The vending machine for commuters feeling the pinch... it offers LIVE crabs

 

By Daily Mail Reporter Commuters in China bored with standard vending machine snacks have been offered an unconventional alternative to crisps and fizzy drinks - live crabs.

The Dazha hairy crab, a popular delicacy in Nanjing, the southeastern province of Jiangsu, are sold in three sizes – small, medium or large – and range in price from £1.50 to £5.00.

They are packed into custom-fitted plastic boxes and chilled to 5C, leaving them sedated but still very much alive.

Snack on the move: Commuters in China can now purchase live crabs from train station vending machines

Customers are offered three free crabs if they happen to receive a dead one.

Automated vending machines distributing the crabs have been installed at several underground stations in Nanjing by a local company.

Wu Zhendi, general manager of Twin Lake Crab Company, says that they are selling hundreds by the day

'The customers were a bit skeptical at first as they were worried if the crabs were alive or not,' he told The Telegraph.

'But now they see they are alive, they keep coming back. We are selling hundreds each day, and more at weekends.'

Unconventional: The automated live crab vending machines have been installed at several underground stations in Nanjing, China

The bizarre idea was spearheaded by Shi Tuanjie Shi from the Twin Lakes Crab Co.

'I have seen a lot of vending machines selling cokes and snacks, and I thought crabs could be sold in vending machines as well, because crab has become a standardised product.

'Although crab is a kind of agricultural product, we have made standard packaging for them, so they can be sold in machines without any problems... So we started to do some research and designed the machine. 

The Dazha hairy crab are sold in three sizes - small, medium or large - and range in price from £1.50 to £5.00

Sealed: The crabs are packed into custom-fitted plastic boxes and chilled to 5C, leaving them sedated but still very much alive. Customers are offered three free crabs if they happen to receive a dead one

'We didn't make it at the very beginning, because it's really hard to keep crabs fresh and alive.

'We made some adjustments to the machine later, taking into considerations of issues like temperature control and so on.

'After that, we managed to trial the crab vending machine in this place, and it works very well and we have not found any dead crabs in our machine so far,' he says.

The company now plans to expand further and is considering trying out the machines in Japan.

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