All Hail The Pizza ATM—on A College Campus, Of Course

There are cupcake ATMs, salad ATMs, and even meat ATMs, so why not a pizza ATM? And why not install it in a college dorm, its most perfect habitat?

News4 in Jacksonville reports, with much fanfare, that the Pizza ATM has arrived at the University of North Florida. "It's a college student's dream come true!" says the headline. The individual-sized pizzas cost ten bucks and take five minutes to heat. "The exciting new dining option would make any Osprey jump for joy!"

Operating a Pizza ATM appears to be a fair amount of work: the owner has to make the dough and assemble the pizzas in advance and store them in the ATM's refrigerator compartment. When someone orders a pizza, the pie gets transferred to an internal oven, sits there until it's fully cooked, and then pops out of the delivery slot.

Well, hey, if you don't have an oven of your own (as many college students do not), it seems to be a pretty decent option. It's more filling than most vending machine snacks, and faster than delivery. Another bonus: You don't have to talk to anyone if you're hungover. Pizza ATM's Cincinnati-based parent company, Paline, installed earlier versions of the machine at three universities in Ohio and reported that students were, as one might expect, enthusiastic.