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TKK

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Two big bids in my area.

School district 55 locations. 49 of them.being schools. They want 160 machines. Smart snack compliant. Wpuld anyone jump on this? How the hell do u get 160 machines lol

 

State about 15 locations border patrol and post offices. Comissions show $5200 gross sales a month, 36 machines. Some places show 500 a month, 1200 a month, and a bunch 50 to 100 a month...

 

Has anyone bid on stuff.like this and regret it? Maybe if they let you pick the top.producers but they seem stressful

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Do you have the money to buy that many snack machines all at once?  If not, skip the big one.  As for the smaller one, why is it not going to a Randolph-Shepard (blind services) vendor?  Those federal facilities should be required to give them priority.  If Blind Services themselves are bidding it out because they don't have enough vendors, read the deal carefully.  If they find a qualified vendor who wants it, you will be out... the good news is they may be providing all the equipment and you just have to service it, but under their very strict rules. 

If you want to attack the big bid, do your research into the product requirements and make sure you have a source for the items you need.  Pay close attention to the length of the contract to make sure you will be there long enough to pay off the equipment.  Does the bid include drinks or only for snacks?  Do you have a relationship with Coke or Pepsi that would allow you to get the drink machines from them?  You might even consider Pepsi's "Hello Goodness" program, but that will limit your snack selections even further...

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I would put a bid on what I'm willing to do. If I get rejected,  oh well.  If I get what I want, great.

There might be a chance that no one bids on it and they are forced to separate them.

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13 minutes ago, AngryChris said:

I would put a bid on what I'm willing to do. If I get rejected,  oh well.  If I get what I want, great.

There might be a chance that no one bids on it and they are forced to separate them.

True that.  If they have multiple bids then alternate proposals may just get tossed, but you never know until you try.

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I wouldn't be surprised if no one bids on it as Chris said.  I posted on another topic about a week ago about a somewhat similar situation.  

Local school district has had an open bid for years (5-10 years that we know of) and no one has bid on it.  We have tried to go and just get a handful of the schools to start and then go from there but they have shot it down each summer.  Big thing is can you get your hands on that many machines at once.  Heck, we only have about a 100 out on route as I speak so I know I couldn't.  Also, the labor to execute that many machine placements would be a huge burden that my company couldn't accomplish at this point in time.  The restrictions on what you can put in schools also is a headache that makes the bid a little less sexy imo.  

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I think your best bet is to talk to one of two sources -- a friendly local vendor who knows how this work OR a county/city office that oversees vending (sales tax, health standards for vending, etc...).  Any of those sources should be able to guide you in the right direction.  Every district is different so I cannot answer for your local area, but municipalities often use an existing list of known vendors and send letters out when a district is going up for bid.  If you aren't on that list, you need to ask to be put on.  That may not be the case in your area but that's how it is here.  Also, at least here, if you don't put a bid on the accounts, they might take you off the list even if your bid is terrible.

As for these schools... if it weren't for the health regulations, I would probably go after more schools (at least for snack machines).  The problem we had here locally was that the local city AND county sort of combined with the local airport to produce what they thought was some sort of "mega district" for vendors to bid on.  Their thought process was that they wanted newer machines, credit card technology, AND a hefty commission (10% gross sales I think), but bidding out the city buildings, county buildings, AND the airport would tempt all of the vendors to bid on it so that they could get their best deal.  What they did not consider was that the city AND county buildings were already in a contract with coke for soda, so the vendor was getting full-line at the airport but ONLY snacks for the city and county buildings.  In doing so, only a few vendors bid on it (maybe 3 actual legitimate bids) while a few other vendors only bid on select buildings and/or the airport.

I laughed at the entire process and didn't even put a bid down.  I lost two accounts (both had a single snack machine) and they generated $4,000/year combined.  The thing is, the city (who oversaw the bidding process) wanted to regulate pricing too.  To my knowledge, the vendor who came in immediately upped the price to 10-20% higher than what I had in both locations.  Knowing how these locations were, raising the prices would cause a lot of people who stop buying.  The company that came in brought good used machines that were probably no more than 5 years old, but I don't think they installed card readers or did most of what they were supposed to do, but that's probably because their bid didn't offer to actually install readers everywhere.

The point is that you can win these bids if you are willing to play hard ball.. and you can work the deal more in your favor if you have the equipment and the selling points to get in there, but you could still end up with just a boat load of accounts that don't actually do that great.  Let's face it, when you mix a bunch of turds with a couple gems, you may still end up with a very crappy situation.

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So i went to a pre bid meeting. It was only me and the local.big vendors who are part of canteen and have atleast 1000 machines out. We asked questions. Good thing is now as long as the machines meet smart snacks then u can sell all day everyday. So sales should be very well. I realized w my middle school i do about 2500 and thats only from 2pm and up. Id say 800 drinks the rest snacks. Another good thing is theyd award to multiple vendors if they need to. They said they wanna know what we bring to the table. Someone can take the full thing 160 machines, or someone may get all the snack. Or say someone has better equipment and comission but can only do half the accounts theyd go with that.i know coke and pepsi are going to want this one and will probably offer 30% or so comission. My buddy refered me to the dudes who sell usi equipment new and refurbed and they said thats not a problem that they can also finance. I need to look into the smart snacks first, even if i got the snacks only i think id be good because i can offer good newer equipment with wireless payments and not have to worry about zero calorie drinks and what not. Could get a box truck.just doing the snack machines. 

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