1) Stay away from imported machines like Seaga - far far away. 2) Combos don't make a lot of money in general. For a tattoo shop I would probably suggest a drink machine (Dixie Narco, Royal, or a newer Vendo) stocked with cans. Cans have a long shelf life (other than diet drinks) and you can get a good margin. 3) Snacks usually require that you have multiple machines so that you can maintain a good selection without excessive stales. Having to throw away product you have paid for cuts deep into the profits. 4) If you must pay a commission to a location, adjust your retail prices to cover the added cost. For a small location like a tattoo shop I would not offer more than 5% of sales (so 5 cents on a $1 can for example). Most small locations like that don't warrant servicing if you have to pay to be there. 5) Look for machines that are credit card capable, even if you are not ready to add cards right now. Makes it easier to upgrade or sell later. Good luck!

You don't say where you are, but I am guessing outside the US since you are using liters. Something that size would probably need to be dispensed from a locker versus a normal vending machine. Those are not as common but can be found. If you are looking for a "bring your own bottle" type of machine, there are several companies in the US making water and water/ice combo machines, for example: http://www.watervending.com/

OR https://www.cranems.co.uk/

https://www.cranems.com/parts-support

I get all my LSS from Vistar, sams only seems to have variety packs.

About the mis-vends, can you recreate the issue? And are these single or double columns? Cans or bottles? I have seen that problem with double can columns, possibly from a warped rotor. I have quick fixed those by removing one of the plastic shims on the problem side. There is probably a better fix I am not aware of.

I had been getting the VanHoulton's from vistar for .69 and selling for 1.25. Not a great seller, a lot of people didn't really like the taste. If I reorder I would go up to 1.50.

Who is your cashless service provider? Also, this forum is bulk operators, try reposting on the food and beverage forum, you will get a lot more responses...

Harry, you are working hard to make your point. I'm not sure that USAT, Apple Pay, et al, are just going to let the tech and all that business pass them by, but stranger things have happened I suppose. I do have a question regarding your telemeters being used with Crane 4 in 1 bezel readers. Your older units as I recall would work with the bezel only as card swipe, not contactless. Is that still the case, or has your company engineered a fix? Or do you have a bezel option? There are times when adding a separate card reader can make a machine non-ADA compliant as the card reader is mounted above the vertical reach limit (i.e. BevMax).

creeping back, probably up to about 50%. Expecting to break even for the year overall. Still running behind on keeping accounts serviced so that doesn't help, lost my part timer about April and just now ready to hire his replacement. Should have a major account come back on line in January, so some brights spots on the horizon. How about you??

well share the answer - if you dare!!

Are your pressing the # enter key after entering each price?

I use and am a big fan of ParLevel https://www.parlevelsystems.com/ A lot depends on the size of your business and how much tech you are using already. Also, a vending management program is not really an accounting program. I use Quickbooks Online for accounting. Once I reconcile and consolidate collections in parlevel I enter the sales totals in QB for accounting. PL covers sales data, planograms, inventory managemant, etc...

Don't reset your board! You will just switch to whatever the board default item price is - could be anything. Found this manual in a prior post, hope it helps: http://www.autovending.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/VM345-User-Guide.pdf

I guess this has been out for over a year but this is the first I can recall seeing it. Lighting ballasts on older (not LED) bev max units may have a bad ballast, Crane will replace it for free on owned or bottler machines if you do the request form... https://mycranems.com/sites/default/files/2020-11/BevMax-Machines_Product-Notice-from-CMS_0.pdf