Serious Question: Why Are My Oreos Cold?
If you've never been to a German train station, it may not have ever occurred to you that on your quest for a snack in the station, you might just end up with cold Oreos, chips, or obligatory snack sausage out of the same machine you got that bottle of Fanta out of. Why Germany? Why?
I dunno, it's cheaper to run one machine than two? While my best guess is as good as yours, "mixed" machines that sell both snacks and drinks are a common sight at train stations, and other places you might expect to find vending machines. Depending on the machine, the drinks themselves may be directly next to the food items, or they may be separated internally like the one in the cover image, though they are within the same machine with the same number pad.
In Germany, the number of vending machines in general is much lower than in the U.S., meaning that the likelihood you'll come across them outside of train stations, airports, and the odd office building is rather low. Combined with the fact that Germans drink far less soda, and don't eat nearly the same amount of chips or similar snack foods, it's not terribly cost effective to have separate machines for food and drinks in most places. And really, other than the fact that cold potato chips are a bit, odd, at first, it doesn't make the greatest difference to the average traveler in the first place.