Automats

(seven and one-half cents) in one of the Berlin "automats" to one mark fifty pfennigs (thirty-seven cents) in the quiet of the best hotels. ❋ Arthur Ruhl (1905)

What exactly does happen inside the automats has become a matter of dispute between Aldi S ü d, a discount supermarket chain, and most of Germany's 15,000 traditional bakeries, since the company began installing the machines in hundreds of its German stores this year. ❋ Vanessa Fuhrmans (2010)

The automats are emblazoned with the word Backofen, or "baking oven," and pictures of bowls of whole grain and bouquets of wheat. ❋ Vanessa Fuhrmans (2010)

At other times, we are outside in the dark, peering unobserved into nondescript hotel rooms and lobbies, middle-class apartments and middle-management offices, automats and late-night bars. ❋ Karen Wilkin (2011)

In most countries, what takes place inside automats might not prompt such ire, let alone legal action. ❋ Vanessa Fuhrmans (2010)

Aldi Nord, which owns Aldi stores in northern Germany and elsewhere in Europe, as well as Trader Joe's in the U.S., doesn't operate the automats. ❋ Vanessa Fuhrmans (2010)

And last year Live Bait introduced its new "Coastal 24 Hour Bait Shop," for the "saltwater market"; business is reportedly booming for their squiggly things, which are sold along with cold beverages from the automats in Tupperware-like containers. ❋ Nick Haramis (2011)

Aldi S ü d, in an email, said the automats represent a "technological innovation" in automated baking. ❋ Vanessa Fuhrmans (2010)

Around the world, new breeds of automats are feeding demand for practical but surprising local staples as well as out-and-out exotica. ❋ Nick Haramis (2011)

United Kingdom, Australia and parts of Europe, said it has already installed the automats in 600 of its stores in Germany and plans to expand them to all 1,780 of its German stores. ❋ Vanessa Fuhrmans (2010)

They have a really quite amazing film of the tiny automats all doing their stuff, one by one, in extreme closeup - worth seeing because then when you see the real thing you understand the amazing actions of their mechanisms. ❋ Heather McDougal (2008)

The question is, will the BAMN automats have what it takes? ❋ Heather McDougal (2007)

For those of the middle generations, that is to say, people born 40 to 60 years ago, the memories of automats are likely to be ones of bad food, glaring lights and chillingly impersonal decor. ❋ Heather McDougal (2007)

So much so that a new company called BAMN! is starting a trend (?) by bringing automats back - in, of course, a more modern, hip way. ❋ Heather McDougal (2007)

For younger people, who never went to one of the old automats, it's kind of cool. ❋ Heather McDougal (2007)

Richman is a stand-up Brooklyn boy who fondly remembers the original Nathan's hot dog stand in Coney Island, the old Horn and Hardart's automats of NYC, the cheesecake at Lindy's, and the kasha varniskes at Ratner's. ❋ Unknown (2009)