Put your merchandise here to become the “top seller”! The secrets of vending machines revealed

Vending machines operate 24 hours a day, offer simple purchasing methods, and can be found everywhere on the streets, making them a unique shopping experience. In Japan, the arrangement of products in vending machines also varies depending on their location. In a typical 3 to 4-column machine, the top-left section usually features the product that the manufacturer most wants to sell or discounted promotional items. For example, in a Coca-Cola vending machine, you’ll definitely find Coca-Cola in the top-left corner.

According to a report by “Food Power,” Shuuta Ujiie, hailed by Japanese media as a “promoter of food culture,” investigated the secret arrangement strategies of Japanese vending machines. “The products being sold may remain the same, but their arrangement is almost always determined on-site.”

1 Public bathhouses

In Japanese anime, characters often dramatically drink a bottle of coffee milk after taking a bath, but research shows that’s not the case. In vending machines at public bathhouses, the top-selling products in the top-left slot are mostly sports drinks (21 instances), followed by bottled water (14 instances) and tea-based drinks (14 instances)—meaning nearly 50% of top-left slots feature sports drinks. Sweet coffee drinks are typically placed in the second row, accounting for up to 46.2%, thus playing a supporting role in public bathhouse vending machines.

2 Courthouses

In courthouse vending machines, the top-left slots are usually filled with tea-based drinks. The first row also mostly includes sweet beverages such as juice, Calpis, and milk tea, besides tea. This reflects how people may want something refreshing and mood-lifting—like tea—or a sweet drink to help them relax before or after court proceedings.

3 Tourist attractions

At tourist spots, vending machines mostly place tea drinks in the top-left section. Even the vending machines themselves are designed in colors and patterns that blend with the local scenery, so they don’t stand out or ruin the beauty of the attraction.