Talk:Automat

Comments
(NO CHANGES MADE) The article says the window looks out into darkness and does not convey any further information. But presuming no artist of Hopper's caliber creates meaningless detail, what is that blue light, our there in the night just to the left of the bowl? It does not look like a street lamp. Hieronymous (talk) 21:15, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Is the Dec 10 addition by User:Kaszeta relevant? Vending machines are everywhere. I think they must be back-fed and contain some non-sandwich, non-candy, perishable food to qualify for comparison to Automats... I never saw these FEBO stores though.


 * I should've been a little more clear (and I've made edits): FEBO is indeed an automat. The vast majority of the store is a large bank of vending machines, which are open on the back, and are loaded with a variety of (mostly deep-fried) fresh food items directly from the kitchen, and seem to be very popular with the late-night Amsterdam crowd.  For reference, see  for a description, and  and  for images. -- Kaszeta 16:57, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Automat-like..?
Any good reason why the restaurant in Dark City is described as "Automat like"? I'm no historian on the matter (in fact that would be the only one I've seen :) but that does sound like what is described here, and they did call it an "automat" several times in the movie and it had a big neon sign on the storefront which read "AUTOMAT".

I'm just checking before making a change in case anyone feels it should remain the way it is. Thank you :) 216.228.174.81 06:44, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Changed it. Rattatosk 05:11, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Speaking of Dark City, I removed the entire "See Also..." section, since the only thing in that section was a note about the Automat in Dark City... which was already listed in the section for "Automats in Fiction".--Raguleader 23:28, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

past tense
This article uses the past tense improperly, especially since automats still exist. I've converted the lead, but I'll get back to the body later. Night Gyr 04:24, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I change the langauge of the intro back to present tense since a new automat recently opened in New York City in 2006 and automats still exist in other parts of the world. --Cab88 02:28, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Automats-in existence
Where are these automats-in existence? It should be noted that the recently opened automat in NYC filled a gap of over 15 years.Dogru144 18:58, 26 November 2006 (UTC)


 * According to the article, the Netherlands.--Raguleader 23:29, 12 December 2006 (UTC)


 * That's true. They're actually quite common here in the Netherlands. You'll find serveral of them in every city, and at least one in every train station.--KoKiv 13:48, 29 April 2007 (GMT) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.27.10.164 (talk) 11:49, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

The Flintstones
At least one episode of The Flintstones had a scene in an Automat.

Museums: Philadelphia and Washington
The Franklin Institute used to have an automat in the 1980s, but it was converted to some sort of fast food franchise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.185.49.154 (talk) 03:16, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I remember the original lunchroom, but I think it had some of the first food vending machines, loaded from the front, rather than automat walls, reloaded from a kitchen in the back. David Spector (talk) 18:23, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
 * It had a genuine Horn & Hardart Automat in the 1950s. By the 1960s ordinary vending machines were installed in the cafeteria. And ultimately a McDonalds opened for efficient serving of elementary school field trips, a reliable revenue generator for what had devolved into essentially a theme park. MaggieL (talk) 19:43, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

In Washington, DC, the Museum of Technology and Industry (or whatever the Museum of American History was called back then) used to have an Automat, also, and it is now some sort of cafeteria.--71.203.125.108 (talk) 00:44, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

media/trivia section removed
An editor removed the "automats in media" section. Which is fine since it was kinda random; while a category for movies featuring an automat would be kinda nice, I'm not gonna put it together. In case anyone wants the content for some reason it's here. -- Akb4 (talk) 05:48, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

WP:FOOD Tagging
This article talk page was automatically added with WikiProject Food and drink banner as it falls under Category:Restaurants or one of its subcategories. If you find this addition an error, Kindly undo the changes and update the inappropriate categories if needed. You can find the related request for tagging here -- TinucherianBot (talk) 07:47, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Inconsistency re: countries
The end of the first paragraph says:
 * They are still very common in The Netherlands, but outside of there, few exist.

The last paragraph is inconsistent with that:
 * The automat food format is still popular in some other countries.

What other countries are those? In any case, I think these two should be merged into one. – McDutchie (talk) 01:19, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Also it seems kinda wrong that the majority of the article is about automats in the united states, then the "By Country" section lists information about them in countries besides the US. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.198.132.38 (talk) 06:05, 18 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Agree unless automats actually originated in the USA. The fact that other countries are not well represented probably reflects the random nature of the growth of WP. David Spector (talk) 18:26, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Loanword?
This is listed as a German loanword, but it isn't in my dictionary; does anyone have a dictionary that does list this?

Otherwise it should go to the "Glossary of German terms" category, at a push. Moonraker12 (talk) 17:25, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

in film
In The_Out-of-Towners_(1970_film) they pass by a Horn & Hardart a couple times on the way to their hotel. You can even see a poster in the window reading "Eat the country of your choice"...like the one HERE. (totally diff bldg, btw)

Given the rarity of sightings, might it be worth a quick mention under "In popular culture" or the like? Especially given that Neil Simon is quoted in the article.

They are on Park Ave between 39th and 40th in the story...does this correspond to an actual location of an H&H? (can't seem to find a list myself)

And now, I've gotta ask about the one in that PHOTO as well. Can someone ID that location from the subway stop? I must say, that looks NOTHING like a cafeteria there! 209.172.25.43 (talk) 08:02, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Automat Restaurants from "Patent Sielaff" - Before Horn & Hardart !

 * Sielaff Automaten Berlin - Max Sielaff, Automat inventor website
 * Before Horn & Hardart: European automats
 * Automat Restaurants from "Patent Sielaff" - Trade Catalogs and Pamphlets - oclc
 * Automat Restaurants - over 100 years ago - My Stockholm BLOG Xb2u7Zjzc32 (talk) 12:06, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Automatenrestaurant Qusisana

 * Token from Automatencafe Quisisana, 57 Kärntner street, Vienna, Austria
 * Austrian machine token - World of Coins
 * QUISISANA - Büffet, Gaststätte, Espresso, Restaurant (ca. 1950) 34 Maria hilfer straße, Wien VII
 * Automatenrestaurant Qusisana, Mariahilfer Straße 34 im 7, Vienna, Austria, 1972 from Pohanka, Reinhard; Sinalco-Epoche kenne ich Xb2u7Zjzc32 (talk) 12:06, 16 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Hotel Pension Quisisana Windmühlgasse 6 1060 Wien...Xb2u7Zjzc32 (talk) 12:57, 16 March 2015 (UTC)
 * de:Quisisana... Xb2u7Zjzc32 (talk) 13:36, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Worth mentioning?
There's a new automat restaurant in San Fransisco that is taking off: 74.80.51.7 (talk) 18:22, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

US-centered article not in line with Wikipedia's guidelines
The automat is a Dutch/German invention, yet the whole first half of the article is about the vending machines in the US. I'm placing it under the "by country" list, because the content has nothing to do with automats around the world at all. SabasNL (talk) 19:13, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Automat - United Kingdom edit
Dear Valella, Thank you reviewing the edit on the automat page. I changed the text few times to make it more neutral with no adversising.Could you please tell me what part would need changing to have the section added to the page? I need to say that I am not sure what part cause problem.

Everything I wrote are neutral facts and even if some part could sound promotional - it only describe the technology advancement of the new automats compared to the old one. I believe this is a main differentiator - and the future of this technology- that readers should know about.

More details would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help. Regards,

Dom — Preceding unsigned comment added by Domdd (talk • contribs) 16:31, 6 October 2017 (UTC)


 * The issue I have is that the text is about a company which, in Wikipedia terms, is not notable and which is then described in some detail. This reads very strongly like advertising and promotional text and, in the context of the rest of the article, is way out of balance. If it simply said something like:

"Some recent automats in the UK use cutting edge technology and cloud based communications to optimise the management of their products in a cashless society.". This would need to be supported by an independent and reliable source that supported the text. If the company or its products were notable, then including a wiki-link to the appropriate article might well be acceptable. Please bear in mind that Wikipedia doesn't advertise and anything that reads as if it is an advertisement, almost always is an advertisement. Hope that this helps.  Velella  Velella Talk 21:22, 6 October 2017 (UTC)