Meat Vending Machines Are Booming in the Czech Republic

In and around Prague, you can find vending machines that sell fresh eggs, while in Brno, you can stumble upon vending machines for fruits and vegetables. In the northern regions, they sell locally sourced meat.

Ten years ago, Josef Dvořák traveled across Europe to learn about chicken farming practices abroad. During his travels, he found a vending machine where people could easily purchase eggs at any time, day or night.

Inspired by this, he decided to introduce a similar concept in the Czech Republic. Today, after nine years, he operates sixteen vending machines in the country, offering fresh eggs directly from his hens.

Dvořák has no plans to expand further. He initially wanted to place the vejcomat (eggcomat) in areas where fresh eggs are scarce, such as the center of Prague, but the conditions weren’t suitable at the moment.

“I’m referring to the issue of rents, which vary. It’s more about financial constraints. Selling eggs is not the same as selling Red Bulls,” says Dvořák, mentioning that he hasn’t reached an agreement with the shopping center in Chodov.

The farm supplies the egg machines approximately every two days. Although a single machine can hold six hundred eggs, Dvořák assures that they are truly fresh.

While egg machines have been on the market since 2014, it was only last year that Farmářský dům Vrchlabí opened a meat machine.

“We used to sell meat in the yard in person, but since the whole family is busy working on the farm, people often had to wait for us and some of us had to quit our jobs and go sell meat,” says Kateřina Basařová from the family-run Farm Basařova.

“It also happened that sometimes none of us were at home and the customer left without meat. So the meat vending machine is a great way to satisfy the customer at any time while being able to do other work on the farm,” she adds.

With the vending machine, customers can come in for meat at any hour of the day, every day of the week. One vending machine is located directly on the farm in the village of Prosečná, while another is located in the vending shop in Vrchlabí, where there are also vending machines used to dispense goods from the e-shop.

The family farm is the owner and operator of the machines, and for the most part its products are also sold there. The main products are beef and venison.

In terms of replenishment, the meat machines are usually filled once a day, and even twice on Fridays and Saturdays.

Fruits and vegetables 

At the beginning of this year, a fruit and vegetable vending machine also opened in Brno-Kohoutovice, owned by the farmer Petr Grunwald.

You can buy fresh apples, onions, garlic or potatoes. The vending machine is replenished daily and thanks to special equipment, the operator even knows what the current capacity is.