3 replies to this topic

[shepherdsflock]

I am planning to buy my first machine soon, and went out scouting for locations this weekend. I stopped by a local Walmart and noticed that a large bank of candy machines that had been present for a few years was now absent. I thought to myself, wow, what lucky break! I spoke to the store manager and discovered that not just anybody can set up vending machines in a Walmart store. Because they want all of their store to have a uniform appearance, they only allow very large operators that can cover huge geographies to install machines in their stores. Definitely not a place that welcomes small-time entrepeneurs (hey, its Walmart,why am I surprised?).

On the positive side, I did spot a couple of other seemingly promising locations that I am going to investigate further. One is a photography shop that sees a lot family traffic and there are usually families with small children waiting for over an hour to get their prints. I'm planning to approach the store manager this week to ask if I could set up a toy capsule machine inside.

[dperry324]

If you have more money than time, I'd say get a locator. If you have more time than money, then locating is best to do it yourself. The photography place sounds interesting. Might want to sell toys there.

[Artemetra]

Locating is half the battle. Maybe more than half. In fact, I think it's the same as Real Estate - it's all about location (location^3). When you get a good location, work hard to maintain it.

[billee]

it hard to find route for sale in south florida