In a double pop-up, supermarket chain Giant has clustered 17 vending machines at its new VendMart outlet at Tampines, with another five at its IMM branch in Jurong.
On trial until the end of the year, the cash (and cashless) machines mainly offer food and snacks but also grooming products, toys and beauty items.
For the hungry, the machines offer ice cream (picked up by a claw crane, from Happy Ice), salted egg prawn tempura popiah (from Mr Popiah), Japanese canned oden (Ninja Oden), healthy snacks (BoxGreen), herbal teas (JuicyFresh by Royal Vending) and pizza by the slice (Shiok Pizza).
There are toys from Star Wars and the DC and Marvel comics franchises, from Tenacity Toys, while Bus Carnival offers the chance to scoop up soft toys with a claw.
Other vending machines dispense more unusual items such as men’s grooming products by SGPomades, halal items such as teas, essential oils and headscarves by Vibes Mastery, DIY gardening kits and seedlings by Farmily, and even fish food by Dajana.
Giant has also created its own $10 “mystery box” vending machine with such catches as shopping vouchers, household appliances and kitchen gadgets – plus one lucky person will go home with a new iPhone 8.
Most of the brands on display are local start-ups, and if the response is good the vending machines may have their stay extended to Chinese New Year.