Eugene Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 bottle machines are more versitile because you can vend many different shaped packages. for example you may want to vend cans but also monster energy drink or gatorade. with can machines u can vend cans and 16.9oz water and it does not vend the water very well. I have a Seaga HF3500 which is for cans however i was looking to vend water. I'm curious for more details on the issues with vending 16.9oz water bottles (ie poland spring) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 Yes you can vend 16.9 bottles the same as water.I have an account that has all 16.9 bottles,as long as the machine is not serpentine machine. John Just saw this. I have a serpentine machine. Does this mean it's a no go for vending water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANDERSONVENDING Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Just saw this. I have a serpentine machine. Does this mean it's a no go for vending water? Serpentine machines are can only.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillisNYC Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) 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. Edited December 29, 2012 by WillisNYC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reel Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 I agree with what Mission Vending has said here, you need to have a fairly healthy weekly cashflow to be able to support bottle sales due to the shorter expiry date, For me there is higher margin in bottle sales so we include bottles and energy drinks (500ml and 250ml cans) in every machine we operate. Single price drink machines are a thing of the past, however being a relatively simple machine as not a lot goes wrong with these machines from my experience. We only have a few of these machines but they have all been converted tro multi price machines and vend both bottles and cans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc vending Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 don't get me wrong, but the markup on cans is rather good. i really like to sell bottles in a full view glassfront machine. to see more selections sells more. ps. i also put cans in my machines for lower prices yhan bottle prices. make it convenient for your customers so that they can afford to buy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dapoopta Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 do you guys have issues with water bottles being too 'squishy'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 (edited) do you guys have issues with water bottles being too 'squishy'? You have to use a bottle that will stay hard when at 40 degrees in a vending machine. Store brand water bottles and some major brand bottles such as Nestle are not to be used for vending. They are too soft and when any bottle is put in a cold machine it will always get softer. Therefore you must use bottled products designed for use in vending. Coke (Dasani) and Pepsi (Aquafina) both make vendible bottles in both 16.9 and 20 oz sizes and they are identified by the bottle being hard when warm on the shelf. The hard water bottles from Coke and Pepsi are injected with nitrogen to make them hard and to keep them hard when vending. These bottles, however are not easily found and are more expensive than other vendible brands. The best bottles to use are from Nestle, but regionally named as Arrowhead, Ozarka, Zephyrhills, Poland Springs, and Deerpark. All of these brands come in the same bottles and the 16 oz size with horizontal ribs molded top to bottom in the bottle are perfect for vending. Again, do not use Nestle branded water or store brand water including Sam's Club or Costco. Edited March 10, 2013 by AZVendor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 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. The worst thing that can happen in a serpentine machine is if the thermostat goes bad and the cans freeze. Frozen cans bulge out at the top and bottom and will burst if frozen too long. Then you have frozen soda (melted soda if not lucky) to clean up and dozens of aluminum cans to extract from the racks. A real nightmare. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Vending Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Again, do not use Nestle branded water or store brand water including Sam's Club or Costco. Maybe I am just lucky, but I vend the Nestle water from my Royal machines. I've actually noticed that the Nestle bottles at Sams are slightly harder than the generic Safeway brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discount Vending Store Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Most soda machines will accommodate bottles or cans and if the machine is a multi-price machine, then you can change the prices according to the drink being sold. I agree with using cans as much as possible for the shelf life reason, but there's some drinks that don't come in cans like water, gatorade, energy drinks or juices, which are popular items and should be considered in most locations. Having an adjustable soda machine is crutial so you can vend both cans and bottles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaTurtle Vending Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 I have found that the 20 o z Zephyrhills bottles work extremely well in s can only machine. No jams or misvends yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 I have found that the 20 o z Zephyrhills bottles work extremely well in s can only machine. No jams or misvends yet. You mean like those flip tops? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaTurtle Vending Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 (edited) No. the screw caps. Other vendors in my area do the same as well. Including one of the "big guys". The guys who have the hospitals and major office complexes. i pay around $5.60 per package at Sams Edited April 19, 2013 by SeaTurtle Vending Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
executivevending Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 On a percentage basis, yes, but if you look at total $$ then bottles are better. Example: Can cost at .28, vend price at .75 = 37.3% COGS, in Texas .06 for sales tax backed out yields net profit of .41 per can Bottle cost at .68, vend price at 1.35 = 50.3% COGS, sales tax of .10 backed out yields net profit of .57 per bottle. Some locations will sell more cans than bottles and vice versa, just depends on your customers preferences. If you get multi price machines that can do bottles you can also consider offering can sodas, and a few selections with Gatorade, Water and Monster (also long expiration dates). So i've been thinking about switching to all bottles at a location. As i was looking at the profit margins sodas DO make more profit than cans BUT a column holds twice as many cans as it does bottles. For example: coke cans cost me .27 and i sell for .65 giving me a profit of .38 per can (9.12 per case profit). Coke bottles cost me .59 and sell for 1.25 giving me a profit of .66 per bottle (15.84 per case profit). But columns hold twice as many cans as they do bottles so i would make 18.24 every time the cans column was empty compared to only 15.84 every time the bottles are empty. Am i missing something? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 One way to look at soda pricing is to consider the penny profit you will make versus the percent profit. You will put more pennies in the bank with every bottle sale even though the profit margin may be lower than with cans. Cans may give you fewer pennies profit per vend, but your profit margin will be higher. Other factors to consider, as you noted, are that you won't get as many bottles in the machine as cans which could lead to sold outs that you didn't have before. A remedy to this is to remove the slowest seller(s) and double up some bottles to ensure the penny profits roll in and nothing sells out. As to wondering what you are missing, ask yourself if you will actually sell an entire column of cans to earn the $18.24, or will you sell only as many cans as the number of bottles the column will hold, earning more profit per vend on every bottle? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwi Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 (edited) So i've been thinking about switching to all bottles at a location. As i was looking at the profit margins sodas DO make more profit than cans BUT a column holds twice as many cans as it does bottles. For example: coke cans cost me .27 and i sell for .65 giving me a profit of .38 per can (9.12 per case profit). Coke bottles cost me .59 and sell for 1.25 giving me a profit of .66 per bottle (15.84 per case profit). But columns hold twice as many cans as they do bottles so i would make 18.24 every time the cans column was empty compared to only 15.84 every time the bottles are empty. Am i missing something? I agree with you that your "cost to service" is better when using cans compared to bottles because of the larger capacity the machine will hold per column will mean less visits. While this is true for a serpentine machine it is not the same when it comes to using glass fronts. A glass front will hold roughly the same amount of bottles per column as cans so if you are using a glass front you are better off selling bottles. Some companies here don't allow staff to have open drinks in their work areas for safety reasons so cans do not work. Some companies prefer cans for their staff because they are cheaper. We try to vend both bottles & cans out of our machines so we get the best of both worlds. Edited April 25, 2013 by Kiwi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mission vending Posted April 26, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted April 26, 2013 So i've been thinking about switching to all bottles at a location. As i was looking at the profit margins sodas DO make more profit than cans BUT a column holds twice as many cans as it does bottles. For example: coke cans cost me .27 and i sell for .65 giving me a profit of .38 per can (9.12 per case profit). Coke bottles cost me .59 and sell for 1.25 giving me a profit of .66 per bottle (15.84 per case profit). But columns hold twice as many cans as they do bottles so i would make 18.24 every time the cans column was empty compared to only 15.84 every time the bottles are empty. Am i missing something? Let's build the perfect soda machine: 8 selections and holds 48 cans per selection and 24 bottles if set up for bottles and it sells out every can/bottle every selection every time you service (and nobody complains ) Using your cost: 8 X 48 = 385 cans X 0.27 cost = $103.95 to fill and $250.25 in sales to sell out leaving a gross profit of $146.30 before cost-to-service. 8 X 24 = 192 bottles X 0.59 cost = $113.28 to fill and $240.00 in sales to sell out leaving gross profit of $126.72 before cost to service. HOWEVER, in my experience, after a short dip in # number of units sold after changing to bottles the unit count will be pretty much the same, so pick what ever interval you want but the bottom line is that you will service a all bottle machine about twice as much as a can machine. So if you double the line above that has bottles bottles your gross profit before cost-to-service will be $253.44 vs. $146.30 for cans Even if the number of units as a bottle machine drops 20% and stays there you get: 192 bottles to fill 2X = 384 and 80% of that = 307.2, call it 307 bottles sold. 307 X 0.59 cost = $181.13 to fill and sales of $383.75 and gross profit of $202.62 before cost-to-service. If you figure a $25.00 cost-to-service figure you net profit on cans will be $121.30 and bottles with 2 services with a 20% reduction in units sold net profit of $152.62. So yes you are working more but you are also making more. If you over service your locations then the advantage quickly goes away and admittedly finding the right balance can be very difficult. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftyvendor Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Great breakdown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nf Vending Posted August 9, 2013 Share Posted August 9, 2013 Bottles is becoming the trend but however there seems to be more profit in cans Bottles is becoming the trend but however there seems to be more profit in cans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QualitySelectionsJ Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Good topic. You can always change your prices considering the inflation. I find moving cans is more convenient and stacker machines(501-e) vend both with ample capacity. Glass front bottle machines seem to jam up more often leaving customers confused or annoyed. Every time I go to a shopping mall down here I see a bottle hung up in the Glass front machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llorivend Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 This is a great topic and a very informative thread. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 The big disadvantage with bottles is the much shorter shelf life. All other considerations are pretty much a wash. If you can move them quick and don't mind watching your expiry dates like a hawk, go bottles - more money per vend. If not, stick with cans - you should still make a nice profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendweb Posted August 16, 2013 Share Posted August 16, 2013 Use a machine that can do cans or bottles but I would sell more cans then bottles.Cans can be purchased anywhere and usely are very well priced.Bottles are a pain because some places sell 20oz some 16.9 and some you have to get the bottles from the bottler. With a machine that can do both you can set it up either way and vend what works best for your location needs and area sizes. Happy Vending Lindel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kram151 Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 Might need to get some shims to get them to vend reliably but other than that should be no problem getting them to vend. where can I get these shims and will they allow a dn276e vend 16.9 oz bottles without jamming? It will vend four or five bottles then jam. Coke and diet coke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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