This not an entirely original idea, but rather a combination of two common ones. One is found at grocery stores, the other at restaurants.
Most supermarkets feature a bulk foods section, where shoppers can purchase as much or as little product as they desire, without paying expensive mark-up for brand names and packaging.
Some fast-food joints feature self-serve fountain drinks, where customers can buy the cup, and fill up as many times as they like.
I propose a combination of the two, whereby a bulk product, namely cereal, is poured into giant bins in the store. Accessible to customers is a faucet, that when activated will be dispensed into a clear bucket, purchased from the store. Because there is no appreciable difference between house-brand cereal and name brand cereal, the savings will be ginormous.
Prices are calculated to the nearest decilitre at the checkout stand. The air in the massive container is filtered, disinfected, and all safety precautions are taken.
<rant>I placed this under the cereal category and not the general category because I would like this invention to be used to drive down the outrageous cost of cereal. At present, 100g of fruit loops costs more than 100g of black forest ham, and some cereals rival the cost of T-Bone steak. This is sheer ludicrousness.</rant>-- WordUp, Aug 18 2004 Although I do find that no house brand can quite match the taste of Kellogg's cornflakes, I'm a big fan of this idea. I love cereal, I'm actually eating some as I write this in fact, but the prices sicken me. Viva los dispensores.-- harderthanjesus, Aug 18 2004 I can't see generic Lucky Charms and Golden Grahams being as good as the originals, but I don't mind paying the extra $$$ for them. I hardly eat cereal anyway, even though I love it. Either way, this is a great idea. [+]-- Machiavelli, Aug 18 2004 Don't forget a dispenser at the end for the little toy!-- dobtabulous, Aug 18 2004 Cereal is my favorite food. I'm willing to try anything if it lowers the cost and reduces waste.-- tchaikovsky, Aug 18 2004 That's funny, [bwv]...I started smoking so I could cut down on my cereal consumption.-- Machiavelli, Aug 18 2004 Naaahhhh...I was just jesting. I don't really smoke much anymore. Sorry about your lung, [bwv], I'll fetch it for you as soon as I'm done writing this anno.
[jsp], what have you been smoking that you get the munchies, eh??? heehee. So the generic golden grahams are as good as the real thing? Maybe I'll try them. I'm kind of a snob when it comes to cereal, though.-- Machiavelli, Aug 19 2004 If I'm understanding this correctly, as a dispenser for bulk cereal, it' baked - they have this where I shop. Cereal is in a bin up above, and you pull the lever and fill a plastic bag with as much as you want. And yes, it is much cheaper than boxes.-- awesomest, Aug 19 2004 I've seen this idea baked but still like the gigantic proportions of the idea. If someone rigs the cereal faucet to stay on it will fill the aisle depending how high off the ground the faucet is.
Well good day and Cheerio(s). *laughs at horrible pun*-- MrDaliLlama, Aug 21 2004 random, halfbakery