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Slow Season


BaneTrain

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After servicing a few locations including my best location, I am starting to realize I am in a slow season for bulk vending, especially candy. My question is, does your slow season last all school year or does it pick up in the spring? Do you do anything to pick up business even if it's just for a month or two?

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I'm still new myself... But I learned a trick from Frito Lay when i worked for them they try to make old new again with tempory flavors to get people noticing their product and trying new thing. These "new limited time flavors" bring product awareness then they remove it then go back to standard product doritos cheetoes etc...) They timed it during slow months. In my bulk my standard product is peanut m and m, skittles, and gumball. I rotate balls and 1in in place of a slow item that month and try to create my own supply and demand. So when it comes back its new again and I get a temporary boost both when balls and 1in are initially installed and I get another tempory boost when I bring back old reliable product.(if I keep same product people get used to it and don't notice) I guess the same strategy could be used with another reliable bulk candy instead of a ball or toy(haven't tried it but don't see why it wouldn't work.) I use toys and balls because they don't go bad. So far that's worked good for me in my slow locations.

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That's a good idea Kevin. I never actually realized that's why Frito Lay came out with the special flavors. My main 3 are 1 inch gumballs, skittles and bouncy balls. It's not at just one location but at several. I could do it but I feel like I would need extra globes with gumball/candy assemblies to make the switching out easier. This would allow me not to have to empty existing candy and then fill it with new. 

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My slow season (for bulk at least) starts in earnest in October. Things usually pick up briefly for a week or two before Christmas, but then it's slow again until may for most items. As Candy Kevin said, rotating things out this time of year is about the only thing you can do to "boost" sales when the customer base just isn't there like it is in the summer. For caps it's easy as you just dump and swap- even just moving the heads around on a rack to mix up the order would help a little in my experience. Display cards too- I've accumulated a good-sized collection of "Treasure Chest" and junk mix cards, and you just swap them out at those machines when you service- so they migrate around. Same general product idea, but the cards are always changing, giving the perception of new.

 

Good luck!

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Thanks Performa! I think a change I'll make is switch out the regular Dubble Bubble gumballs for the very cherry filled ones and after 2-3 months, switch it back!

 

I've had great luck with that one, the Apple Cinnamon, and the Root Beer, oddly enough. The nice thing about DB is that when you need to switch back, you just wait for it to get lower, dump the plain DB in, and mix it up. Rotating doesn't get easier than that! ^_^

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