Bocephus Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 There is a guy who has an AP 6600 snack machine at what should be a great location. He is grossing $275 a month which sounds kind of low to me. With that kind of gross what should you expect his profit to be every month? I know next to nothing about snack machines so was hoping I could find some answers here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Typically, I see about a 125% profit margin....so if he is grossing $275/month...I would expect a profit of $150/month.....now that is ONLY on the cost of goods. Does not take into account labor, gas etc. so.... Cost of goods $125.00 Profit of $150.00 Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Thanks, that is about what he quotes me also. It is in a break room at a mall. Sounds like a good location to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Typically, I see about a 125% profit margin....so if he is grossing $275/month...I would expect a profit of $150/month.....now that is ONLY on the cost of goods. Does not take into account labor, gas etc. so.... Cost of goods $125.00 Profit of $150.00 Travis You've got really good pricing if those are your numbers, good job!! The industry norm is closer to a 50/50 split between COGS and gross profit. That could vary significantly depending on the pricing that the seller is operating with. Find out and report back as to what his pricing is and we can give you a better answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 My price margin is pretty good. Candy bars is right at 50/50. Chips I buy by the case at 38 cents a bag and sell for $1. So chips REALLY increase my profit margin. Soda's typically cost me 28 cents and I sell for 85 cents each..... Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Am gonna go check it out tomorrow. He wants $1200 for the machine and the location. Said he grosses about $275 a month and his profit is half that. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. No issues with the machine, has had it there for four years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Will want to also know if: He is paying any commission to the location, and does the purchase price come with the food and money in the machine? A good rule of thumb is to have a ROI of about 10-12 months. Shorter is always better, but you can only do so much. Also, some will tell you that a location/machine purchase is ONLY worth the amount of the machine unless you have a contract in place that would ensure you are in that location at least until you have broke even. Consider this....if you purchase the machine for $1200 and you are asked to remove the machine after 2 months....are you still ok because the value of the machine itself was worth the purchase? Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Sounds like a good deal to me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 If his numbers are for real, it's a good deal for the location. The AP 6600 is a pretty decent machine as it is but you can upgrade it quite a bit too so that's a good thing. I wouldn't upgrade it if it were only doing $275/month though. Also, I wouldn't say $275/month is low for that machine. That's about $50/week which is pretty decent if you ask me. A soda machine in there would probably do 80-100/week in there making the account a $130-$150/week account. I don't think that's low!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 He is charging 65 cents for chips and 90 cents for all other items. it is in a break room at a Barnes & Noble. Am assuming about 30-40 employees all told. Am a little skeptical about the gross but I think it is a pretty good deal for the machine. Seems to me he should be grossing more at those prices. On the bright side, I am picking up my Dr. Pepper machine tomorrow and they are going to need a new machine at this location also so looks like it is my lucky day. There is no commission paid here. If everything goes well I will have upgraded to full line vending by the middle of next week. BTW, anyone know where I can pick up a manual for the AP 6600 machine? Ebay or the manufacturer the best resource? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendors Tech Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Here is a link to a website with the manual: http://healthy4uvending.com/Manuals.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 Just moved the machine back to my house. Knew it would be heavy but that was a little more than I expected. Have made the executive decision that I am going to pay a machine moved $50 to move it to the location next week. Now I just have to familiarize myself with everything before we move it. Excited to get this business of the ground! Thx for all the help and tips! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leetvend Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Just moved the machine back to my house. Knew it would be heavy but that was a little more than I expected. Have made the executive decision that I am going to pay a machine moved $50 to move it to the location next week. Now I just have to familiarize myself with everything before we move it. Excited to get this business of the ground! Thx for all the help and tips! dang 50 bucks to move a machine is a good deal. Wish I could find someone in my area who did that. It is going to cost me just over 200 bucks to have 2 machines moved at the same time and it would cost the same if I just had one moved because they charge from the minute they leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendors Tech Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 It costs $100 for one machine for me, and about $300 max total even when we are moving 5 machines in and out of locations. I beat up my mover on price and made hime give me kind of a flat rate because I refer him to all local vendors and pay him to deliver all my sold machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 The guy I spoke to is going to charge me $50 or $65 if he does not work on my bill validator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Here is a link to a website with the manual: http://healthy4uvend...om/Manuals.html That kind of help is appreciated by all. Thanks for putting it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 He is charging 65 cents for chips and 90 cents for all other items. it is in a break room at a Barnes & Noble. Am assuming about 30-40 employees all told. Am a little skeptical about the gross but I think it is a pretty good deal for the machine. Seems to me he should be grossing more at those prices. On the bright side, I am picking up my Dr. Pepper machine tomorrow and they are going to need a new machine at this location also so looks like it is my lucky day. There is no commission paid here. If everything goes well I will have upgraded to full line vending by the middle of next week. BTW, anyone know where I can pick up a manual for the AP 6600 machine? Ebay or the manufacturer the best resource? I am very skeptical that the account is going to gross as much as he says! It has been forever since I have been to a Barnes and Noble... but I have never seen more than 15 people working there at any given time. Based off of that, even if they had 30-40 people, I would expect a MAXIMUM of about $100/week in total sales... with about 35% of that being snacks... that comes out to closer to $150/month, not this $275. Oh well, we'll see. Maybe those part-timers really hit up the snacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 I am very skeptical that the account is going to gross as much as he says! It has been forever since I have been to a Barnes and Noble... but I have never seen more than 15 people working there at any given time. Based off of that, even if they had 30-40 people, I would expect a MAXIMUM of about $100/week in total sales... with about 35% of that being snacks... that comes out to closer to $150/month, not this $275. Oh well, we'll see. Maybe those part-timers really hit up the snacks. Agree, like I said I have some doubts. He has been doing this for 9 years and seems like a pretty straight forward guy. Gave me all kinds of contacts in the Dallas area for parts and machines. We will have to see how it works itself out. Now I have a soda machine and a snack machine. Know next to nothing about snack machines. Anywhere I can look to see just basically how to service it? Snack machine guide for dummies perhaps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 It's a trade that I learned by doing... I don't know if there's a vending guide for dummies but you may want to get Automatic Products number. It's probably the same number as Crane since Crane owns AP/National (as well as Dixie Narco and a few other brands). At the very least, Crane could give you the right number to call. The AP 6000 is a very common machine and has plenty of parts and plenty of people who know how to use it so that's a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Agree, like I said I have some doubts. He has been doing this for 9 years and seems like a pretty straight forward guy. Gave me all kinds of contacts in the Dallas area for parts and machines. We will have to see how it works itself out. Now I have a soda machine and a snack machine. Know next to nothing about snack machines. Anywhere I can look to see just basically how to service it? Snack machine guide for dummies perhaps? If you mean how to set up and load, that's something that will probably have to be learned through trial and error. It's been a long time since I cracked open one of those old AP manuals but I think there is a section in there with basic loading instructions. Ought to give you some of the basics at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 I think I am going to be okay with opening and loading the snacks. Just pull the racks out and load them up right? Am more worried about collecting the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I think I am going to be okay with opening and loading the snacks. Just pull the racks out and load them up right? Am more worried about collecting the money. Pretty much that's all you do but almost every machine requires you to either lift up and pull the trays out OR you have to push a lever down on one or both sides (if it has one) to release the tray. These are designs of machines to prevent people from shaking the trays out. If I recall, GPL machines and most USI machines only required you to lift up slightly to get the tray over the intial "block" and then pull the tray out. You'll know when you're doing it right because everything will come out smooth.... but keep your hand under the tray to support the weight! You have no idea how many times I have seen new people pull the tray out expecting nothing to happen and then *BOOM!* the entire tray falls down (at a tilted angle where it's supposed to be for loading) and snacks go everywhere. Just practice with it a little bit until you get the hang of it. I think the AP 6000/7000 only requires you to lift and pull but there might be a lever on the right side... it's been a while since I have loaded one. As for collecting the money... this is the easy part. Depending on the type of validator you have, you can usually just open the top of the bill box (which is the box attached to the validator which holds the dollars) and pull the dollars out. It takes a little practice to get it right initially and grab all of the bills in one shot but it's easy. Some bill boxes require you to take the bill box off to get to all of the bills... but this too can be done in like 5 seconds. Trust me, I can take a bill box off, put the money in a bag, and put the bill box back on in a matter of seconds and I am not trying to show off. As for the coins, there's a coin-bin on pretty much every modern full-size vending machine. All you have to do is pull the bin out (and it almost always has a handle... at least it's supposed to!) and dump the coins into your money bag (or whatever you use to collect the money) and put the bin back! I can tell you one thing... the HARDEST THING to remember for any NEW vendors is to put the coin-bin back and to make sure you close the lid on the bill box!!! Countless bill-box lids are broken because people didn't shut them before shutting the machine door and countless coins have to be picked up because someone didn't replace the coin-bin and do it properly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Pretty much that's all you do but almost every machine requires you to either lift up and pull the trays out OR you have to push a lever down on one or both sides (if it has one) to release the tray. These are designs of machines to prevent people from shaking the trays out. If I recall, GPL machines and most USI machines only required you to lift up slightly to get the tray over the intial "block" and then pull the tray out. You'll know when you're doing it right because everything will come out smooth.... but keep your hand under the tray to support the weight! You have no idea how many times I have seen new people pull the tray out expecting nothing to happen and then *BOOM!* the entire tray falls down (at a tilted angle where it's supposed to be for loading) and snacks go everywhere. Just practice with it a little bit until you get the hang of it. I think the AP 6000/7000 only requires you to lift and pull but there might be a lever on the right side... it's been a while since I have loaded one. As for collecting the money... this is the easy part. Depending on the type of validator you have, you can usually just open the top of the bill box (which is the box attached to the validator which holds the dollars) and pull the dollars out. It takes a little practice to get it right initially and grab all of the bills in one shot but it's easy. Some bill boxes require you to take the bill box off to get to all of the bills... but this too can be done in like 5 seconds. Trust me, I can take a bill box off, put the money in a bag, and put the bill box back on in a matter of seconds and I am not trying to show off. As for the coins, there's a coin-bin on pretty much every modern full-size vending machine. All you have to do is pull the bin out (and it almost always has a handle... at least it's supposed to!) and dump the coins into your money bag (or whatever you use to collect the money) and put the bin back! I can tell you one thing... the HARDEST THING to remember for any NEW vendors is to put the coin-bin back and to make sure you close the lid on the bill box!!! Countless bill-box lids are broken because people didn't shut them before shutting the machine door and countless coins have to be picked up because someone didn't replace the coin-bin and do it properly! Thx! Exactly what I was looking for. Finally found a video on youtube that helped but these step by step instructions really help. Am going to try to go early in the morning so no one will see me messing around with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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