6 replies to this topic

[halfamazin]

Hello all:

I am a complete newbie to the vending machine world. Recently, an opportunity presented itself where the owner of a adult school is allowing me to place a snack machine in his school. Namely, I am not looking to purchase any routes or existing accounts. I am only looking to purchase an inexpensive new or used snack machine that is under $1000 (if that is possible). I will be doing the restocking of the machine myself.

I tried searching online, and as you can imagine, I came across a ton of different machines; some looked archaeic, and some were just too ridiculously expensive for me at the moment. I would love your expert advice on which brand/model I should select from and perhaps which ones I should steer away from. Btw, I live in the Los Angeles Area. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not looking for anything fancy, but the machine needs to be as problem-free as possible, while being under (or close to) $1000. Ideally, the machine will hold 30+ different items (candy bars, cookies, chips, etc.). Should I not purchase machines that are older than X-number of years?

Furthermore, I know that the owner of the school is going to want to split the profit with me. What is the "standard" split? I want to offer him something reasonable but am not sure where to begin. Does a 50-50 profit split sound reasonable?

I apologize for my ignorance on this topic. Any suggestions or advice are much appreciated!

Thank you!

[dogcow]

no i would not split the money 50/50 . u want to mark ur products up enough so that product cost is at most 40-50% of the price u are charging in the machine. any commissions should be added on top of that.

so lets say u crackers that costs you 0.19 ea. So u would want to sell that for 50c , which means your cost is about 38% of the price. That difference ($0.31) is the money you keep, never give away that money.

Now if the owner of the location wants a 20% commission, so you add that on top. since 20% of $0.50 is $0.10, then the final price you would charge for the crackers is $0.60.

that gives you $0.31 per unit and the location owner gets $0.10 per unit (pay off the gross not net makes it easier)

Obviously you want to try to do the commissions as low as possible. also try to use the commissions to get the owner to sign a service agreement so you are somewhat protected against getting kicked out , especially if you are buying equipment.

As for the machine, many good brands out there crane,usi,ap,etc.. check craigslist in your area and dont buy anything if you cant find parts. most on craigslist will need some work either paint, new fronts, fixing or all of that. if you cant be bothered look in the yellow pages for vendors supply or vending machine repairs. most will have refurb units for sale,the price will be much higher than from craigslist but
they will probably warrantee it.

if you only have 1 location u should already be prospecting for more, if its not a high volume location u will quickly start losing $ due to spoilage. u should try to develop at least 2-3 more locations while ur working to get this one placed.

[RJT]

Dogcow has the right advice....

[miked]

The "norm" if you will is 10% of gross. As mentioned you will need multiple locations to move your inventory before it "stales out". IMO you need to look at getting 6-8 snack locations to minimize you losses on the inventory getting old.

[rogerdowling]

Really the best suggestion given by you all, and according to me, there are lots of vendors available in the market and they give guarantee of Snack machine.

[gormandist]

In the $1000 range you should shoot for an AP 7600, and can get a reasonable one for $700. It is a large unit and if you need something smaller try an AP 6600 (4 wide) and they usually run about $100 more. If you search around you might get the next version AP 112/113 for about $1000 if you are really lucky. Shoot for 8% commissions because the margins are narrowing.

[H4UV]

I currently have a little older National 146 (four wide) that will soon come out of the refurbishing process. It will have the new Tuff Fronts, (used on most vending machines now,) the best bill validator on the market, (upgraded to Mars 2000 series validator,) new paint, rebuilt coin changer, 60 day warranty, shipped to a dock or a forklift for $950 total. I also have a National 147 that has been re-manufactured. The posts above all recommended good machines, but as most vendors will tell you, the 147 is one of the most popular and reliable machines around. It may be out of your price range though, I'm asking $1195 plus $175 shipping. It would be a top of the line machine.

Looks like everyone covered everything else fairly well above. Just giving you an added resource for quality machines if you are interested. My number is 970-283-5634.