# Newspaper dispenser **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501 "2005-08-24T22:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/21 "2005-08-25T12:11:59Z")
I’ve seen homeless people in Chicago selling newspapers (real ones like the trib or suntimes, not streetwise) on the street. Dollars to doughnuts they didn’t even pay for the first one, ie they stand there until somebody buys one and then catch the door before it closes. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/22 "2005-08-25T12:51:21Z")
Sometimes they sell the free papers in those - er, not sell - you just don’t have to pay, you open the door and get a paper. Keeps the paper protected from the elements, I guess, better than a rack - unless, as **Bitegeist** mentions above, there’s a hard rain and no overhang. There’s something online somewhere on how paper boxes breed at corners - there’ll be one, for the local newspaper or whatever, and next year there’ll be six - Free Times, the local apartment rental thing, three things you’ve never heard of and would never read, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/23 "2005-08-25T14:23:03Z")
1. First, another movie reference: in _Clerks_, Dante puts coins in a newspaper box, takes the entire stack, and puts them out for sale in his shop. 2. There was once a Berkeley periodical that accepted a lot of very explicit ads and nude photos – sold in newspaper boxes for rather a lot ($3 or so, I think). ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/24 "2005-08-25T15:08:43Z")
Most newspapers get the vast majority of their income from adverts, and they don’t have to worry that much about vending machines. Those, and home delivery, are just cream off the top. Notice the free weeklies in many large cities. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/25 "2005-08-25T15:25:33Z")
Let’s not forget the most important feature of the box: If I run into the store, I have to spend .54 for my .50 newspaper. From the box I can get it for a mere $.50! Since we are doing movie/TV reference, there is the Simpson’s epsisode where Homer leaves Maggie in the box when getting his paper and panics when he realizes he doesn’t have any more change. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/26 "2005-08-25T15:35:18Z")
> [@csharpmajor](#): > > I saw nudie mag dispensers in Las Vegas. Then again, they were all empty. Hmm… I saw many of these as well, but upon closer inspection ( 😃 ) they were all for the free escort advertisements that are handed out in between casinos on the strip. (Strippers Direct to your Hotel Room!) ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/27 "2005-08-25T18:09:56Z")
> [@E-Diddy](#): > > Bytegeist, > > Does the Post still have a little stamp saying ‘If newspaper not purchased from vending machine, call 202-XXX-XXXX?’ When I was still living there we had a few enterprising young men who raided the boxes and sold the Post at the bottom of the Dupont Circle station escalators. It’s not on the “Maryland” editions anyway, which are the ones I read. They might still say that on the DC editions, where that sort of shenanigans is more likely. ---
**Author:** ![rackman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@rackman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackman)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/28 "2005-08-25T18:45:30Z")
There was a beer commercial a while back that showed beer being sold in these same newspaper vending machines, and men paying for one beer, and then taking all the beer in the machine. The tag line for the commercial was something like: “That’s why we don’t sell them like that.” ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/29 "2005-08-25T18:57:12Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Sometimes they sell the free papers in those - er, not sell - you just don’t have to pay, you open the door and get a paper. Keeps the paper protected from the elements, I guess, better than a rack - unless, as **Bitegeist** mentions above, there’s a hard rain and no overhang. > > There’s something online somewhere on how paper boxes breed at corners - there’ll be one, for the local newspaper or whatever, and next year there’ll be six - Free Times, the local apartment rental thing, three things you’ve never heard of and would never read, etc. Yes, outside my local subway station there’s a row of about twenty: four daily newspapers, two weekly alternative newspapers, two free commuter dailies, two multi-compartment free-advertising-magazine boxes (one for apartment rentals and condos, the other for various types of vehicles), one box for the local neighbourhood weekly, one for the Learning Annex, and I don’t remember what else. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/30 "2005-08-25T19:00:36Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > I’ve never seen the kind you describe (except in movies & TV shows). I’m used to the ones where the door opens downward. There’s no way to prevent the theft of all the papers in those, either. Oddly, this almost never seems to occur. As others have mentioned, it’s probably because mose people don’t really want more than one newspaper. The only place I have encountered it was when I worked at GM in Oshawa: when heading into the plant in the morning, people would frequently hold the Toronto Sun boxes open and others would grab what they could. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/31 "2005-08-25T19:36:47Z")
I believe that a much higher percentage of a newspaper’s bottom line is from ads than from actual sale of the paper (although of course the higher the circulation the higher the ad rate) so this likely explains why this particular commodity can be sold in this fsahion. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/32 "2005-08-25T21:08:48Z")
When I worked 3rd shift in an auto parts plant, the paper boxes got filled about 1:30 am. One of the first customers was always a guy from the tool room. He’d pump in a fistful of coins, then reach in and take 10 papers for the toolmakers. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/33 "2005-08-25T22:38:37Z")
As the editor of a small daily in rural Colorado, we have those types of racks and for the most part we don’t have many stolen. Occasionally we will have somebody grab a handful, apparently, but seldom does it continue for more than a day or two. I think they realize that they can only read one at a time. And really, little of our bottom line comes from paper sales. One of the big trends in newspapers today is free papers. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501/34 "2005-08-27T22:22:53Z")
In some German cities (the ones I know of are Munich and Nuremberg) there are dispensers without any locks on the door. You can freely open the box and take out your paper, and you’re supposed to drop the price. I guess dishonesty losses are slight, for the reasons already named. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newspaper-dispenser/318501.md?page=1)