observe the one following rule unless you want to get bit by wandering monoceri:

If you take the last soda so there's absolutely nothing left worth drinking at the shop -- either go out and replace it with something, or notify us so we can bring something with us when we go there.

It really sucks to tear into a sandwich lunch, go over to the machine to buy a refreshing beverage and find it utterly freakin' empty -- when you knew for a fact there were at least three rootbeers there the night before.

GrrRrRrRRrr.

(Just as an FYI: A 'soda run' to fill the machine runs about $128.00. The last one was only about 2 weeks ago. The amount of coins in the box due to people opening it and re-using coins or just flicking the coin-detect lever: $2.45.)

Comments

[pen-umbra.livejournal.com]

I Stumbled across that page randomly a few days ago. XD

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Seems like common sense to me! Of which is not so common anymore. Well hopefully whomever left the machine empty gets a swat across the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

Or eaten by a certain big blue chum. :3

[feren.livejournal.com]

[A 'soda run' to fill the machine runs about $128.00. ... The amount of coins in the box due to people opening it and re-using coins or just flicking the coin-detect lever: $2.45.]

I would say, having abused the privledge, the Nuka Cola machine now either goes away, becomes full cost (which won't much deter the douchery you reference above) or in some other way is restricted. Because that, sir? Is bullshit.

[abirritate.livejournal.com]

I don't usually hit the angry trigger, that hard but yup. Ditto that.

[foofers.livejournal.com]

What douchebaggery!

You still have a web cam in the shop, yeah? Way up high where someone can't just cover the lens with a hand as I recall.

Make an "empty soda machine" detector...have it trigger the web cam and post the results somewhere for everyone to see. "HERE'S THE PERSON WHO DRANK THE LAST SODA."

Totally passive-aggressive, I know. But hey, it involves gadgets!

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

If he we're assuming he's making an empty-machine detector, why not just have it email/page him directly, sidestepping the notification problem? User-camera optional =^.^=.

(Tracking who drinks what/how much would be useful for its own sake, but might rub people the wrong way re. privacy.)

-Deuce

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Tragedy of the commons, my friend. *hugs the big civilized beastie* But it can be made to work! For example, if anybody had pulled that kind of crap at my fraternity house, they would have been subjected to righteous prankwar for weeks on end... We have driven people mad with short sheets and randomly relocated personal items for far lesser offenses!

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

If you stock Nuka-Cola Quantum, you just need to install scintillation detectors in the urinals. n.n

[frith]

...the Nuka Cola vending machine at the shop is set to $0.05...The amount of coins in the box due to people opening it and re-using coins or just flicking the coin-detect lever: $2.45.

LOL! People can be such crooks! I mean, it's just 5¢! Like, if they saw five pennies on the ground, would they even bother to bend over to pick them up?

[tikaani.livejournal.com]

If it takes $128 to fill the machine, and it holds 90 bottles (if I counted correctly), $2.45 is 49 bottles, and full compliance would only get you $4.50.
Does that even pay for the gas to the store?

You need some public/private stash of store brand stuff in the machine at 5 cents and your own private reserve in a more secure location :>

[kistaro]

I recommend securing the coin box and coin drop so it's harder to gaffe. Even though $0.05 is trivial (especially compared to the actual value of the resources involved), there's a huge psychological gulf between "free" and "not free". The $0.05 is sufficiently unenforced that it seems at least part of your shop is treating it as "free".

You'll probably get at least an extra week out of your supply if the soda loses its perception of "free". Ascribing it any value at all forces it to be thought about rather than taken for granted.

[simbalion.livejournal.com]

buy faygo! You'll save lots

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

I guess attaching some humiliating gag that goes off if somebody removes that last bottle without restocking, is out of the question?

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

As an extension of this, a lesson I learned when butting heads with the honour-system drinks fridge at U of T: If you are feeling dissatisfied running the system, it's time to change the system. Raising the price and preventing fiddling with the coin detection would be one way to do this (money _shouldn't_ make a difference to feelings, but usually does anyways). Retiring it from service is another option.

Continuing in a mode that leaves you dissatisfied won't last for long one way or another. Best to take control explicitly.

-Deuce

[ixwkir.livejournal.com]

I agree with this! I'd make it more than 5 cents, too... maybe a quarter. Still way cheap compared to a real vending machine (real in the sense that profit is the motive), but it's *something*, and having to contribute *something* will always get more consideration and respect outta people than having to contribute *nothing*.

[kistaro]

I'm sort of operating under the assumption that it's a purely mechanical oldschool coin drop, and not easily switched to a different denomination.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I would. A penny is still money, after all.

[tailypo.livejournal.com]

(Just as an FYI: A 'soda run' to fill the machine runs about $128.00. The last one was only about 2 weeks ago. The amount of coins in the box due to people opening it and re-using coins or just flicking the coin-detect lever: $2.45.)

Dude. Not okay. If they can't play nice, they shouldn't get to play at all.

(Stealing makes this Dragon very, very angry.)

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's fully settable from $0.05 to $1.55 :) Neat little set of binary switches...