WillisNYC

I handle all my ops on a massive excel spreadsheet because I can't find any software useful or cheap enough for a two route operation.

Most older 'can' machines that are not serpentines allow you to vend 16.9 oz, but not 20 oz bottles. The serpentines, however, have no way to adjust the widths of their vending columns and accept cans only. Even older Dixie Narcos allow you to vend 16.9 oz bottles out of their 'can' machines. As Mission said, you would be best served getting newer equipment that vends both cans and bottles. This way you can adjust your offerings at a location based on customer feedback. However, if you place a can only machine and they want 20 oz bottles, you will have to replace the machine in order to vend the 20oz they request. Far easier to adjust shims and progamming of a newer machine to switch between cans and bottles or vice versa. On a side note, I have a few serpentine machines that I bought on location for cheap and they work well. But God forbid if you ever get a can stuck in a back column of a USI serpentine like I did! I had to remove the cans from the column and the one in front of it. At least 20 minutes of struggle because my forearms don't fit in the serpentines. Yes I vended out the bottom of the column! Then I struggled for 30 minutes poking and prodding the stuck can with a long wrench and screwdriver...finally the damn thing went down the column. One of my most frustrating incidents in vending.

Good luck with your new venture! I am young enough in this business to still remember the 'thrill' of opening up my first vending machine too! I still get that thrill the first time I open up a new account and whenever I see a bill casing that is 'full'. I hope the 'thrill' never ends. Did you buy your soda machines or are you doing 3rd party? What types are you placing? Just curious. I love the old AP 6600 and 7600 machines. Very reliable for me so far and relatively easy to program and use. A 7600 is probably too big for the location that only has 20 employees. I made that mistake early in my vending career and rectified it by replacing the 7600 with a 6600 and moving the 7600 to my next 'big' location.

That county is out of its golphering mind! Some other fool can have that county account!

This is just another example of the Obama 'nanny' state in action. As if I don't have enough paperwork to do in this business, has frigging calorie counting wife has to make us all pay for her own silly indulgence. I for one will be pulling the lever for all GOPers in my area come November 2nd and it can't come soon enough. I pray I get a Congressman who will listen to my concerns and actually try to repeal Obamacare and this foolish mandate with it! My current Congressman was brave enough to boast that he tried to get a more 'socialist' version of health care passed, but this was the best he could do! This guy (Rush Holt) and a zillion others like him need to be swept out of office.

Sent my comments and I intend to complain VEHEMENTLY on November 2nd and every town hall meeting I have in my area until this ludicrous law is repealed. (Health care in general and this part of it in particular.)

Service stations and small warehouses although the warehouse may likely ask for a snack as well. One of my early stops was a warehouse that only has a soda machine there still. They are small enough that they know better than to ask for a snack machine.

All my outside locations cept one sell 20oz sodas for $1.50. The other sells them for $1.75. Used to have one at $1.25 but I finally got him to $1.50 too.

I have one six story hotel with about 300 rooms. The snack machine on the first floor does about $150/wk which is half of what you need to hit your goal. My soda machine on the first floor does about the same amount of business. I also have soda machines on the other 5 floors of the hotel, but no snack machines. I pay 20% of gross on the snacks I have there. My point is that those numbers are possible in a hotel location, but you need a comparable number of rooms at a reasonably busy hotel. In this economy, all hotels are not busy, so your results may not be the same. I have 25% of net contracts for some other locations. In those, I divide the gross by half to get my net and then divide that number by four in order to get to 25% of net. This works out to 12 1/2% of gross. Thus you need to multiply the $300 figure by 8 to $2400 monthly. That is a SERIOUS amount of business that would require refilling the machines 2-3 times per week. You should have no problem getting rid of 'stales' since the machine will sell out entirely a couple times a week unless you place a truly unpopular item in there! Also for reference, I sell LSS chips for $1 here, small chips 75c, cakes $1 and all cookies and chocolate for $1. Good luck with this location and I am truly happy for you. (I got one of my early locations in a similar manner and have learned it is just a matter of happening to walk in at the right moment. Won't EVER happen if you are not trying to make it happen, but sometimes....)

The big gate comes on the bigger truck. I seem to remember that the smaller one is 36 inches wide and the bigger one is 48. I am sure the bigger one had to be folded up in two pieces when stored, not so the smaller one. Most places I called had both sizes and asked which one I wanted.

I have 18 outside service stations in New Jersey that I run. The 'poor' ones do $30/week in winter and $60 in summer. I have 4 of those. The good ones do $200-250/week in summer and I have 3 of those. The rest fall in the middle and average $50/wk in winter and $100 in summer. In the past year I have had 4 machines vandalized in 2 locations that only have 20 hour per day coverage. Each location is in 'good' neighborhoods with lighting, etc after dark by the station. Each machine had a sledgehammer blow that knocked out the dba and the thieves reached inside to take the bills. Repair costs were around $100 per machine. I hope this helps.

All the trucks I have rented (from Avis, Penske and Hertz) have wooden boards running along the walls that can have a rope or tie ran behind the board. Metal support rods for the boards running up the walls usually have holes to hook things into as well. Just look at your truck before you rent it. Also make sure you get the truck with the big lift gate. You can make the small lift gate truck work, but it is DANGEROUS as hell. (Think tipping machine falling from four to five feet off the ground. I used the small lift gate once and every machine FELT like it was going to tip. Since then I only rent the large lift gates and feel much safer.

Learning to manage your 'dated' inventory is a skill that you need to learn as you grow. One of your biggest profit killers is allowing dated drinks or snacks to go bad. I pull product that is getting close to its date from slow locations and put it in faster selling locations. In winter, when sales are slower, I cut inventory in the machine to half a case or a third for all diets. Even regular sodas inventory gets pulled down to half a case in many of my machines to prevent product from getting dated.

Plaintain chips from ARA (Vistar sells em) do well in all my Hispanic locations, as well as the aforementioned Pork Rinds which come in HOT as well as regular flavors! I run 3 rows of Pound cake in one of my Hispanic locations, plain, chocolate chip and marble as well as a row of cornbread. They go like 'hotcakes' too.

I use ropes, less expensive than the tie downs. However you need to make some effort to make sure the machines are secured properly with proper knots. The thought of fallen vending machines gives me nightmares on my moves.