Vending Machine Sells Live Crabs

Published on October 21st, 2010.

A Japanese reporter in Nanjing, China, shows us a vending machine that sells live Shanghai Hairy Crabs.

With bad economy comes great solutions, in this case, one Chinese man came up with the idea to sell fresh live crabs using vending machines. By cutting down own store personnel, they’re now able to sell the crabs for 30% less (120 to 600 yen depending on the size).

The crabs are stored in a temperature of 5 degrees Celsius, which apparently makes them go into hibernation. And better yet, the supplier guarantees that they are fresh, if for some reason the crab is dead on arrival, you’ll get three new crabs, for free.

The second half of the video focuses on wacky vending machines in Japan, specifically a vending machine that sells bananas at Shibuya station, and a sake vending machine at a bar.

Would you buy crabs this way or do you just think it’s plain cruel?

Reblogged from Japan Probe

  • http://soratokujira.tk Jin

    This is reallyyy disturbing. Im not a big fan of crustacians in general, so I would never even go near one of these.

    • http://www.yonasu.com yonasu

      I’ve never bought a crab in my entire life myself so I most likely wouldn’t buy one from a vending machine either… haha.

  • http://carrotlove.com Mai

    I love things that are cleaner and more efficient so I like this a lot. Normally buying crabs is a really smelly, dirty process, and the crabs sit out all day but this is more likely that they’ll be fresh and alive.

    I’m just sad that I’m allergic to crabs ):

    Also I hope they recycle those casings or those individually wrapped crabs would be a huge waste of resources.

    • http://www.yonasu.com yonasu

      Well yeah, in terms of cleanliness, this is definitely a nice option I suppose. My mom is allergic to crabs too, I bet it sucks T_T

      Oh and about the individual wrapping, you should tell that to the Japanese who wrap apples, and well, everything basically, individually^^ These cases look fairly recyclable though, we just gotta hope that the Chinese in Nanjing throw them in the right garbage cans…

  • Anonymous

    I dont like the idea, they are basically wrapped up alive, can’t move, freeze, and wait for death. What if they starve? I mean how many days can they be without food and water? IMO kill them and steam them(disinfects and cleans) and then store them in the machine.

    • http://www.yonasu.com yonasu

      Sadly, I don’t think most people care if a crab they’re going to eat is starving… And as they go into hibernation they probably use very little energy, and it probably sells out in a day anyways.

      I personally don’t think I can tell the difference in taste between a live crab and a crab that was killed a couple of hours ago, so really, I don’t see the point of storing them live either…