In a lot of US movies/TV shows you see a scene where a character puts money into a machine which sells newspapers, which enables him to fully open it up. He then takes one newspaper, closes it and leaves. Is that really how those machines work or am I misinterpreting? If that is an accurate picture how come you don’t get idiots taking them all?
Oh yeah. You see them on every street corner. There is one in my neighborhood, one by the laundromat, one on the corner by McDonald’s…everywhere.
The mechanism somehow only allows you to take one and not all of them. There’s a lever that blocks you from taking the rest. I don’t buy my paper from here very often, so I’m not entirely positive how.
Yeah, that’s how they work. They generally don’t get stolen because people usually don’t have a need for more than one newspaper. I’m sure they do occaisionally get ripped off, but it doesn’t seem to be a really big problem. The ones I’ve used have nothing keeping you from taking them all. Some of the free newspapers have boxes like that also, only they’re just to keep the weather out.
Agreed, you see them everywhere, but I’ve never seen one with a “take one only” mechanism like Anaamika describes. The ones I have used operate on the honor system.
I’ve seen them in many cities. In Boston we even have free dispensers that you don’t put any money into to get copies of newspaper supported entirely by advertising (like the Phoenix, which is pretty good). People are basically honest enough not to rip off two copies, even when the door is always open for the free papers. Most people really only want one copy anyway – what are you gonna do with two, unless your name’s in it?
I’m a little surperised the homeless people don’t go raiding these for cheap insulation in the cold months. Maybe they do, to some extent, but I almost always find papers in these machines.
I’ve never seen one that you couldn’t take them all if you really wanted. What are you going to do with yesterdays news anyway? Heck a lot of places still have them working on the honor system where they sit out in the open and you pay (or not pay) for it after you finish your breakfast.
Yep, they sure are everywhere. Although I’ve never seen one with any kind of mechanism to prevent you from taking as many as you wanted either, and I live in the ghetto. 
I just don’t think there are that many newspaper bandits out and about.
Ok, I have only ever seen one with a “take-one only” mechanism, and that is the one in my old apartment complex. The other ones don’t have them but I assumed the majority had the mechanism. So looks like that one is the exception.
Definitely the exception. Every one I’ve seen or used was honor system. It’s true that not many people would be dickish enough to empty the thing out. However, fairly often I’ve seen people doing 2 (or more) for the price of one at some of the busier ones. When someone asks me if they can grab one after I’ve put my $.50 in, I ususally just let the door slip out of my hand (and it’s usually pretty heavily spring loaded) before I turn around and say “What’s that?” (as if I didn’t hear them the first time.
I’ve seen some dishonest kids raid the machines for 50 cents and then stand on the street corner and sell as many as they could for 50 cents a piece to make a profit. Dirty rats.
They’re everywhere here. In fact, there was an article about our yard, with nice photos, in the paper last week. We wanted several copies to send to family and friends. I went to the vending machine, put in .50 and opened it up. While open, I put eight more quarters in the slot, and the machine took them. Then I removed five papers. Seemed faster than operating the machine five times. (and it was)
So, the machine doesn’t give you back money when you put too much in, and it doesn’t prevent you from taking too many papers out.
There was a beer ad on TV where a guy puts his money in such a machine set up for selling, that’s right: beer. Puts his money in, opens up the box takes out a beer & then stops. Looks around. Grabs 'em all and then leaves. Caption comes up: “That’s why we don’t sell them that way”
The weird thing is, once one of those boxes appears on a corner, it acquires friends. You never see just one. Usually there’s like eight or nine - the regular paper, the alternative weekly, and then a bunch of other stuff.
As for why homeless guys don’t steal them…well, here in Seattle there are plenty of free newspapers they could steal for insulation. And they don’t even have to put in 50 cents to get a stack, they can just take em all.
Newspapers make most of their money by advertising. The money they get from coin operated boxes is pretty minimal…requiring money might even cost them more than offering the paper for free…you have to pay someone to go around and collect all those quarters.
I have actually seen more enterprising homeless folks here in downtown LA empty out the entire machine with 50 cents and then proceed to resell them to business people in a hurry for a quarter. So long as they don’t get caught, it’s pretty easy to make a few bucks that way.
But I’m with the crowd who has never seen a machine that didn’t operate on the honor system.
The publication isn’t really losing that much if someone steals the papers. Even for papers that aren’t free, they make most of their money in ad dollars. Every paper that disappears from that sidewalk box is one more number they can add to their circulation count when reporting to advertisers, whether it got paid for or not. But again, most folks are honest about it, because there are relatively few circumstances (not none, tho’) in which two newspapers are worth more than one.
–Cliffy
Sell 'em? Like in the opening scene of Clerks.
They’re common in Canada, too. I know you didn’t ask, but hey, why not. 
Where are you from, if they’re not common in your area?
They are ubiquitous anyplace I’ve ever lived in the US. When I used to live in Massachusetts several years ago, *USA Today * exercised its “freedom of expression” or something after fighting several court cases by cities that passed laws to prevent such boxes, or large numbers of them, from being in the public right-of-way. They won, the last I heard, but some cities do use their zoning laws to limit their numbers and locations, so that they do not block visibility for drivers or block the sidewalk. The cities often get complaints about the box area condition when they are not well-maintained.
I have never seen one that prevents removal of more than one copy at a time. If multiple copies get stolen often enough, the box is removed from that location and/or they set up surveillance to try to catch repeat offenders.
A larger problem for the newspaper publisher can be the theft of the entire box by perps who then bash open the coin boxes at their leisure, in private. Rewards have been offered for such perps in my current area.
I currently buy from such a box a weekly paper that comes out on Wednesdays, and they put only about 8 or 10 copies in the box at my weekly stop, even tho’ the box would hold several dozen copies. Either they have found that they will not sell more than that amount there, or they check it during the week and add more if they sell out before 7 days.
Hope this is not TMI.
One summer I worked in the subscription/circulation office of a local newspaper. The paper ran a promotion where local businesses would put ads in the paper for products or services, and the paper would also include vouchers as a type of currency. At the end of the promotion the products and services that were advertised were auctioned off, and people bid on the lots based on the amount of vouchers/coupons they accumulated throughout the promotion.
The circulation manager was talking about the papers in the machines. I asked him how he expected the honor system to work, since they more or less had cash in each issue, one person could put in enough for one issue, then take all of them. He smiled and started to explain. It dawned on me, that was the whole idea. It didn’t matter to the newspaper if it took a loss on 25 newspapers at every machine, because it made the circulation numbers look better. Most newspapers make their money on advertising, rather than subscription fees. This is why you can get such a “great deal” on the newspaper for .10/issue if you subscribe for a year. The newspaper knows it isn't the subscriptions that make them the money directly; it's the amount of subscriptions that allows the newspaper to charge more to advertisers. Same goes for news stand sales. It means more to the newspaper that the circulation/readership numbers are high in terms of advertising, than the .50 or dollar it gets from someone picking up an issue on the way to work.