soco

Another wise person on this Board suggested to me that offering a $25 Am Ex gift card was a useful referral incentive. I stocked break room freezers at some of my best accounts with froz fruit bars one day this past August, and the guys loved 'em. I've just completed dropping trays of donuts/muffins at all of my accounts as an annual thank you. Very inexpensive. All of my machines have a block of post-it's on them mounted on a magnetic strip so a/c's can "converse" with me. I do "specials" every once in awhile if I have a product expiring the next week. I have a notebook with me and jot down each person's name I meet @ an a/c so I can greet them if I see them again I leave a petty cash bag with the a/c manager and check on it every so often. These are all 75 person or less accounts, so I honestly can't say what kinds of PR/CS is required for larger ones.

Mission-Thanks for clarifying your thoughts for me, and having the good grace not to see this as a negative question.

Mission, I'm not sure I understand what it is you are saying about healthier snack and beverage choices in vending. I believe I have read that you are modifying some of your accounts with healthier snack and drink choices because you are required to, but then you start a thread like this one which seems as if you are against the trend. Can you clarify? Are you ?!

"Any explanation of the root causes of the current obesity epidemic must account for its sudden appearance. Six million American adults are now morbidly obese (BMI 40+), almost twice as high as 1980 severe obesity rates, while another 9.6 million have a BMI of 35-40. The percentage of overweight children 6-11 has nearly doubled since the early 1980's." (Source: US Census 2000; NHANES III data estimates). and The Caloric Balance Equation Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance. This involves eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity. Body weight is the result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture, and socioeconomic status. Behavior and environment play a large role causing people to be overweight and obese. These are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment actions. Adapted from U.S. Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity, 2001

BTW, my buddy made me a couple of wooden frames with hinged plexi lids (keep the mice out) based on the dims of the cardboard tray that "Munchies" come in. I partition the tray with a Welch's fruit snack box (has 3 sections) in which I put all the candy, granola bars etc. and then the rest of the tray is snacks etc. I use a small cardboard box for $. The 2 accounts these are in love them and don't rip me off. Cost almost nothing, but looks nice.

Why not an honor box if you can't get anything else short-term? Seems like rescue squads are trustworthy types...

You're welcome James, my location doesn't have a lot of vend-able items, but it solves my 20 oz/gatorade needs

Nobody's mentioned Restaurant Depot so I will. I used to deal with each bottler, but I can get most 20 oz. selections at RD. Also, they have gatorade and Vit water in single flavor 24 cases, unlike Sam's.

Every once in awhile I spend a few hours driving around the areas I'm interested in and writing down names of companies that look like good prospects. I then go home, create a flyer on the computer, look up those companies addresses on the internet and mail the flyer. I've had a reasonable response rate, like 1 out of 30, and have converted several to accounts. I also stop by and ask to speak with managers, leave my card, offer to drop off a proposal for vending, etc. Unlike mxer I like to have a few marketing materials to hand over when I "ccld call", whether it's a postcard I used as a mailer previously, or a left over flyer, etc. You have to be prepared for rejection... it's not personal. When you get a new account by yourself tho' you feel like a million bucks! BTW, my $0.02 is don't spend time on a brochure when a one page flyer works fine.

You can also promote your responsiveness to any changes/repairs required by this client vs. a corporate bottler who may or may not be responsive depending on how big the account is. I converted an a/c in my favor once by offering 24/7 responsiveness even though they've never asked me for it.

Sure Mission, you're at a different success level then I am so permanent tech solutions can make sense. Us small fry need to watch the $.02!..BTW, my blue collar locations all ignored the chocolate zingers I put in for the last 3 weeks and opted for granola bars, welch's fruit snacks, p-butter crackers and sunflower seeds... I think there's a quiet change taking place... Imus and his constant reference to Food, Inc. is another interesting indicator.

However in MA an LLC costs $500 to file and $500 a year to report... seems to me copying a few pages and posting them on a machine is a lot easier then writing those checks...

I took an afternoon, scanned the nutritional info into the computer, cut/pasted and printed out the results onto a few sheets, front and back. Got magnetic clips from Michael's and posted the pages on the side of my machines if anyone asks/looks. Will update them as the need arises. I read labels now so I assume more patrons do too, however if they start thinking about what they are eating I fear for my sales, so I've tried to limit the number of real junk food items I offer.

The majority of my bev machines are can +1 column of bottled water and I have yet to have a patron come up to me and ask why I don't have 20 oz. instead. Doesn't mean I don't have 20 oz. machines. Come to think of it patrons of my 20 oz machines don't demand cans either... I guess my comments cancel each other out

As I've said before, I do OCS 3rd party with Poland Springs. They provide the Bunn or Thermos based coffee brewer for a modest monthly rental which I mark up and charge the client. Ditto coffee supplies. But I also source coffee supplies via Sam's etc. Don't think it matters whether you have a small vending route or not Spydre, just whether you are interested in "diversifying". Going through Poland Springs is pretty effortless, especially as I can up-sell water too as their prices are competitive.