Pads at 2 rubles apiece: vending machine in Dana Mall sparks debate on Threads

A Minsk woman posted on Threads under the title "Is this normal? Prices for pads in the women's restroom at Dana Mall", with photos of the vending machine and its price list. Apparently she visited the mall over the weekend, and its restrooms have vending machines selling feminine hygiene products. The post was viewed almost 190 thousand times in less than a day.

In the machine, one pad costs 2 rubles, and a pack of eight Kotex pads costs 10 rubles. Similar pads of the same brand with the same specifications sell in shops for 4–6.5 rubles a pack.

A discussion flared up under the photo of the machine: in less than a day the comments gathered more than two hundred replies. One user wrote: "Holy crap, they've jacked up the price of a pack, twice as much as in a shop".

Some commenters defended the machine. User existornotexist wrote that people buy a single pad to make it to a pharmacy, a supermarket or home, and that between "having nothing at all" and "having at least this" she would choose the second. Another wrote: "It's a vending machine, for emergencies when you need one but don't have one". A third: "I wouldn't even look at the price, especially for 1 unit, if it means feeling comfortable".

User demidchik_elvira reminded others that the machine has to pay for itself, and added that social media had discussed cases where a box of free pads was placed in the restrooms of cafes and salons and was emptied completely. User milana_____14 wrote: "It's a machine [for] emergencies when you need one but don't have one: you can't please everyone, penny-pinchers, [say] thank you that there are such machines".

The author of the post objected: "All over the world people are pushing for [hygiene products] to be completely free, and you support such prices". User psinalafur asked: "Do people even know that pads and tampons are available for free in many public restrooms in other countries?" elfin195 replied to her: "[Here] a person bought a machine, rented a spot in the restroom from Dana Mall and regularly refills this machine. Why should one individual do that for free?"

The mall itself has a shop, "Mila", where hygiene products can be bought cheaper. The machine was installed not by the mall out of charity but by an entrepreneur who wants to make money. He has to recoup the cost of the machine itself, the rent for the spot, electricity and maintenance. One of the users wrote: "Why should this someone work at a loss?"