That odd Vending Machine on Warren Street in Hudson, NY

You may wonder, ‘Trixie, how do you ever come up ideas for your blog posts?’ Sometimes, the blog posts come to me. I had no idea what to write about this week, but I knew I needed garbage bags.

I’ve seen out-of-towners look at this machine, ask questions, press buttons – some have even taken pictures in front of it!

This is the garbage bag vending machine in front of City Hall. City of Hudson residents can pay for the bags, ($1.50/small, $3/large). DPW workers will pick up the bags on a schedule. Recycling pick up is free. The concept is to promote recycling and encourage people to produce less garbage – paying per bag, as opposed to a flat fee.

I put my phone up to the machine, it authorized the transaction and I pressed the buttons to get my bags. Nothing. Nothing moved, nothing fell. The machine gave me the error message ‘REMOVE ITEM’. Remove what? Nothing fell!

I swiped my card. Authorized. Then, nothing. Ugh.

I put in eight dollars – CASH! Now, I’m not messing around.

“Credit $8.00” I pressed the buttons, and again, ‘REMOVE ITEM’! I opened and looked in the bin below. Nothing. At this point, with eight dollars cash invested in this machine, I was not going to walk away without my g-d damn, f**king garbage bags….

At that moment – cursing the garbage bag vending machine – the Mayor passed by and said “Hi” and walked into City Hall. I smiled back, from behind my mask, “Hi”.

I called the DPW number on the door and explained to the person “I’m sorry, my money, garbage bag vending machine, blah, blah, blah….” She said, “I’ll be right down!”

Sigh.

She put her hand in the bottom of the machine, ran it along, and found another bunch of bags – bags I did not see when I looked! She pressed the buttons. Violà, the bags dropped! How? Wait? WTF?

“The bottom part is weight-sensored,” she explained. “If there’s something there, you have to remove it first, before you make a selection”.

…oh…

That expalins the ‘error message’ of ‘REMOVE ITEM’. I thought it was broken, but all along it was telling me what to do! Remove the item from the bottom!

Ye of little faith, Trixie!

Hopefully, I have saved you, my gentle reader, from a similar fate of unnecessary frustration!

(by the way….and that is why you read this blog – a blog written by someone who actually lives in the City of Hudson and shares the same daily experiences!)