Walked into a repair shop in Phoenix and saw a vending machine for soldering tips
Honestly, I stopped by this small electronics repair place off the 10 to grab some flux, and they had a vending machine by the counter. Not snacks, it dispensed solder tips, tweezers, and tiny screwdrivers for $1.50 each. I thought it was a joke until I saw a guy buy a #2 Phillips bit from it mid-conversation. The owner said he got tired of people asking for spare parts while he was elbow deep in a logic board. Has anyone else seen a weird setup like this in a repair shop, or is Phoenix just built different?
Vending machines are like the most normal thing in the world now, so this barely registers as weird. Every laundromat and gas station has one, so why not a repair shop? The real question is why it took this long for someone to do it. $1.50 for a screwdriver bit sounds fine, but I guarantee that thing breaks in a week and you end up buying another one. It's a clever way to make money off impatient people, not some genius repair shop innovation. Phoenix isn't built different, it's just another town with a guy who figured out a vending machine is cheaper than paying an employee to stop working.