The Beverly Hills Caviar Automated Boutique sells caviar, [1] escargot [2] and truffles from vending machines. [3] [4]
In 2013, the machines began operating in three locations: Westfield Century City, Westfield Topanga and Hollywood and Highland Center. [5] The owners credit their daughter for coming up with the idea when they were purchasing a cupcake from a vending machine. [6] The coverage of the placement of the machines included the comments "I feel sure that, very soon, you will be able to buy engagement rings, tiaras, mink coats and leather bodices amid all the excitement of the mall -- but without the interruption of some obsequious store assistant," from CNet, [7] and a marketing analyst stating that the idea was merely to generate buzz. [5]
The machines offer a selection of caviar in different sizes ranging from 40 grams (1.5 ounces) to 400 grams (a little less than a pound). The caviar ranges in price from $30 an ounce for American Black caviar to $500 an ounce for Imperial River Beluga caviar, as well as vegan caviar and dried mullet caviar (popular in Algerian, French, Jordanian, Spanish, and Tunisian cuisine). In addition to caviar, the machines offer blinis, escargot, flavored salts, and Italian truffles. [8] The machine was built in Spain. [9] The machine holds about $50,000 worth of temperature-controlled merchandise. [10] [11] After being dispensed, the product takes about 30 minutes to thaw but can stay cool up to 3 hours in an insulated box. [12]
A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The first modern vending machines were developed in England in the early 1880s and dispensed postcards. Vending machines exist in many countries and, in more recent times, specialized vending machines that provide less common products compared to traditional vending machine items have been created.
Caviar is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The term caviar can also describe the roe of other species of sturgeon or other fish such as paddlefish, salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, whitefish, or carp.
A cupcake (AmE), fairy cake (BrE), or bun (IrE) is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations such as fruit and candy may be applied.
Beverly Center is a shopping mall in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is an eight-story structure located near the West Hollywood border but within Los Angeles city limits, bounded by Beverly Boulevard, La Cienega Boulevard, 3rd Street, and San Vicente Boulevard. The mall features Bloomingdale's, Macy's, and Macy's Men's Store. The mall's dramatic six-story series of escalators offer visitors views of the Hollywood Hills, Downtown Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Westside.
Westfield Valley Fair, commonly known as Valley Fair, is a prominent shopping mall in San Jose, California. Valley Fair is the largest mall, by area, in Northern California and has higher sales revenue than all other malls in California, including the two in Southern California which have larger area than Valley Fair. Valley Fair is the thirteenth largest shopping mall in the United States. It is located on Stevens Creek Boulevard in West San Jose. The mall features Macy's, Macy's Men's and Home Store, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's.
The Hahn Company, San Diego, California, alternately known as Ernest W. Hahn, Inc., was a major American shopping center owner and developer from the 1950s to the 1980s. Purchased by the Trizec Corp. in 1980, it became defunct.
Westfield Topanga is a shopping mall in the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It has 1,588,050 square feet (147,535 m2) of gross leasable area and features Nordstrom, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and Target. The mall has been owned by Westfield-affiliated companies since 1993, and has been owned by the present-day Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield since 2017.
The Promenade is a dead shopping mall in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
Tuber magnatum, the white truffle, is a species of truffle in the order Pezizales and family Tuberaceae. It is found in southern Europe and north Africa.
The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills is a gourmet foods store in Beverly Hills, California, known for its selection of 500-600 cheeses. It also stocks wines and other delicacies, including the rarest of all caviars, Golden Imperial Osetra, and is often featured in publications such as Bon Appétit and Entrepreneur magazine, as a notable epicurean source. The store claims to carry “the largest assortment of goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses found anywhere”. The store's former owner, Norbert Wabnig, has become a noted Los Angeles personality.
Gold to Go is a product brand made by the TG Gold-Super-Markt corporation designed to dispense items made of pure gold from automated banking vending machines. The first gold-plated vending machine was located in the lobby of the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi, dispensed 320 items made of gold, including 10-gram gold bars and customized gold coins. There are currently six vending machines installed across Europe and Peru. The first vending machine in the United States was installed in Boca Raton, Florida in December 2010. The "gold ATMs" are designed to be placed in shopping malls and airports and are meant to make ordinary people comfortable with the idea of investing in gold. The vending machines update their prices to market value every minute over an encrypted internet connection.
Automated retail is the category of self-service, standalone kiosks that operate as fully automatic retail stores through the use of software integrations to replace the traditional retail services inside in a traditional retail store. These standalone kiosks are often located in heavily trafficked locations such as airports, malls, resorts and transit hubs.
Sprinkles Cupcakes is a bakery chain established in 2005. It is considered the world's first cupcake bakery.
A marijuana vending machine is a vending machine for selling or dispensing cannabis. They are currently in use in the United States and Canada and some may be located in secure rooms in marijuana dispensaries. Some may be operated by employees after a fingerprint scan is obtained from the patient. In Canada in 2013, marijuana vending machines were planned to be used in centres that cultivate the drug. At least three companies are developing the vending machines.
Snail caviar, also known as escargot caviar or escargot pearls, is a type of caviar that consists of fresh or processed eggs of land snails. It is a luxury gourmet speciality produced in France and Poland. They were also a delicacy in the ancient world, also known as "Pearls of Aphrodite" for their supposed aphrodisiac properties.
A French fry vending machine is a vending machine that dispenses hot French fries, also known as chips. The first known French fry vending machine was developed circa 1982 by the defunct Precision Fry Foods Pty Ltd. in Australia. A few companies have developed and manufactured French fry vending machines and prototypes. Furthermore, a prototype machine was also developed at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
The coffee vending machine is a vending machine that dispenses hot coffee and other coffee beverages. Older models used instant coffee or concentrated liquid coffee and hot or boiling water, and provided condiments such as cream and sugar. Some modern machines prepare various coffee styles such as mochas and lattes and use ground drip coffee, and some fresh-grind the coffee to order using a grinder in the machine.
CenterMark, formerly known as May Centers, was a mall development company owned by a consortium of Westfield Holdings Ltd., General Growth Properties, and Whitehall Street Real Estate L.P. III. And it was formerly owned by The May Department Stores Company until 1992, and Prudential Insurance until 1993.
The Capitol Hill mystery soda machine was a vending machine in Capitol Hill, Seattle, notable for its "mystery" buttons which dispensed unusual drink flavors. It is unknown who restocked the machine, which originally caused the development of a local legend that the machine was haunted, and later an enduring legacy of "cultural fascination". The machine reportedly operated from the late 1990s until its unexplained disappearance in 2018.