iPod vending machines aren’t new. They’ve been spotted in Japan, where just about everything (farm fresh eggs, hot ramen, etc.) can be purchased via vending machine. And since late 2005 they’ve been seen in airports, places where visitors can be trapped for hours on end looking for a gift or diversion.

But iPod vending machines have now moved into U.S. retail outlets. The photo above was snapped at a Macy’s department store at the Arden Fair mall in Sacramento, Calif. — the same Arden Fair that has had an Apple Retail Store for a couple of years. Perhaps some Macy’s shoppers don’t want to walk through the rest of the mall to get their hands on an iPod, or maybe they just don’t want to have to deal with an employee at the checkout counter.

You can see in the photo there is a “10%-50% off Summer Sale” but that is on select third-party iPod cases and accessories sold in the machine, not Apple products. Don’t ever get your hopes up that Apple would mark anything down by 50 percent.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce