It's the Wine-O-Matic!

This just in: Wine vending machines! Hate dealing with those snobby or totally clueless liquor store clerks? Well, if you live in Pennsylvania, soon you will not have to. You can buy wine from a vending machine, right from the convenience of your local supermarket!

Part of me (the part that loved when you could buy Cadbury chocolate from a vending machine at just about every London Underground station, especially late at night, after a pint too many) thinks this is a brilliant idea.

[Note to concerned parents: In order to actually obtain a bottle of wine, you must first swipe your driver's license, look into a camera (to verify you are who your driver's license says you are), and breathe onto a sensor (to make sure you are sober). Then use a debit or credit card. Though I am sure some enterprising youths will find a way around these requirements.]

Another part of me (the part that remembers when cigarettes were sold in vending machines, where underage smokers could, despite the dire warnings, get their mitts on them) thinks this is not such a great idea. Though that said, maybe I should see about trademarking the name "Wine-O-Matic," cause I think these babies could be big.

What do you think? Would you buy wine out of a vending machine? Let me know via a comment.

Btw, Pennsylvania is not the first place to sell liquor out of a vending machine. Apparently this spring Maker's Mark Whisky set up several vending machines in London, in the City and other highly trafficked places of business, which may or may not have explained the corresponding dip in the London financial markets.

FYI, you can read about Pennsylvania's "wine kiosks" here.