phroot Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 i work on the administration of a small private high school (about 60 kids) in a small part of queens in NYC called far rockaway. We are in a very small building we rent at the moment, and our budget is very (VERY) tight. We would like to put in a combo vending machine. A few years ago i helped someone find one on craigslist, and we found great deals! craigs ain't what it used to be, and now it's flooded with dealers trying to use it as a platform for marketing. i did not see anything particularly appealing. any help/advice? ty all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 I don't know how tight your budget is, but you might start with these guys, they can ship to you: http://www.amequipmentsales.com/refurbcombomachines.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorris1953 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 OCH $3200 for a used AMS? You can get a new one for a $1000 more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacanteen Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 With a "very tight" budget, just get a bottler to bring you a 3rd party drink machine and forget about the snacks. A vending machine isn't going to solve a budget issue with 60 students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 i work on the administration of a small private high school (about 60 kids) in a small part of queens in NYC called far rockaway. We are in a very small building we rent at the moment, and our budget is very (VERY) tight. We would like to put in a combo vending machine. A few years ago i helped someone find one on craigslist, and we found great deals! craigs ain't what it used to be, and now it's flooded with dealers trying to use it as a platform for marketing. i did not see anything particularly appealing. any help/advice? ty all! Combo machines, for as worthless as they are for most of us Full Line Vendors, always cost more. If you could squeeze out a little more space, then you could get a bottler owned machine (free) and stick a small snack machine next to it. You'll find much lower pricing on a snack machine as opposed to a combo, The other downside is that most of the combos you'll find on Craigslist will be made in China (which in the case of vending machines is a very bad thing) You'll find very few AP, Crane of AMS combos for less than $2,000 and due to their lack of space, it will take you years to pay for the machine. The other alternative would be to just call around to local vending companies and see what they could offer. While you won't see any profit, at least you don't have to deal with it - in particular stocking a solo combo machine will be a daunting task at best or even a snack machine for that matter as you'll end up with a lot of stales which could kill any potential profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phroot Posted August 28, 2016 Author Share Posted August 28, 2016 Why is a combo machine more likely to result in stales? Ty for all the advice btw. Keep it coming lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Why is a combo machine more likely to result in stales? Ty for all the advice btw. Keep it coming lol. Most of us have multiple snack machines, so when we buy case lots of chips (which have a two month shelf life) we can spread our inventory out across multiple machines. With just one snack machine, be it a combo or a regular snack machine, you'll need to move a lot of inventory through there to avoid having a lot of expired product still sitting in the case, Running one machine by yourself is going to be an uphill battle which is why I recommend that you look for an outside vendor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Here is this one...https://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/bfs/5712766986.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteRoom Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Here is this one...https://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/bfs/5712766986.html This is what I was going to suggest. These machines can be found for a reasonable price fairly often, and the chiller often just needs a recharge as they tend to sit around unused for long periods. I recently picked one up fairly cheap, recharged the chiller and repaired a few switches and it was good. Worked for an account with very specific needs. This is the best answer for what you say you are looking for. However, I have to agree with Moondog. Given the size of the customer base and the prospect of problems with stale product on the snack side, I don't think you are looking at a significant profit. What is the motivation to have a snack and soda machine? Is it just to provide some snacks and drinks to the students and faculty without much thought to profit? Or are you trying to make some cash for the school? Vending is NOT your core competency, do you really want to be dealing with vending issues? An outside vendor will take care of problems, keep stale product out of the machine and generally let you focus on your job. I'm willing to let others make more educated guesses on the potential profit you would be giving up (I don't have an account similar to this), but I'd bet it would be under $1,000 a year, maybe well under. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacanteen Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 You have to sell a lot of bags of chips to pay for 1 bill acceptor repair when it happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Houghton Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 While Kijijj or Cragslist do have dealers there are still small route owners who are selling a machine or two, you just have to spend some time looking and may have to expand your search area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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