Hi,
I recently bought a few machines from another vendor, and one of the free bonus machines was a 6-selection mechanical drink machine, model NSV 186. For pictures of a similar product, see this eBay link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/...216112010r17080
(That's not the one I bought, it just has a picture of the same machine).

Anyhow, the machine seems to cool fine, but after the compression stopped cooling, there still seems to be a fan inside that just keeps going and going. Is this normal behavior? If it is, then I'm fine. If it's not, it may be because the test conditions aren't normal, since the machine is in a shed where the ambient temperature is not what the machine is used to, and the machine is not stocked with product.

Any tips one way or the other would be nice.

Thanks,
-Michael

I have a route that I bought from someone with a bunch of junky 9 selection mechanical machines. (Actually, they seem to be well-built as far as things go, just the fact that they are mechanical is junky. However, it makes sense given the nature of their locations.) Anyhow, the prices on the machines are set way too low. Chocolate is still selling for $.50 a bar, which is only pennies more than what it costs, and after tax, I'm barely making a thing. So, I need to increase prices on some items. However, since these are mechanical machines, it's not as easy as flipping DIP switches or moving around pins. So, I need more parts to accept quarters. The machines look approximately like this:
http://images.craigs...3483fd71626.jpg

So far, I have found no suppliers of such parts. Does anyone know of any? (Otherwise, I'd probably just find someone who knows how to cut metal and have a few custom parts made, which shouldn't be too bad.)

I think, but I'm not sure, that the machine is made by Edina, which as of the last day of 2008 is now out of business. This leads to another topic, which is, I think Edina made the actual machines for Planet Antares. Does that mean that Antares will die too? Or will they continue to sell their business-in-a-box and never even deliver machines? That would probably be better than their current offering, where you end up with a pile of debt and a bunch of machines in your garage. (It's much better to have a pile of debt without the machines messing the place up:-D).


-Michael

Well, I decided about a year ago that I wanted to get into the vending business. I decided to buy an existing route, rather than starting from scratch. I finally found a route that I think is ideal for my situation, especially since I have all the needed money to buy the route and service it in cash, and its a small enough amount that if I totally mess everything up and lose it all, it wouldn't be the end of the world. The transaction hasn't actually occurred yet, so I could back out.

Anyhow, all the machines are el-cheapo mechanical machines located in break rooms at various smallish businesses (banks, small retail stores, etc). The break rooms that I saw so far were so small that it would probably be impractical to ever put a decent electric machine in there and all the accounts are fairly minor (machines filled once every other week), so I'm not afraid of a big vending business shoving me out.

Anyhow, the family that owns the route at the moment has been excessively busy over the past year, so their prices have not increased with the increase in costs of the products in bulk. Just about everything is set to $.50, so if you're paying $.41 for a Snickers bar at Sam's, after you pay sales tax, you're clear just about $.07 per bar. Yikes.

So, anyhow, I will have to increase some prices. Does anyone have suggestions on how to do this tactfully? I plan to just fill the machines at the current prices for a month or two, so that no one gets mad at the fact that the route changed hands. However, after a while I will have to raise prices. Any tips would be appreciated. Also, how quickly should I raise prices? Should I raise prices in one step to the desired price? Or should I raise prices in steps?

Also, if you have any tips for newbies that you wish someone told you when you were starting out, let me know. Thanks!