VENDINGCHAT.COM

Because it's outdated and doesn't accept dollars, now if this is for personal use, then by all means repair the coin mech.

Appears to be a bad coin mech, I'd start with repacing that, and if it still does it, then it's your control board. Too be honest with you, I'd replace the machine.

Got to figure out the compressor issue first.

check and make sure your fan motor is not blocked

Turn the machine off, before you turn the machine back on, have the $1.00 button pressed down, hold that button down as you turn it back on for at least 5 secounds, then release it, should be able to reset after that process.

Titanium drill bits is what your going to need, start with your smallest bit centering it in the center of the key hole, , try to go as deep as you can without breaking the bit( your going to break a few), after you get halfway, go to the next size bit and follow the same procedure.This may take some time, and bits, but once you get to 1/4 inch bit you will eventually break the lock free.

Turn off the machine, as you turn the machine back on, hold the $1.00 button down for 5 secounds . This resets the machine back to factory mode, so you will have to reset prices after you do this.

Hey RJT,

I wanted to respond to your comment above about my review of an opportunity to buy an existing snack vending route in current operation in my area. The deal would be a separate section of the business owner's regional vending route so he would continue in business operating his remaining regional route business while I have purchased a separate sub-route in a separate geographic region. I would be making a down payment on the price that is based off of 2011 net revenues and the general snack machines being transferred that are currently being operated on the locations. Since I don't have storage available starting out after buying his route, he would be making available a separate section of his warehouse space for me to use for a transitional period at no additional cost. This deal would include 40% of the price seller-financed. The owner seems to be a nice guy to work with and has been quite responsive so he seems to make a good mentor after having grown his business over many years in my area. Hence, there would be infrastructure in place and even an employee I could call on and pay hourly when I need help in the transitional phase after taking over this route. With seller financing spread over a period of 4 years, do you think I should have a provision in the sale agreement that if I am not able to continue the operation of this route business that I am not liable for the unpaid balance of the seller-financed Note?

Thanks again for your valued input!

Does seem fishy, but I want knock this deal until I see some numbers. So if you can post how many machines, and gross sells off this route, I'd think we could tell you more as far as if it's worth it. I'm open minded to such deal if the ROI is right, there are attractive aspects to the deal and one of them is sharing of warehouse, although I would recommend that you change the locks of all the machines you get, and make sure you order those locks and not the person you bought it from, and never ever give him or anyone esle a key.

In short a company we were doing vending for implemented a employee wellness program in conjunction with their group insurance company. It was a pilot program that rewarded the company for implementing a wellness program that would cut down on health insurance claims. Every employee was required to maintain wellness guide lines to continue receiving matching contributions to their health insurance. We originally estimated and loss 42% in gross sales. The company agreed at the start to subsidise the difference to help keep the cost of "healthier" items affordable. We worked directly with the company nutritionist who set the guidelines. Only diet soda,teas,water, juices, milk, energy drinks. Snacks could only be single serving packaging, 10 grms fat or less, only 35% calories from fat, all the fruit, nuts, and protein we want. No restrictions on cold food items. Of course at the start it was shakey without the subsidy we would not have made it. That was 5 years ago and today the program is a success saving the company thousands of dollars. Every year we are graded and get a B+ only because the cold food has no restrictions the average for the country is a C- for the companies on the program. Because of the inventory we had to have we do 30-40% nutritional products in all of our locations and use that as a selling point we can even go higher % if need be. Other than the soda if you check what you are putting in snack machines now 30-40% of your inventory now will meet these requirements.
As of March 19 2012 all of my park and recreation accounts have set the same nutritional guidelines except they only allow 30% calories from fat. They do not subsidise BUT I only have to be 35% compliant by 3/19/12, 50% compliant by 9/12, 75% compliant by 1/13 and 100% compliant 6/13. The good part is no non-compliant product can be sold for less than a compliant product. Which means I'm getting a 300% profit margin on the items that sell. Right now on a 10 select soda we only have to have 4 items compliant we already carry 2 gatorades 20oz and a water 20oz we've added tea 20oz and changed soda back to cans @ 2.75 we get 2.50 for the 20oz bottles pissed the customers off but made client real happy. We will revaluate at each change to see if it is profitable we will probably do a 10-15% price increase at each change to make 100% compliant profitable.
I recommend that you educate yourself on "more nutritional items" and when someone says they want more "healthier" items then you will be ready. People assume that anything in a vending machine is junk food which is far from the truth. Anybody that uses the term "healthier" do not know what they are talking about if you have a nutritional plan that is 30-40% compliant then you will sound like you know what your talking about. The key to this is only 40% of a vending machine is sellable anyway. Example: On a 8 select soda machine only 3 selections are sellable meaning if any 1 of those three selections are out they are calling you to fill the machine. So if you have at least 3 selections compliant (2 diet and a tea) your 40% more nutritional and still have your best 3 sellers. On a 4 wide snack 32 select you will need 12 selections to be compliant. Doritos, Sunchips, double salami, beef& cheese stix, cashews, pistachios,peanuts,sunflower seeds shelled and unshelled, pretzels, cheez-its, 3 musketeers, granola bars, special k bars, snackwells cookies, all 100 calorie pastries, single serving pop tarts, tator -skins tgif, pork skins,trailmixes,animal cookies, the new sunmaid trailmix and apple raisin cookies big seller. etc.etc.etc. I can go on and on there are multiple flavors of all those chips. These are all items that sell I have never lost any of these items because of dates. Set your guidelines study the products educate yourself and when a customer says we need "healthier" items you'll be prepared and you will amaze them with your preparedness. If you already use these items you can say we're already at 40% nutritional or you can say "well you do know that healthier items are more expensive" then raise your prices 20%. Just my thoughts. I hope this helps.
Vend1ng

Very good information, yes we do comply with a min 30% as far as healthy goes for all our vending machines, and for you full line venders Herr's chips offers a very good choice of baked chips, they seem to sell well. Setting up a wellness program is almost mandatory now a days. Really that type of program is normally set up for white collar accounts that are in the 1000 or above in people, while this sounds like a homerun as far as accounts go, there more capital and labor intense than any account that you will encounter. Most of the time they want a vending machine on every floor as well as sandwich machine, instead of a central location. While we have walked away from one of these type of accounts, the company has since moved out of state, sometimes it pays to walk away from such an account.

We've given you "serious-minded" answers and all my answers are constructive and very thoughtout responses, The antagonistic statements are only antagonistic because I'm not saying what you want to hear. There is probably noone on this board that has more experience with "healthy" vending than me. I design and setup total nutritional vending for companies so they can save and receive rebates on group health insurance plans. I receive subsidies based on a percentage of that savings. I'm not anti "healthy" vending I make alot of money because I've studied it and learned how to use it where my competition runs from it. As for your 2x4 approach you swing like a girl. I know for a fact that your not "thinking seriously of entering into the vending business " and I still believe you already have a vested interest in a "healthy" vending concept. If you were serious you would have already bought RJT's book, read the archives, ask questions not give statements and be appreciative of those that can save you lots of money. No, wait you want to do it on somebody elses money that way when it doesn't work out you just walk away. Hey wait a minute I might have you all wrong you've been to one of those "business oppurtunity" seminars found out they don't finance and they sold you on their BS and you think you can do it yourself! Not! those are the red flags and alarms I was mumbo jumboing about. Thanks for feeding this a$$ I thrive off people like you.
Vend1ng

Now I find that interesting that you would get subsidies from accounts based on setting there vending up healthy. If you could share or elaborate on this process, I'd like to learn more. I think this would be a good tool to use when making a bid or presentation for a new account.

I think all the advice is good, I've lost two accounts because they wanted Healthy, and I tried it ,and it went bad, so I went back to the regular chips and candy, sells went back up, but when they saw that I had pulled it and I informed them that it wasnt selling, they went with snake oil vending salesmen that promised them everything under the sun. I guess the point is, healhy does not sell and do not be strong armed into thinking that it will, it want. What I do now when a accounts want healthy I tell them we are 70% regular products, and 30% healthly,( which we are and always have been). HVend , seems like your feeling got hurt with there rebuttal response, but better your feelings than your pocket book. Good luck