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Sprinkles Releases Magic Cupcake ATM in Beverly Hills

Raunak Khosla |
March 7, 2012 | 4:01 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

Sprinkles makes cupcakes accessible 24 hours a day. (Creative Commons)
Sprinkles makes cupcakes accessible 24 hours a day. (Creative Commons)

Despite all the recent creative innovations in the food industry, you cannot help but get excited when a place like Sprinkles Cupcakes does something crazy and awesome like installing a 24-hour ATM at its flagship Beverly Hills store on Tuesday.

The cupcake-lover’s-dream-come-true ATM, soon to be installed at all ten Sprinkles locations across the US, contains some 600 freshly baked cupcakes inside. You simply use the interactive touchscreen to choose from flavours ranging from Red Velvet to Dark Chocolate – even their limited-edition Irish Chocolate flavour is available. You then watch as the camera shows a robotic arm grabbing your cupcake and placing it in the pick-up area. The magic machine also dispenses cupcakes, cupcake mixes, apparel, and dog treats.

Candace Nelson, the owner of the popular bakery, said the machine is in response to high demand for increased hours at the store. The idea for making the sugary treats available 24/7 came to her when she realised that she needed some sort of mechanism to satisfy her own late-night cravings. "I was pregnant with my second child and I thought, I'm the owner of a cupcake bakery and even I can't get a cupcake in the middle of the night," she said.

While it seems like Sprinkles is taking this as more than merely a side-experiment, it is still left to be seen whether this will be as successful as innovations like vending machines and drive-thru’s. It is definitely going to make it easier for the large number of Sprinkles patrons, and is perfect for on-the-go orders.

Already considered one of the best cupcake shops in LA, Sprinkles is nevertheless garnering huge publicity via this undertaking. Who can resist the urge of withdrawing a tasty cupcake from something as dull as an ATM?

Each cupcake from the ATM will come boxed for $4, compared to an un-boxed cupcake for $3.25 from the store. So next time you are ‘passing by’ Sprinkles, skip the long line and use the ATM instead. You know you want to.

Just… try not to hog it.

Reach reporter Raunak Khosla here.



 

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