The giant vending machine (自动售货机) is a new village shop

Villagers have long been used to facing a drive when they run out of basic supplies. However, help is now nearer at hand in form of the country's first automatic push-button shop. Now residents in the Derbyshire Village of Clifton can buy groceries around the clock after the huge vending was installed outside a pub in the village this week.

    Peter Fox, who iselectrical engineer, spent two and a half years working on the project. The machine  (equip) with securing cameras and alarms and looks like a mini shop with a brick front, a grey roof and a display window.

    Mr. Fox said he hoped his invention, is set to be installed in other villages in the area over the coming months, will mark a return to convenience shopping for rural communities.

He said:“ I had this idea a few years ago but I couldn't find a manufacture who could deliver what I wanted, so I did it by The result is what amounts to huge outdoor vending machine. Yet I think the term “automatic shop” is far (appropriate)

    In recent years, the commercial pressure from supermarket chains force village shops across the country to close. In 2010, it was estimated that about 400 village shops closed, (urge) the local government to give financial support to struggling shops or set-up new communities stores.

    Hundreds of communities have since stepped in and opened up their won volunteer-run shops, but Mr. Fox hopes his new invention will offer a solutionthese villages without a local shop.