Las Vegas becomes the first airport in the Untied States to introduce vending machines dispensing personal protective equipment. At Vegas pricing of course…
Visit McCarran International Airport and you’ll find two new vending machines, one in Terminal 1 and the other in Terminal 3. Each machine is fully stocked with masks, wipes, hand sanitizers, and gloves.
A new option to help protect yourself and others while traveling. LAS was the first airport to install PPE vending machines from which travelers can purchase items like gloves and hand sanitizer. These machines can be found in T1 ticketing and near the T3 TSA checkpoint. pic.twitter.com/1suaVel412
— McCarran Airport (@LASairport) May 14, 2020
Here’s the price-list, shared by the airport’s official Twitter page:
- Hand sanitizer: $4.25-$6.50
- 10-pack alcohol wipes: $5.25
- Tissues: $3.50
- Reusable cloth mask: $14.50
- 3-pack disposable masks: $7.50
- KN95 mask: $8.25
- 4 pack disposable gloves: $4.50
As I’m in the PPE business, I had laugh at these prices. That’s the sort of margin that I’d go to jail due to price gouging statutes…
And yet it just fit the Vegas narrative so well. People tell me Vegas used to be known for being a good value. That was never my impression of the city, where hotel rooms may be cheap (less cheap when you factor in resort fees), but food and just about everything else is sold at vastly-inflated prices.
Maybe Vegas should think about slot machines with PPE payout or claw games like the picture below. Hey, Armenia offers cigarette claw games so why couldn’t Vegas offer a PPE claw game?
These PPE machines are landside, meaning if you cannot find what you need at the store, you can always come to the airport to buy your supplies.
Judging by the store shelves lately in LA, supply chains remain broken as healthy demand continues.
CONCLUSION
In all seriousness, I expect many airports will introduce these sorts of vending machines. While I don’t think they will ever become as ubiquitous as ATMs, I do think we’ll see them flourish just like we’ve seen vending machines selling high-end electronic devices.
Paddle Your Own Kanoo reports that these machines are already available in Dubai and Brussels.
Someone’s always gonna make some $$$ off a good tragedy,
Given it’s Vegas they may want to add condoms to the list of PPE offerings.
Oh Stuart, you are a dirty little boy.