CONGRATULATIONS, you have just located your first vending machine.
The best locator on the planet is "YOU" I am pleased you made the time to read.
Stop paying others to locate machines for you, you're wasting your money.
Consider this a moment. You "made" the time "yourself" to read this article.
If you had "paid" someone to read this for you, they would have read it, well they could have read it, they may not have read it at all.
What benefit did "you" gain by paying? None. You gave your money away for something you should have done yourself.
Sure it takes way more effort and time to locate machines compared to reading this article, but it cost's you nothing, only your time and effort are spent. Your rewards far out weigh effort.
I think you have grasped my point here. But I will continue on with a stronger point of view.
Time is not an issue, everyone has some spare time to locate. Anyone who thinks or says "i have no time to locate my machines" should stay away from this industry. You sure find time to collect coins, no excuses.
Don't watch T.V. locate machines instead.
Stop playing on the computer, locate machines instead.
Once you have located all your machines yourself, that's the time for play, relaxing etc.
Locating vending machines makes hard work at first , but it's rewarding for "you"
in the long term, most of all you can do it yourself. Stop being lazy.
How long would it take to "personally" locate only one machine per day, on foot? (Not phone)
Maybe one hour, maybe two hours. You have just saved $50. - $100. bucks or more. How long does it take for you to earn $100. or $1000. one week or two?
Would you pay a so called professional love maker to make love to your sweetheart for one or two hours each day? Who would benefit most here?
In this example it would not cost you any money either, mostly for you guys. lol.
The bottom line...
Love locating everyday as much as love making and you will prosper. Then maybe you'll become such an expert at the locating game, you can charge some poor bugger a small fortune for something you know he/she could have done themselves but were simply too lazy to get out and go for it . Winners never give up.

I met with a guy who I was looking to buy his route and he spent $500 to find a site. Maybe I should not buy his business but find locations for him at a discount

I have spoken with them. They seem to have a great concept but the cost is very high. Also, I have talked with a few vendors that have purchased into the program. So far they report that they are losing money. They say the sales on the product is very slow so they are now converting the machines over to regular vending machines.

I does seem to me that you could just buy normal vending machines and stock them with healthy products without giving them so much money.

I couldn't agree with you more. I asked this guy who was selling his route about the health food craze and he mentioned if I wanted to go that route he suggests to use the existing machines and stock healthy alternatives. However, I personally would only do this in schools as they are pushing more for healthy snacks on their premises. Since there will be shorter shelf life you need to have a prime location such as schools.