What do you wish you could buy in vending machines?
This piece is a reader-submitted "notes and queries" question from the Guardian's long-running series, in which readers pose everyday dilemmas for other readers to answer. This particular instalment asks what people wish vending machines sold, prompted by a reader who noted that in Germany you can buy sausages from a machine. It's a light-hearted consumer curiosity item rather than a hard news story, inviting readers to suggest products currently missing from vending machine offerings.
The question was submitted by Sybil Freestone from Oregon, and readers are invited to post their answers online or email them to the Guardian, with a selection due to be published the following Sunday. The article also references a related, separate reader question in the same series about the "true Breakfast of Champions", and includes a photograph of a 2021 promotional vending machine in London that dispensed free plant-based sausage rolls for National Sausage Roll Day.
In short
- Guardian's reader Q&A series asks: what should vending machines sell?
- Prompted by a reader noting Germany sells sausages via machine
- Readers can submit answers for publication the following Sunday
Explained simply
Vending machines have become a familiar way to buy snacks, drinks and, in some countries, unusual items like sausages or fresh flowers. What people can and can't get from a machine varies a lot between countries, which is what sparked this particular reader's question about the gap between what's on offer and what people might actually want.
The piece comes from the Guardian's long-running Notes and Queries feature, a column where readers submit everyday questions and other readers write in with answers, opinions or anecdotes. It's a light-hearted, reader-driven format rather than a report on any real-world event, and this instalment simply asks what products people wish vending machines stocked.
The question was submitted by a reader named Sybil Freestone, and the Guardian is inviting others to send in their own suggestions, with a selection to be published the following Sunday. It sits within a wider series of similar reader questions the paper regularly runs, offering a mix of curiosity, humour and shared experience rather than hard news.
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