> row of vending machines (a.k.a. "Automated convenience store")

even more confusingly, automated convenience stored also started to appear - that looks like regular convenience store, but without any personel 

Żappka in Poland, attempted variant of Żabka

There was also attempt with Żabka Nano which is basically 14 square meters self-service vending machine.

> mapping the vending machines individually would have ended up with a bunch of nodes close together, which is also not ideal…

I do not see it as a problem, but workload in maintenance and initial mapping would be vastly higher so it is reasonable to have more workable alternative