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Question about Placing Vending Machines


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I'm new the business and right now I am doing a lot of research.

 

I'm wondering exactly how having accounts works.  Can I just place one drink machine at a business, or do I have to usually have a "full line".  What I mean is do I have to get full accounts, so companies that only use my vending business OR can I place machines at a place that say already has machines.     Can I place single drink machines all over, or must I place say a drink and snack machine at a place because that is what they want.  Do companies only hire one vender per location, or do places have a snack machine from one person, a drink from the other, another drink from someone else.  This was kind of hard to explain so I hope it makes sense.  Thanks for the help!

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LOL!

 

No question is crazy!

 

Will try to answer your questions.

 

1- You don't want any other vendor in the place your vending.

2- If location ask for snack and cold drinks, make sure they have enough people working there. For me is 30 or more people.

3- For cold drink only location, tire shops and such, guys or girls getting dirty and sweaty.

4- Do you have a way to move said machines, or will you hire somebody to move them for you.

5- Stay away from third party machines, coke, pepsi and such. Own your machines.

6- Snack machines, Automatic Products, Crane, National. Stay away from Rowe, Polyvend, and any china made machines. Also don't waste your time with any shallow machines, stay with deep machines, hold more product.

 

I've only been doing this going on four years and I'm still learning!

 

cajun 

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haha thank you!  I thought some people my think my question was funny lol.

 

Should I buy machines (all drink machines like I intended to do) first and then look for locations for those machines, or should I find locations and see what kind of machines they want (maybe the don't just want a drink machine, but what a drink and snack machine)?

 

What if I purchase two drink only machines and then find a location that wants snack too?  Or should I just look for locations that only want a drink machine.  I just don't know what to buy to start out.

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Buy one drink machine and get a mechanics place

Not big enough for snacks only soda an big vendors are less likely to kick you out by offering snacks because not lucrative enough for them

Get your feet wet first and learn

Also sometimes you'll get places wanting snacks only because they have a fountain machine or coke is doing it

Stay away from those snacks are more work and so you shouldn't subsidize cokes laziness

Unless you plan to take over sodas later

Or it's no commission high volume

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Thank you!  So you are saying start by being 1 (or maybe 2) drink/soda machines and look for a mechanics shop or blue collar shop?  I  really am set on getting a glassfront drink machine.  I want to start slow but I want my stuff to be up to date and modern.  I know I don't want to start with just cans.

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Thank you! So you are saying start by being 1 (or maybe 2) drink/soda machines and look for a mechanics shop or blue collar shop? I really am set on getting a glassfront drink machine. I want to start slow but I want my stuff to be up to date and modern. I know I don't want to start with just cans.

They don't do enogh sales for a glassfront

Also blue collar workers aren't interested in juice healthy or trendy stuff In Glassfronts they want coke coke and coke

Also you will have the same issues with glassfront as with one snack, namely 45 selections to fill keep track of and not let expire

I strongly recommend that you get an old can only machine and use cans due to price roi less keeping track of dates and expiration dates

Save the glassfront for you bigger locations and use them to get an edge over a competitor I. Lucrative accounts not tire shops

Also coke is still Getting traditional stack machines by the truckload so they aren't outdated

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Thank you!  What if I for sure what to purchase one glass front drink machine OR one glass front drink machine and one snack machine.  What locations would this fit?  What locations would want just a glass front drink machine, and what locations would want one glass front drink with one snack machine?

 

I know I should start off slow but I really don't want the can machine lol.

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Thank you!  What if I for sure what to purchase one glass front drink machine OR one glass front drink machine and one snack machine.  What locations would this fit?  What locations would want just a glass front drink machine, and what locations would want one glass front drink with one snack machine?

 

I know I should start off slow but I really don't want the can machine lol.

I own two glass fronts and although mine are two of the better ones (Royal 500 and Dixie 5591) I will never buy another one.  They're small in capacity, have too many moving parts and are a PITA to load compared to the standard stack style machines - not to mention that they cost twice as much.  Stick to the old basics and you'll make more money in the long run.  The robotic machines may look cool to you, but I can assure you that after watching that cup move back and forth and up and down a few dozen times, the glamour will soon wear off.

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I wanted one because I want to put some different shaped drinks in them.  For example, I really want to put those starbuck's drinks you can buy in bulk.  Are there any drink machines that are not glass front that you can put different shaped drinks in?  Thanks!

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I wanted one because I want to put some different shaped drinks in them. For example, I really want to put those starbuck's drinks you can buy in bulk. Are there any drink machines that are not glass front that you can put different shaped drinks in? Thanks!

If you profit 1 dollar in each coffee, you need to sell 700 to pay for the glassfront

Also, the good locations that warrant a glassfront, you'll lose much more if you lose them due to being not as knowledgeable

Also the good locations, like blue collar places don't want the specialty shaped drinks, tye want coke( and fruit sodas and iced tea if they are Hispanic)

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I wanted one because I want to put some different shaped drinks in them.  For example, I really want to put those starbuck's drinks you can buy in bulk.  Are there any drink machines that are not glass front that you can put different shaped drinks in?  Thanks!

The Royals work pretty well with larger style bottles and cans.  Dixies and Vendos usually need a complex mix of shims and rods to do this but can be set up to do so.  Some glass fronts may also need special shims to vend certain products so it's no slam dunk.  The Royal 500 that I own will vend virtually anything with no shims required but it only holds eight deep which is another problem with the glass fronts - they may appear to have a lot of selections but they won't hold much of anything unless you double stack products.  You see this  a lot with the bottler owned machines where an entire shelf will be dedicated to one item.  So much for all the selections.

 

Somehow I doubt you'll be selling much Starbucks in any blue collar location - think Coke, Coke and maybe more Coke.

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Thank you!  I am just so confused what I should start with I either want to start with just one drink machine at a location, or a drink and a snack machine at one location.  Do you know any examples of locations that would want just a drink, or a snack/drink?


Do you have any examples of what types of machines are located at your different account locations?  Thank you!!

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I have a Vendo 480 at a location with 80 employees. It's an older column model but it works fine for the employees and their managers. It's loaded with cans mostly (Soda and Monster) but does have the 9oz Starbucks Mocha and Gatorade as well.

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All very good advice here from experienced vendors. Personally I am a KISS type of person. Keep it simple stupid. A eight select can machine is the best and can be bought cheap. Anywhere from $400 to $800. Preferably a single price Dixie Narco. Reason being they are the easiest to repair. Parts are easy to find and support  is always available. Stay away from 79 inch vendors to hard to move. 10 well placed can vendors doing 4 cases a week will net after product costs approx $400 a week. or  $20,800 year. Not bad for a $4,000 to $8,000 investment. .Keep it to the core brands like Coke, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Mt Dew, 7-up. Keep diets to a minimum because shelf life is short. Bottler machines are easy to get replaced because they don't service the accounts like they should be. They sit empty or broke down and service techs in a lot of cases are miles and even days out for repairs.Bottlers are more focused on fountain equipment and vendors are secondary. Fountain is in many cases 4 hr response time and vendors can sit for days. National accounts like Mcdonald's, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut's etc pay for this service.

 

Keep in mind what you are going to use to deliver the product. The more things you offer the more room you need to store and the more time it takes to shop. Think about how long its going to take you to find that Starbucks under all those bottles and cans.

 

Accounts are lost from poor service mostly not from good service. So go after those bottlers. All they can say is no. 

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Alright I see what you guys are saying.  I want to make money and not waste it all on too nice of equipment.  Can anyone provide me with some good machine models that can vend both cans and bottles.  If you have a picture you can find that would be great too!  Also, does anyone know some sample idea of places that will just want a drink machine.  I know blue collar, but just wondering if you have some good sample locations in mind that seemed to work well for you (with just drink)?

 

Thank you guys for all the support it's very helpful!


Is the Vendo 480 can machine for sure able to vend Gaderade?  I looked it up and it seems to be just cans?

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Alright I see what you guys are saying. I want to make money and not waste it all on too nice of equipment. Can anyone provide me with some good machine models that can vend both cans and bottles. If you have a picture you can find that would be great too! Also, does anyone know some sample idea of places that will just want a drink machine. I know blue collar, but just wondering if you have some good sample locations in mind that seemed to work well for you (with just drink)?

Thank you guys for all the support it's very helpful!

Is the Vendo 480 can machine for sure able to vend Gaderade? I looked it up and it seems to be just cans?

For my money, I love the Royal GIII for cans and bottles in one machine.

It's big and can hold a lot of product--so you don't have to service the machine as often.

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Awesome thank you that will help a lot!

Do any of those machines offer remote monitoring?

Does anyone have a couple sample places they have a drink only machine that does well?

Awesome thank you that will help a lot!

Do any of those machines offer remote monitoring?

Does anyone have a couple sample places they have a drink only machine that does well?

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Awesome thank you that will help a lot!

Do any of those machines offer remote monitoring?

Does anyone have a couple sample places they have a drink only machine that does well?

Awesome thank you that will help a lot!

Do any of those machines offer remote monitoring?

Does anyone have a couple sample places they have a drink only machine that does well?

At this point you don't need remote monitoring

Extra cost and not needed

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Is it only used for bigger accounts? What about a credit card reader? How does that exactly work I mean do you have to get the reader registered somehow? Thanks!

Ok, so the remote monitoring uses the dex protocol and cc reader uses the Mdb protocol which is on most machine from the mid 90 s on, dex came a bit later?

Anyway cc readers we reccommend a company called usatech who specializes in vending cc readers

But at. This point KISS, get a single price can machine in a tire shop

Also cc readers only work well in high traffic places with lots of young people

Also, i recommend you read many of the back posts, a lot of these questions have been beat to death already

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I know I should start with a simple can machine at a tire shop, but I for sure am going to start with a can/drink machine.  I have a decent about of money to invest, but definitely want to use it wisely (and not lose a ton of money).  I want to start of with one good account and work up from there.  I want to invest a slight bit more in a way that will help me make a little more, but I don't know how I want to do that exactly.  I was going to try to get a one or couple locations with drink only machines.

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