Los Angeles' New Caviar (!) Vending Machines Pop Up at Local Malls

Tucked away next to the Bank of America ATM machine in a corner of the Century City mall's food court, a vending machine sits, offering $400 caviar to folks who are willing to spend $400 on vending machine food.

Seriously, I've never seen anyone actually use this machine. It's almost like it's a gag. But apparently it's not. According to ABC7, the vending machines are the brainchild of Beverly Hills Caviar's Kelly Stern.



The machines can also be found at Westfield Topanga and Burbank Town Center. Details:

The prices range from a mere $10 for two ounces of Wasabi Tobiko Caviar to $500 for one ounce of Imperial River Beluga Caviar. Stern said those are wholesale prices.

"We can sell it to restaurants at that price, and people can come here and get those prices," said Stern.

Stern admits not everyone will be interested in dropping hundreds of dollars into a vending machine, but then again, she's not targeting everyone.

"We're going after the people who have money but not time," said Stern.

Is The City of L.A. Cracking Down on News Vending Boxes?

I've often wondered if anyone at the city pays close attention to the newspaper vending boxes, particularly for sketchy publications, that quietly pop up around the city. This Sunday, I noticed two boxes outside the Silver Lake Trader Joe's with a note attached. The warning, via the city, suggests that these boxes are illegal and subject to being removed. (Other, legit boxes from the L.A. Times, LA Weekly and Daily News were untouched.) Have any of you noticed this around the city? Will readers of the skanky L.A. X-Press have a harder time finding their phone-sex-fix?

Here's a close-up look at the notice of violation tag: