The dictionary defines vendor as “someone who sells; The French infinitive is “vendre”, and used in a much broader context as sell, sale; market, vend, trade; barter away. In my experience I have found the vending machine to be the ultimate in the “sales mechanics”of human nature.
Have you ever watched a vending machine at work? It is probably the most efficient marketing and sales creation ever devised. It displays, sells, dispenses, collects and secures the proceeds of the sale all in one relatively simple device, and with very little human intervention.
The best feature of this remarkable devise is that it can be mass produced inexpensively with remarkable precision, and placed anywhere at very little cost where there may be a potential customer. The vending machine will stand in the same place hour by hour, day by day. It will be be kicked, punched, shaken and abused in most every manner, but it will continues to operate 24/7 dispensing the same product, in the same way, for anyone upon request. It works indiscriminately and without complaint, racial bias or emotional response.
Many people are the objects of the same “mass production” process. They can be convinced to stand in the path of a traffic; often with no immediate reward, or promise of compensation. Just like the vending machine they will allow themselves to be emotionally kicked, punched, shaken and abused in most any manner, and continue to operate 24/7 while indiscriminately dispensing the same message, in the same way, for anyone immediately upon request. Sadly, that is where any similarity, and many lives, will sooner or later end. Unlike a vending machine, people have a heavy emotional investment from which there is no release from reality, and this uniquely human quality will eventually obfuscate their ability to function.