Looking for professional advice

[cobylove406]

Here's the breakdown of my small vending business and curious as to what you guys think I should do.

Back in July 2015 I purchased 2 vending machines, a Rowe 5900 and I believe the other one may be a snack attack(same size as the Rowe 5900. I purchased both for $1500 which included all inventory.

One is located at a restaurant where they have a few arcade games and my vending machine for snacks. The previous owner only charged $1 for everything, which is hard to turn a profit. But the kicker is that the location doesnt want a commission for the machine being there. They only request that it stays full and lit. I currently only net around $200-300 a month there.

My second machine is at a bar and it vends packs of cigarettes. Crazy I know, but in Montana its legal. The bar also doesn't charge commission for the machine, but always complain about how empty the machine is. I am legally only allowed to vend cigarettes and I cant fill all 40 or so selections with cigarettes. I currently fill about 10. I also net around $300 or more a month here.

My questions are how should I go about expanding? I live in a town of about 5,000 people with a small university as well. I'm kind of spoiled by not paying commissions and if I expand I dont want word to get out to the other businesses a they start charging commissions. Second question, where can one buy bulk/cheaper snacks? Im currently just buying from Costco but not seeing much profit as I could. Or should I just up the prices at my snack machine? Lastly does any know of any smaller machines for cigarettes out there? And would it be a good idea to get a credit card reader for the cigarette machine?

Sorry for the long post I just stumbled across this group yesterday. Thanks for your time.

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[joshnosh]

A credit card reader for big ticket items like cigarettes is a must. Also on college campuses, nobody under 30 carries cash anymore. You're not going to do much better than Costco with your low volume of purchases.  If you have a good location, a commission shouldn't be a problem.