It wasn’t long ago that Americans might have scoffed at the idea of a salad vending machine, or a cupcake vending machine (I could still do without the latter). So why not a raw meat vending machine?
Why not indeed, asks New York-based Applestone Meat Co. Its founder, Joshua Applestone, is on a mission to make quality meat easy to buy, even at 3 a.m. His meat vending machines currently operate 24-hours-a-day at Applestone’s two locations in Stone Ridge and Accord, New York. But Applestone tells Bloomberg
he has ambitious plans to put these meaty machines across New York, including Manhattan in 2019.
“We’re not in the 1950s anymore, where everyone works 9 to 5 and eats at the same time every night,” he tells Bloomberg.
He thinks our busy, unconventional schedules mean there’s a market for raw, not-frozen 7 a.m. sausage links and midnight steak. The vending machine dispense lamb, beef, pork raised on a family farm in Pines, New York, which Applestone says are restocked daily.
From its FAQ page: “We stock the machines fresh daily, just like a butcher case. Raw meat like steaks and chops, and even ground, remain in the machine for a week max. Processed goods like hot dogs might stay in there for two weeks, but it’s not likely because they’re too delicious to stick around that long. Everything we sell could actually safely stay in the machines–or your fridge–for a month.”
In a world without many late-night raw steak options, we welcome Applestone’s convenient carnivorous caverns.