Where else? How about Japan, where there are even vending machines on top of Fuji...

errr ... more or less everywhere? I think I may even have seen one in Vietnam.

Vending machines are not exactly cutting edge technology -- I seem to remember that Archimedes made one to sell water -- and worms require very little in the way of husbandry.

I remember seeing live bait vending machines four or five years ago, at service stations near Pennsylvania state parks. Not being a fisherman, I didn't examine the selection too closely, but it did take in nightcrawlers and minnows. I smiled in amazement and amusement everytime I walked past one.

But why don't we see single source synergies in the vending machine space, such as vending machines that offer soft drinks AND live bait? A job for McKinsey, no doubt!

Actually there are more, and more interesting, vending machines in several countries in Asia and Europe. The potential problem in America is usually vandalism. Machines must be in carefully selected spots.

Personally, I think it'd be more fun to buy my bait from a rusty shop kept by an old man, but in the absence of the former a vending machine would do I guess. And it would sure be better than no bait at all (or absurdly expensive bait for that matter.)

It's like pizza-huts and coffee chains. I think they're cool but not if they kill all genuine tratorias and coffee-shops. However, this is obviously a matter of taste (which itself depends on how much exposition one has had to one or an other type of economic institution.)