6 replies to this topic

[David P]

I am seriously considering bulk vending. I have been in professional sales for most of my life seeking and finding locations should be a skill I have from my current job.

In looking at the revenue sections of other forums I saw figures similar to $5.00 for one location and $10.00 for another. Most of these seemed like they were from an operators very first pull from his very first placement.

My question is once you are in the business for more than a year and you are rotating out of bad locations -What is a reasonable amount to expect from a single locations from a two headed machine. Let say at the end of a year you have 40 locations. Another factor I live in suburbs of Washington DC.

I know it will vary widely but I would really appreciate anyones input on this.

Many thanks for your counsel on this item.

Regards,

Dave P

[Steve Fischer]

Put it this way. I've put out absolute duds that generated nothing in a month and I have a location that generates up to 140 per month. So it all depends on what you are willing to settle with. You can keep relocating your bottom machines but at some point, you'll have to decide what you consider acceptable and leave a machine in place. You might decide it's 10 per month and then after you're up and running for a while you might decide 10 is not worth the time. Then you can either relocate the machine or only hit that one every other month.

[minivend]

Our company philosophy is to secure "high volume kid traffic" accounts. If the location doesn't produce a minimum of $200 per month then its not worth dealing with. Good luck..

[David P]

Put it this way. I've put out absolute duds that generated nothing in a month and I have a location that generates up to 140 per month. So it all depends on what you are willing to settle with. You can keep relocating your bottom machines but at some point, you'll have to decide what you consider acceptable and leave a machine in place. You might decide it's 10 per month and then after you're up and running for a while you might decide 10 is not worth the time. Then you can either relocate the machine or only hit that one every other month.

[Schale]

Putting a solid number on how much someone can make on a vending machine is next to impossible as every location is different with both demographic, regional and competitive influences. For instance sales can be negatively impacted if there are many fast food or convenient stores nearby. Also, your blue collar worker is more willing to spend money on vending products that white collar on average (about 2 to 1). The general rule is you can expect $2.00 per week per white collar employee and $4.00 per week per blue collar employee as an average. It is this reason alone not to immediately invest in a lot of machines right off the bat. Take a handful and every week or month depending on the use of the machine, track the numbers to see what the performance is. If you have a low performing unit, simply move to another. There is no sense, especially in the beginning when revenues are low to tie up a large investment for an account that can cover costs. Your time will be better off with fewer, higher income vending machines rather than more, lower performing ones.

The best locations will tend to be businesses that have lots of employees. Typically, blue collar workers eat more than white collar while women eat the least. At most businesses, blue collar workers often don't leave for lunch so their meal comes from the vending machines.

Many vending operators set a threshold of $100 per week per unit for their machine to generate, otherwise the machine gets moved to a new location. Others have a ratio and calculate their minimum required income. For example some will require 10% of their investment to be the monthly sales. So for every $1,000 on equipment they require $100 in monthly sales. This method removes the arbitrary minimum per week (this number really can only come from experience) and factors in the amount of investment in vending equipment so you know whether you are getting a positive return on investment. If you can make the same amount but spend $750 on a refurbished vending machine versus $3,500 on a new one, guess which one will be more profitable?

www.StartupInformant.com

[the25vendguy]

Don't adults eat m&m's too???

[Steve Fischer]

yes. Adults eat m&ms.

I am reading some of these posts and thinking that these people are talking about full-sized vending (i.e., drink and snack machines) and not bulk vending with 2-head candy machines.