Southeast Treats

Vending isn't very sexy for sure, but people never fail to astound me... early on in my business I was stocking a small account when a lady came in to tell me I needed to put healthy product into the machine. So of course I had to ask - is there a specific healthy product you want to buy from the machine? Her response: " oh no, I would NEVER buy ANYTHING from a vending machine!" Um OK, well thanks for the input......

Energy drinks in general are strong sellers for me. I don't have Red Bull in too many locations, mostly Monster and in price sensitive locations Venom. In my experience, kids in general have never had a dollar they didn't want to spend RIGHT NOW and could care less about price as long as they have the money.

Make sure you have prices set for at least one selection and enough product in that selection to depress the sold out switch (at least 2 rows usually). Check and clean the sensors in the flight deck (behind the front gate) with a slightly damp (not wet) towel. Check for jammed gates as AZ described above. Check that the changer has power. Cycle the coin return lever to clear any prior credits (should not be any after a power down, but...).

The "Deck" usually refers to the cooling unit as a whole. For vending, the compressor, fan, and cooling fins are mounted on a removable plate (or deck) with the copper lines and evaporator attached; the unit is made to be removed and replaced in the field by vending people like us with no real refrigeration skills! The evaporator fan and thermostat are separate from the deck, and most decks have a simple 120 plug that goes to the thermostat controlled outlet inside the machine... so you can plug the deck into any 120 outlet to test it apart from the thermostat.

If the machine had been working all along with no problems and then suddenly froze, it's not the setting. As above, it's probably the thermostat.

Welcome to the forum! Sorry that no one replied any sooner... are you focusing on a specific area yet (snacks and drinks, gumball machines, etc., or still feeling out the options??

Dixie Narco is good if you want to do it yourself, but have you spoken to any of your local vending services to see what they might provide? That would be no expense on your part and no worries about stocking the machine...

I get all of that - I have learned to be very careful of dates at Sam's Club, and I don't use their preordering system to make sure I can check all the dates myself. I have never been a big fan of combo packs, I think they are planned to keep the manufacturers slower products moving and the mixes are never what I want. I order a lot from Vistar now and I get a lot of selections that my Sam's does not carry. Things like Sweet Chili Doritos and Fritos Honey Twists that fly out of my machines. My Sams even stopped carrying Munchies several years ago, and they are about as evergreen as anything I carry. If you have ever taken a look at Herr's chips, the distributor pricing is good and they have a number of good varieties. I usually have 2 or 3 of their products in my menu at all times. For pastries, I had started ordering a lot from Vistar and storing them frozen, to get the most shelf life, but that was pretty expensive. I still get some specialty pastry, but buying the usual suspects at Sams again. I started putting best by dates on all my pastry about a year ago, the customers seem to like it and it forces us to pay attention to sales volume and keep the pars correct. You are spot-on about the hiring market right now, thankfully I don't have to deal with that problem! How that plays into our business and the cash/credit mix is interesting. It's just nice to see locations hiring up and employees using the machines!!!

Things change quickly .. I installed by first card readers about 6 years ago, and I did not see a noticeable cashless drop after installs then. Cashless sales would keep going up while cash remained mostly level. My theory was that customers who carried cash would continue to use cash anyway. I think now that the cashless trend in society is growing so quickly that you may have customers who were getting cash just to use your machines prior to the card readers, so the switch to cashless is something they were waiting on. Using the data to optimize the planogram and manage your menu and stales loss is huge, as you saw so soon. I am still having stales over the 0.5% that LACanteen recommends, probably well below that point with my online machines but the offline machines still generate too many.

The initial data entry seems to go on forever, but well worth it! Telemetry really changes the vending operation in ways you have to experience. Give those slow locations some time to warm up to the card reader; I have had locations start at over 50% cashless but others that took months to accept and use the card readers. Only once have I removed a card reader for lack of use; and that was on a machine that I could not get DEX from, so it was a total waste without card use.

Check this thread:

On the 4 in 1 bezel ... yes it will work with USAT and will take contactless cards in addition to swiped cards; it will need a power supply and adaptor (about $20 from the USAT online store). ParLevel telemeters will NOT work with the MEI bezel last time I checked. Nayax will work for swiped cards only, no contactless with nayax. I would not add the bill recycler; I have tried them and not found much customer use of them vs added performance issues. I set my validators to take 5's and where I get a lot of those I add changers with dollar coin tubes. Here is a link to a seller with validators and swipes (no recycler) https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-MARS-MEI-CPI-VN-27P2-U5-BILL-ACCEPTOR-DEBIT-CREDIT-CARD-VALIDATOR-24V-MDB/123512090324?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D90cd5d13cf074d70b1b9712c983f1d60%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D332668016179%26itm%3D123512090324&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A2960ec60-07df-11e9-a99a-74dbd180b863|parentrq%3Ae2d802021670ab4d9b00e945fff7d99c|iid%3A1

Candy should be $1 already, I am probably going to raise all mine to 1.25 in the new year. C stores are already at 1.39 to 1.49 plus tax. Looks like your chips are at .50, that is too low as well in my opinion. Really think about phasing in some price increases, you deserve to make a profit for your labor and investment!

I am thinking that to have the "walk out" experience (no checkout) that they are developing AI systems to link everyone inside to a form of payment tendered for admittance, and that shoplifting will be a lot more difficult with that than with micromarket checkstands. Yes, there are always a small percentage who will find a way to steal if they can, but if they can keep them to a minimum that part will be fine. The edge we will continue to have in the business world is that very few businesses will give up 500 sq ft of valuable floor space to host this kind of market. The point of the vending times article was that our current micromarket and machine providers need to step up their game to keep pace with new tech..... and I agree.

If the shape you refer to is the rotor at the bottom of the column, it turns in stages to dispense the product; the plastic dial on the front of each motor can be set to determine how many stops in each revolution. if product is placed 2 per row then 2 stops, etc. If the same column vends every time you insert money it may be a stuck selection switch. If you can find the model number on the data plate that will help get more info for you. DN made machines for decades so there are some variations even within model numbers. Take a few photos of the machine, including the changer, validator if it has one, control board, and the motors. Post those here and someone can answer your questions.