Bocephus Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 As most of you know from my post below I am taking over a snack machine in the break room of a Barnes & Noble. Would you recommend I fill the trays in the snack machine all the way or just do 5-6 items and check on it in a couple of weeks. I am leaning towards the latter because I am planning on keeping my inventory pretty low with only one machine so far. What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 I will partially fill and check after a week, and based upon sales, adjust accordingly. With only one machine, you will need to worry about spoilage. Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 With one machine it really does not matter. All of your inventory is either in the machine or in the garage. If you had multiple machine then that would be a different story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocephus Posted March 3, 2012 Author Share Posted March 3, 2012 Good point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendors Tech Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 I got into a 110 person warehouse last month. I put in a Dixie Narco BevMax and an AP 6500, a smaller one yes; they wanted soda most of all. I filled the soda machine to maximum capacity with Monster, Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, teas, water, juice, Frapuccino, etc. The snack machine I filled everything half way and checked back a week later to monitor progress. It wasn't consistent in a couple areas. For example, the snacks and chips in the snack machine were hardly touched, the pastries and candy were either sold out or low. The BevMax was low on few items, but sold out of two rows of water!! I filled both to the back on all trays. This week: There was $150+ in the BevMax and $75+ in the snack. That's in a 100-110 person account. Next week, it may be higher, or level off, or be lower. By the end of March, I'll know approximately how often I need to service them. They are on my once a week schedule right now. My point is, your figures could wildly vary for the first month. Trends will get started, the first couple of weeks everyone will be in the "there's a new snack machine and I want to try it" mode, and you will sell a lot. In about a month, you'll see a steady income level emerge. It might be higher than what you started with, it might be lower. I always fill the snack machine half full at a new account, then come back in a week or less and closely monitor the account for 3 weeks. By then, you know basically what you will be doing in terms of sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 I got into a 110 person warehouse last month. I put in a Dixie Narco BevMax and an AP 6500, a smaller one yes; they wanted soda most of all. I filled the soda machine to maximum capacity with Monster, Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, teas, water, juice, Frapuccino, etc. The snack machine I filled everything half way and checked back a week later to monitor progress. It wasn't consistent in a couple areas. For example, the snacks and chips in the snack machine were hardly touched, the pastries and candy were either sold out or low. The BevMax was low on few items, but sold out of two rows of water!! I filled both to the back on all trays. This week: There was $150+ in the BevMax and $75+ in the snack. That's in a 100-110 person account. Next week, it may be higher, or level off, or be lower. By the end of March, I'll know approximately how often I need to service them. They are on my once a week schedule right now. My point is, your figures could wildly vary for the first month. Trends will get started, the first couple of weeks everyone will be in the "there's a new snack machine and I want to try it" mode, and you will sell a lot. In about a month, you'll see a steady income level emerge. It might be higher than what you started with, it might be lower. I always fill the snack machine half full at a new account, then come back in a week or less and closely monitor the account for 3 weeks. By then, you know basically what you will be doing in terms of sales. I often fill everything half way and check it back in a couple of days. It's essentially the same though process. Great tip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 I got into a 110 person warehouse last month. I put in a Dixie Narco BevMax and an AP 6500, a smaller one yes; they wanted soda most of all. I filled the soda machine to maximum capacity with Monster, Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, teas, water, juice, Frapuccino, etc. The snack machine I filled everything half way and checked back a week later to monitor progress. It wasn't consistent in a couple areas. For example, the snacks and chips in the snack machine were hardly touched, the pastries and candy were either sold out or low. The BevMax was low on few items, but sold out of two rows of water!! I filled both to the back on all trays. This week: There was $150+ in the BevMax and $75+ in the snack. That's in a 100-110 person account. Next week, it may be higher, or level off, or be lower. By the end of March, I'll know approximately how often I need to service them. They are on my once a week schedule right now. My point is, your figures could wildly vary for the first month. Trends will get started, the first couple of weeks everyone will be in the "there's a new snack machine and I want to try it" mode, and you will sell a lot. In about a month, you'll see a steady income level emerge. It might be higher than what you started with, it might be lower. I always fill the snack machine half full at a new account, then come back in a week or less and closely monitor the account for 3 weeks. By then, you know basically what you will be doing in terms of sales. I got into a 110 person warehouse last month. I put in a Dixie Narco BevMax and an AP 6500, a smaller one yes; they wanted soda most of all. I filled the soda machine to maximum capacity with Monster, Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, teas, water, juice, Frapuccino, etc. The snack machine I filled everything half way and checked back a week later to monitor progress. It wasn't consistent in a couple areas. For example, the snacks and chips in the snack machine were hardly touched, the pastries and candy were either sold out or low. The BevMax was low on few items, but sold out of two rows of water!! I filled both to the back on all trays. This week: There was $150+ in the BevMax and $75+ in the snack. That's in a 100-110 person account. Next week, it may be higher, or level off, or be lower. By the end of March, I'll know approximately how often I need to service them. They are on my once a week schedule right now. My point is, your figures could wildly vary for the first month. Trends will get started, the first couple of weeks everyone will be in the "there's a new snack machine and I want to try it" mode, and you will sell a lot. In about a month, you'll see a steady income level emerge. It might be higher than what you started with, it might be lower. I always fill the snack machine half full at a new account, then come back in a week or less and closely monitor the account for 3 weeks. By then, you know basically what you will be doing in terms of sales. You have a solid account there, good job. In the summer the drink sales will probably get stronger. On the Diet Soda's with a stale date we always just loaded half way. But in a 110 account they might empty that one too. This account might justify putting in a machine for just water sales. If you have a 3rd party relationship with a bottler you can always get a machine from them. On the Barnes-Noble account, we have had several of those accounts. They ran slow to moderate (20 a week snack to $50 at best). That was our experience. So I would do a light load and watch what is selling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis23 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Hello Bocephus, The numbers are not always correct but they give you a starting point. Blue collar employees will average $8.00 spent in a full service bank of machines per week. White collar will spend $2.50 per week. Soda is 50% of your sales, snacks will run 30% of the sales, and cold food will run 20% of your sales. If you have 100 white collar employees they will spend $250.00 in a full bank of machines in a week. If you have just the snacks $250.00 x 30% = $75.00 in the machine at the end of one week. Blue collar $800.00 x .30 = $240.00 per week. If you are averageing .85 cents per item in a white collar office you will sell 88 items. If it's a forty select machine that is just over 2 items per spiral think about your popular items Sickers, Reeses, and Doritos and remember 20% of your items do 80% of the business and fill the machine accordingly. This is just a rule of thumb to get started then adjust accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walta Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 If you put 1 item at back of each spiral, if you sell out you will know what was there and how many sold. When you fill it move it to the back each week. Walt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis23 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 If you put 1 item at back of each spiral, if you sell out you will know what was there and how many sold. When you fill it move it to the back each week. Walt I had never thought of putting 1 item at the back. Just shows you are never to old to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 If you put 1 item at back of each spiral, if you sell out you will know what was there and how many sold. When you fill it move it to the back each week. Walt A very low tech idea. I like it. Just use something with a really long date and rotate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 At this stage (you already have the account) I suggest you fill the machine full on each row, then work it once a week. You then can play with the par levels of each spiral and product. If you were proposing the account then a proforma would matter as far as how much you estimate the account will do. At this point it is futal to even worry about estimates. Fill the machine full, put it on a once a week schedule but check it twice a week in the start just to make sure. I am willing to bet that this account will need servicing EOW (every other week) or once a week at best. I hope it does more for you but my experience says different. As far as trying to figure out what sells and what dont just draw up a plaogram to keep inside the machine and adjust it as you work the account untill you have the right product mix. Unless you have a massive amount of accounts you should just be able to work it by experience and figure out what is selling and what is not. One important question no one has asked yet is what size machine are you putting in? 4 wide? 5 Wide? Combo? This will also determin the number of products in a par level as well as the service intervals...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 A very low tech idea. But it works. Try using some index cards as the placeholder so you don't have to worry about your placeholder expiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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