Tucked away in a small retail strip near 6th Avenue and Lawrence Street in Eugene is a retail space filled with Japanese-style vending machines.
Yamada Vending Co. owner Eimi Yamada started the store two years ago after being laid off from a healthcare company. She was looking for a business with flexible hours.
Yamada Vending isn’t usually staffed — a QR code helps get you in the door. Inside, there are dozens of machines containing food, drinks, stationery and toys that she sources from small businesses in Japan. The vending machines, too, are shipped overseas. Yamada said it takes about two months for each one to arrive from Asia.
Yamada said many items in the $3 range, some more, some less.
“I try to keep things more inexpensive, just because I know there's a lot of places in town that have Japanese items that are a lot more expensive,” Yamada said. “So I try to buy things in bulk, like on sale from wholesalers and things like that. I want it to be something that everyone's able to enjoy.”
Yamada said she’s adding skincare and beauty products soon. But she’s running out of space, and referred to this as a “starter location.”
She said she doesn’t know of any place like this in Oregon. In Japan, she said, you’d see this array of machines most often in an airport or a train station.
The machines accept coins, tokens, or credit cards. Yamada Vending is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and an hour later on weekends.
