Grab one for a snack on the train!

Never a part of the world to let common sense stand in the way of a good vending machine, China has now invented a machine that, for the equivalent of a couple of dollars, pops out a live crab. The Shanghai hairy crabs, prized for their roe and sweet meat, are stored in the crab-o-mat at a near-freezing temperature, which keeps them alive but in a motionless state of hibernation. If your crab is dead when it comes out of the machine, you get three more crabs for free, guaranteed!


This is an improvement over a Japanese take on the same concept, which required hungry customers to pluck protesting crabs out of an aquarium with robo-claws, to the accompaniment of stirring MIDI polyphony.


[JapanProbe via Reddit]

21 Comments

i could see PETA flipping out and breaking these and setting them free lol

I welcome PETA to go to China and vandalize the vending machines, in fact I will even pay for the airplane tickets for them...one way of course...they won't need return tickets for a while

asia. *sigh* were 70% of the world weird stuff comes from

Wow... is this really necessary?

Where did "chinese" come from? The vending machine is selling in yen and the whole video is japanese people talking about it. Even the text scrolling across the screen is japanese.

The vending machine sure is chinese.....the show is japanese

Japan makes more sense. Vending machines are a big deal in Japan. There are somthing like 1 vending machine for every 23 people in Japan. You can buy almost anything from a vending machine there, even beer. I watch men (never women) stopping by for a brewski on their was to the train.

My favorite was the beverage machine that sold Pocari Sweat (Mineral Water).

I have no how they came up with the name but I had to take a picture of the machine so folks at home would beleive me.

Hey, an American in Japan taking pictures of anything and everything. Talk about your irony.

anyone else think they were selling something kinky and sexual related until they read the full headline? i mean the japanese have vending machines selling pre-used panties.

@ Gonazar
You must've watched the wrong video.

The top video opens with the words "NanJing, China" (in Chinese obviously, lol). Plus, the guy paid with a RMB bill.

This is awful. Are these crabs in pain?

Unbelievable :(

Ivan Malagurski

Living in china town in Toronto Canada youll see big boxes full of these crabs just pilled on each other.. a shock at first,, This vending machine aint so bad in comparison.. sort of like crab condos,

Poor crabs. We should be thankful we came out as humans!
I hope they don't feel anything while they are frozen...

They don't

Do you guys actually have a problem with this...?

How?

I love the people that have a problem with this, but enjoy the crab or lobster that has just been thrown into a pot of boiling water!

@tcolguin
I don't think crabs would have any problem if they threw you into a pot of boiling water either!

Another near-extinct species?China and Japan are having outright economic war(rare-earth minerals not being shipped to Japan from China) over fishing the oceans to death...

-.- iiiYAY FOR ASIA!!! -.-

these guys suck ! how can they value life so little . The video of the mechanical arm grabbing them out of the tank like the teddy bear machines its perverse .

And I don't eat seafood so I'm not a hypocrite . This is cruelty to animals pure and simple . Asia sickens me in this area all the time . Everything from shark fin soup to $100000 price tags on tunas , to chinese medicine , tigers they have zero appreciation for the fact that they cant do this forever and the animals will all go extinct . This is bad enough but to make it worse they do sick and twisted sh*t to the animals first . SO sick I can't believe it and yet I do because they are Asian



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