6 replies to this topic

[Carogan]

I have two questions I would like to put out to all you vending gurus!!

1. Where can someone find some market research on the demand for the different products of bottled/canned beverages, in different sizes, in their market area without paying an arm and a leg for this research. The bottler doesn't appear to want to give this info away...when I request this info it almost appears that they have a different agenda than what we as vendors might have in maximizing revenue (ie. they want to push bottles instead of cans, or want to push products lines that may or may not be the most profitable for their vendors).

I don't want to necessarily rely on my rep's suggestions, although I will consider their advice, but independant market research would certainly be much preferable.

2. Can anyone with a beverage machine list their best sellers in order from most popular to least - preferably with can or bottle size noted.


Thank you for your help!

Rob

[bcron]

Question #2: Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew, Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper would be my top 5 in either bottle or can.

[dogcow]

dew , coke , hawaiian punch, pepsi, rt beer

[cvending]

Cans: Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Coke, Diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Lipton Tea, Orange Crush, Diet Coke, Root Beer, Diet Mt. Dew, Sierra Mist

Bottles: Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Lipton Tea, Aqua Fina, Diet Mt. Dew, Coke, Orange Crush, Cherry Pepesi, Cool Blue Gatorade, Fruit Punch Gatorade

[Carogan]

This is good info for everyone people!

Delving even further, do you monitor which product is more profitable - 355ml cans vs 591ml bottle, etc. In our neck of the woods a Coke can has the following cost info:

355ml can of Coke:

cost $0.47 Cdn
price $1.50 Cdn
gross profit per unit sold $1.03

591ml bottle of Coke:

cost $1.21 Cdn
price $2.50 Cdn
gross profit per unit sold $1.29

Intuitively I would assume that for Coke cans are the way to go, as I'd expect that the volume for cans sold would be much higher than bottles because it has a much lower price point and thus should have greater demand (but I'd imagine that there are many other factors that come into play when the client makes a purchasing decision).

The gross profit per unit has only a difference of $0.26 cents between $1.50 cans of coke and $2.50 bottles of coke...but bottles do have more gross per unit.

Do you people monitor the demand and know which is more profitable for you when you make your product mix decisions?

[Cttomasso]

Yes we do monitor these things. For example, in California the margin on bottled water has increased which means we try to increase the mix in favor of bottled water right now. In terms of beverage mix, it really depends on each account as we customize them over time. Also some accounts we have are subsidized which means that customers are more willing to pay for higher priced items like Powerade or Monster Energy drink when they only have to pay 50 cents and 1.00 respectively.

One more thing that affects our particular mix is we deal almost exclusively with Coca Cola, something that allows us a deal where we get free machine installs and service (though this is only possible above a certain volume and machine count).

Without further ado our mix in terms of most popular items is (based on the route I drive): 12 0z Coca Cola/Bottled Water, Diet Coke/Powerade, Cherry/Fanta Orange/Sprite, Monster Energy drink, and then all the lesser stuff like Diet cherry, coke zero, barqs, pibb, minute maid lemonade, etc. Only after that do we have 20 0z bottles of soda, honest ade, vitamin water, orange juice, etc

[dogcow]

This is good info for everyone people!

Delving even further, do you monitor which product is more profitable - 355ml cans vs 591ml bottle, etc. In our neck of the woods a Coke can has the following cost info:

355ml can of Coke:

cost $0.47 Cdn
price $1.50 Cdn
gross profit per unit sold $1.03

591ml bottle of Coke:

cost $1.21 Cdn
price $2.50 Cdn
gross profit per unit sold $1.29

Intuitively I would assume that for Coke cans are the way to go, as I'd expect that the volume for cans sold would be much higher than bottles because it has a much lower price point and thus should have greater demand (but I'd imagine that there are many other factors that come into play when the client makes a purchasing decision).

The gross profit per unit has only a difference of $0.26 cents between $1.50 cans of coke and $2.50 bottles of coke...but bottles do have more gross per unit.

Do you people monitor the demand and know which is more profitable for you when you make your product mix decisions?

it depends on a few things, the account first and foremost. in some accounts they want a low price point so you have to go with cans . also the size of your route and how fixated you are on squeezing an extra buck or two. for example i have a small biz i do all my buying at sams, i regularly clean out the supermarket or walmart if they have a sale on cans which often undercuts sams by 10c a can, so you are earning a buck or two per case more profit. also if your accounts are lower volume cans are a good choice because of the expiry.

overall tho its going to come down to the account and waht they want.