Wakamaru President Taiji Shimodaira shows a horse meat sashimi vending machine at the firm’s headquarters in Iijima, Nagano Prefecture.
NAGANO, May 19 – A vending machine offering horse meat sashimi in the town of Iijima, Nagano Prefecture, is proving popular amid the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling customers to make purchases 24 hours a day while avoiding face-to-face contact.
The vending machine service is offered by Wakamaru, a meat seller with more than 100 years of history specializing in horse meat, a local specialty of Nagano’s Minami Shinshu region.
While selling products at its shop next to its factory, as well as online and at local restaurants, the firm set up a vending machine with a quick-freezing function at its headquarters.
Five raw horse meat products are available from the vending machine, including 200 grams of lean meat at 2,500 yen and 200 grams of marbled meat at 4,300 yen.
The firm started the vending machine service on April 30 and the sales in the first six days was about eight times as much as the monthly sales at its store posted in May last year.
The vending machine apparently appealed to customers because they can buy products any time without having to make face-to-face contact.
“We are getting good responses more than we expected,” said Wakamaru President Taiji Shimodaira. “We want to promote horse meat sashimi more broadly as the Shinshu region’s local cuisine.”