mission vending

That is the best option, the minimum in my area is 10 cases and they will deliver to any commercial address including storage units.

I have said it before, first we have to agree on the definition of "healthy vending". Typically the biz-op version is the organic and natural stuff, which I tried for about 2 years when I bought 5 yonatural branded machines from a guy here locally. He paid 55K for the 5 AMS combo machines, I paid 5K for them. He lost his golpher on the deal, I made money at it. Why? The price of the equipment. My experience with the locations was varied but I did have have one location that did do 800-1000 a month consistently, even though it was next to a "regular" snack and soda setup it still required 2X a week service. My prices were significantly higher too. Why did I do that much revenue? Well with traffic numbering 5K plus a month you can find enough people that are willing to pay a premium for a niche product and that is what healthy vending is a niche, albeit a growing one but still a niche. So yes, you can make that kind of money but the locations that will are the exception rather than the rule. I will add that I don't believe that the references are shills but you still need to check them out thoroughly to make sure. The vending industry, because of its cash nature, tends to attract some whose level of integrity is, shall we say, less than stellar and the penalties are pretty severe for those that engage in that sort of behavior, but you can never be too careful in checking out who you are dealing with, especially with your hard earned money.

It's good to hear some feedback from someone that operates one. I tink that sometimes us long time vendors kind of put ourselves into a box and don't look beyond the tried and true........sometimes for good reason(think Antares). Can you post of some detailed picks of the guts of the soda part? I'd be interested to see how they handle vending odd shapes.

I'll happily take all the credit that you will bestow, but I have to admit that Steve did all the work, I just asked him to do it for us.

As requested we now have a OCS section. We have moved coffee related threads over here and this will be the place for new ocs related conversations. If you happen to run across any other coffee threads please let one of the mods know via pm with a link so it can be moved here. That was a lot of work, anyone know where I can get a good cup of joe?

As has already been mentioned, take the time to read read and read and many of your questions will be answered and then even more questions will come to you. Feel free to join the conversations. See you around the boards.

Glad to have you and welcome to TVF!!

That standard does not apply when talking about Genesis or Antares machines....

Glad to have you aboard, would love to hear updates as you make the changes to your business.

There are a number of really great guys here with decades and decades of experiences that are more than willing to help and offer advice, its up to you to take advantage of that.

I too would be concerned about a company that has been in business only a year, however, I think these guys have been around longer than that..... Here is a link to a conversation in which they were mentioned and it has a link to a older conversation about Fresh-O-Matic. Fresh-O-Matic is mentioned in post #289 and the link is in post #292. I would encourage you to read the entire thread.....as the business model seems to be very similar..... http://vendiscuss.net/index.php?/topic/11862-saeco-sg-200-operators/page-15 The bottom line is that you can find similar machines that have the same capabilities and buy them direct from a distributor for half, or even less if bought in quantities, and do it yourself. If you want to be lazy and pay the additional premium being charged for the convienience of having somebody hold your hand...... well my take on it is that if you need to be spoonfed a business then you will joining the very high percentage of business startups that fail. Remember that historically there is a reason that something like 80% (I'm not sure of the exact number at the moment) of all startups fail...... Having been in vending now since 1995 I've seen many folks come and go and most don't make it for a couple of reasons: 1. They overspend buying equipment and the weight of all that capital being sucked into equipment eventually pulls the business down. 2. They don't realize just how hard the work is, even a coffee route will require many hours of behind the scenes effort to keep the machines clean and working properly, doing the paperwork, sales and service calls, etc. A final comment..... Like any service industry, no matter how good you are at your job, sooner or later you will lose every account that you have, new manager/owner, business closes or moves, new competition or you just screw up. Once these guys have fulfilled their committment to you, what are your plans to get new business?

Welcome Nick, glad to have you aboard.

Sounds like you've had a few tribulations, glad to hear you are still standing and looking forward to your update when you get a chance.