Poplady1 Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Helping with Sue's honor box route has been an experience. I am amazed at the honesty of people. Sue does have shortages but then the next week the box will be over. Here are the big winners in the product line: Big Texas Cinn Snickers Welches Fruit Snacks Cheese or Peanut Crackers Grippo BBQ Chips (I think this might be local) Powdered Donuts Packs Cup of Noodles Doritos Nacho Cheese Fam Amos. M&M Peanut Zoo Crackers Baked Lays Cheetos Andy Capp Hot Fries Grand Ma Cookies The Big Texas Cinn sells the best followed by Snickers. It is surprising how the Welches Fruit Snacks go. Some of her accounts require two big boxes, beauty salon with 14 stations, apartment office and a cemetery office. The other is a Collision center which has a shortage one week and a over the next. I recommend the brown boxes. They have a much bigger area to accept the money. The other boxes look good but you can only stuff about 20 singles in that box. So she has approx 18 boxes out. The first month the box average is $16 (some boxes only doing $5 and others $50) I can see a need to purchase some snack machines in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Helping with Sue's honor box route has been an experience. I am amazed at the honesty of people. Sue does have shortages but then the next week the box will be over. Here are the big winners in the product line: Big Texas Cinn Snickers Welches Fruit Snacks Cheese or Peanut Crackers Grippo BBQ Chips (I think this might be local) Powdered Donuts Packs Cup of Noodles Doritos Nacho Cheese Fam Amos. M&M Peanut Zoo Crackers Baked Lays Cheetos Andy Capp Hot Fries Grand Ma Cookies The Big Texas Cinn sells the best followed by Snickers. It is surprising how the Welches Fruit Snacks go. Some of her accounts require two big boxes, beauty salon with 14 stations, apartment office and a cemetery office. The other is a Collision center which has a shortage one week and a over the next. I recommend the brown boxes. They have a much bigger area to accept the money. The other boxes look good but you can only stuff about 20 singles in that box. So she has approx 18 boxes out. The first month the box average is $16 (some boxes only doing $5 and others $50) I can see a need to purchase some snack machines in the future. Thanks for the update Bev. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Helping with Sue's honor box route has been an experience. I am amazed at the honesty of people. Sue does have shortages but then the next week the box will be over. Here are the big winners in the product line: Big Texas Cinn Snickers Welches Fruit Snacks Cheese or Peanut Crackers Grippo BBQ Chips (I think this might be local) Powdered Donuts Packs Cup of Noodles Doritos Nacho Cheese Fam Amos. M&M Peanut Zoo Crackers Baked Lays Cheetos Andy Capp Hot Fries Grand Ma Cookies The Big Texas Cinn sells the best followed by Snickers. It is surprising how the Welches Fruit Snacks go. Some of her accounts require two big boxes, beauty salon with 14 stations, apartment office and a cemetery office. The other is a Collision center which has a shortage one week and a over the next. I recommend the brown boxes. They have a much bigger area to accept the money. The other boxes look good but you can only stuff about 20 singles in that box. So she has approx 18 boxes out. The first month the box average is $16 (some boxes only doing $5 and others $50) I can see a need to purchase some snack machines in the future. my average is about the same even with the smaller cameron boxes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobTHJ Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 So she has approx 18 boxes out. The first month the box average is $16 (some boxes only doing $5 and others $50) I can see a need to purchase some snack machines in the future. After six months of running snack boxes I've decided I'd much rather have a box (or two) than a snack machine in almost any account. I'm selling 2-3 times the amount of product for a fraction of the overhead. Accounts who can't seem to pay are the one exception. I had a NAPA store that had a mechanical snack machine in it that would sell empty every week. In my effort to eliminate my mechanical machines I replaced it with a pair of snack boxes and am netting at least double the amount from the boxes (even accounting for ~7% theft on the account). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 After six months of running snack boxes I've decided I'd much rather have a box (or two) than a snack machine in almost any account. I'm selling 2-3 times the amount of product for a fraction of the overhead. Accounts who can't seem to pay are the one exception. I had a NAPA store that had a mechanical snack machine in it that would sell empty every week. In my effort to eliminate my mechanical machines I replaced it with a pair of snack boxes and am netting at least double the amount from the boxes (even accounting for ~7% theft on the account). After six months of running snack boxes I've decided I'd much rather have a box (or two) than a snack machine in almost any account. I'm selling 2-3 times the amount of product for a fraction of the overhead. Accounts who can't seem to pay are the one exception. I had a NAPA store that had a mechanical snack machine in it that would sell empty every week. In my effort to eliminate my mechanical machines I replaced it with a pair of snack boxes and am netting at least double the amount from the boxes (even accounting for ~7% theft on the account). I am impressed with the amount of money 24 boxes brings in! (she has grown from 18 to 24). She keeps getting new accounts and pulling slow accounts. Last week she brought in over $250....So its a work in progress and I am impressed. She is a busy little bee. I am ordering her more boxes today (Dennis another order is on the way) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I am impressed with the amount of money 24 boxes brings in! (she has grown from 18 to 24). She keeps getting new accounts and pulling slow accounts. Last week she brought in over $250....So its a work in progress and I am impressed. She is a busy little bee. I am ordering her more boxes today (Dennis another order is on the way) that is great to hear from both you and bob, its really getting over the mental block of putting the product out there, i am always amazed at people's resistance to at least give it a try but they are willing to buy biz op vending machines for 10 grand and stick them in low performing accounts...unbelievable. After six months of running snack boxes I've decided I'd much rather have a box (or two) than a snack machine in almost any account. I'm selling 2-3 times the amount of product for a fraction of the overhead. Accounts who can't seem to pay are the one exception. I had a NAPA store that had a mechanical snack machine in it that would sell empty every week. In my effort to eliminate my mechanical machines I replaced it with a pair of snack boxes and am netting at least double the amount from the boxes (even accounting for ~7% theft on the account). yeah mechanical snack cant take diff denominations of change and bills that is the big thing...i get a lot of gold dollars in my snack boxes , pennies, etc.. mechnanical machine even with a bill changer you are very limited and the product isnt merchandised well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 that is great to hear from both you and bob, its really getting over the mental block of putting the product out there, i am always amazed at people's resistance to at least give it a try but they are willing to buy biz op vending machines for 10 grand and stick them in low performing accounts...unbelievable. yeah mechanical snack cant take diff denominations of change and bills that is the big thing...i get a lot of gold dollars in my snack boxes , pennies, etc.. mechnanical machine even with a bill changer you are very limited and the product isnt merchandised well. that is great to hear from both you and bob, its really getting over the mental block of putting the product out there, i am always amazed at people's resistance to at least give it a try but they are willing to buy biz op vending machines for 10 grand and stick them in low performing accounts...unbelievable. yeah mechanical snack cant take diff denominations of change and bills that is the big thing...i get a lot of gold dollars in my snack boxes , pennies, etc.. mechnanical machine even with a bill changer you are very limited and the product isnt merchandised well. Sue changed her box pricing to all $1. I thought that would be a killer with things like Chips and Crackers. But people pay it. I think because she is a little old white haired lady (sorry Sue) people feel guilty about not paying her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Sue changed her box pricing to all $1. I thought that would be a killer with things like Chips and Crackers. But people pay it. I think because she is a little old white haired lady (sorry Sue) people feel guilty about not paying her. never had a complaint at $1 chips & crackers no one even questions it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 never had a complaint at $1 chips & crackers no one even questions it never had a complaint at $1 chips & crackers no one even questions it Are you a little old white haired guy too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis23 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I also think about people that will pay big money for machines to put in smaller accounts and the return on their investments. Doesn't make sense to me. They talk about shortage in a snack box but will give big commissions on thier machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Hey Bev how about an update for the month of March. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 I just saw your note. She has been over servicing her accounts (my opinion only). If the box is left alone for awhile people will buy everything. If she goes too often the candy will be gone and some chips but lots of things are left such as crackers. I mentioned before that the fruit snacks are great sellers because the price is right and people buy them. From what I am seeing it looks like a couple of hours of delivering 5 boxes will bring in about 100.00. Again I think her weekly average is around $250. I believe if she changed out her boxes less often she would increase her weekly income. She has been pulling on average one box a week for theft but she puts out two boxes a week. Her best location is a high end beauty salon which needs twice a week service and she pulls from 20.00 to 38.00 each pull. Because of gas prices she is trying to keep her route in two zip codes. That can be hard because there are just so many locations in that small of an area. In one case at an Old Navy she has her box right next to their snack machine. The snack pricing is lower then hers but they buy from her box. Probably people just don't have the money at the moment or drop it in later. Its a good location for her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decaturjack Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Poplady, has Sue changed her contents of the boxes from what you list above? How many items total are in each box? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I just saw your note. She has been over servicing her accounts (my opinion only). If the box is left alone for awhile people will buy everything. If she goes too often the candy will be gone and some chips but lots of things are left such as crackers. I mentioned before that the fruit snacks are great sellers because the price is right and people buy them. From what I am seeing it looks like a couple of hours of delivering 5 boxes will bring in about 100.00. Again I think her weekly average is around $250. I believe if she changed out her boxes less often she would increase her weekly income. She has been pulling on average one box a week for theft but she puts out two boxes a week. Her best location is a high end beauty salon which needs twice a week service and she pulls from 20.00 to 38.00 each pull. Because of gas prices she is trying to keep her route in two zip codes. That can be hard because there are just so many locations in that small of an area. In one case at an Old Navy she has her box right next to their snack machine. The snack pricing is lower then hers but they buy from her box. Probably people just don't have the money at the moment or drop it in later. Its a good location for her. your numbers are about dead on to mine, glad to know the model works for someone else. as for service frequency i did mine every 2 weeks, you can simply re-inventory (turn) the product that doesn't sell, assuming its not too damaged because of the lower inventory #s i look at it as losing sales waiting for the box to empty out. 5 boxes in a few hours seems very slow, is the route far apart? it took me about avg 15min per box including transit time to the location/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 your numbers are about dead on to mine, glad to know the model works for someone else. as for service frequency i did mine every 2 weeks, you can simply re-inventory (turn) the product that doesn't sell, assuming its not too damaged because of the lower inventory #s i look at it as losing sales waiting for the box to empty out. 5 boxes in a few hours seems very slow, is the route far apart? it took me about avg 15min per box including transit time to the location/ Hey dogcow, Even that 15 min. per box seems a litle high to me. Are you replacing inventory on site or just swapping out a full box and going? If so, I can't imagine it taking longer than 10 min/location. Approx. how far apart are your locations (average) from each other? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Hey dogcow, Even that 15 min. per box seems a litle high to me. Are you replacing inventory on site or just swapping out a full box and going? If so, I can't imagine it taking longer than 10 min/location. Approx. how far apart are your locations (average) from each other? Thanks. i switch them out, i timed it from start to finish, then divide by the # of stops it takes some time to get out to where my locations are, so it drives up the average a bit i guess, subtracting it out may be closer to your number. i mean to say, my locations are close together (mostly industrial parks and strip malls) but they arent close to my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 How much are you guys losing in unpaid/stolen product? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis23 Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 I always was more concerned with keeping my customers as close together as possible. If you can pull into a city block and run 4 stops before moving your vehicle even if they are not large accounts you will come out ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Poplady, has Sue changed her contents of the boxes from what you list above? How many items total are in each box? Thanks. Poplady, has Sue changed her contents of the boxes from what you list above? How many items total are in each box? Thanks. Yes she has moved around some items just to keep things looking different. The one problem has been the white powdered donuts. The expiration is on the box they come in and when she is changing out her boxes she doesn't really know how old they are so she needs to just go by how the product looks.... She added Twizzlers, beef jerky, Fridays chips and those Fruit snacks just keep selling very well for her. Also she put in some Brownies. She is doing well... Hey Bev how about an update for the month of March. Hey Bev how about an update for the month of March. I am going to add up the books for her this weekend. This is the most recent box count 25 large boxes and 7 small boxes. She will be ordering another 25 large boxes from Dennis this weekend. I think she plans on stopping at 40 to 45...I am helping her now because it is a lot of packing and running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Yes she has moved around some items just to keep things looking different. The one problem has been the white powdered donuts. The expiration is on the box they come in and when she is changing out her boxes she doesn't really know how old they are so she needs to just go by how the product looks.... She added Twizzlers, beef jerky, Fridays chips and those Fruit snacks just keep selling very well for her. Also she put in some Brownies. She is doing well... most pasteries aren't individually dated. what i did was buy a very cheap "pricer gun" from ebay for about $15 and some price tags from office depot and dated them myself. Also you can use garage sale price tags and a date stamp from the office depot if you dont want to bother with getting a price gun. the powdered sugar mini donuts never sold for me, i stopped carrying them. the choc donuts continue to sell very well in air conditioned locations. The margins on beef jerky are no good and they dont sell very well either. Fridays chips are excellent tho, not only do they taste good, they have a $5 coupon on them which i think entices first-time buyers. These sell very well for me in general and the margins cant be beat plus the expiry is like 6 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lake Cities Vending Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Ok you guys got me interested. Where do you get your Honor Boxes, best prices? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 cameronpackaging.com sells the one like you see in my avatar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funtime vending Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Hi everyone, My husband and I are new to vending business. We started the bulk vending January this year and now we have 14 locations. Then, my husband Don who is also an active member in this forum told me about the snack boxes last March and even without the knowledge and still learning we decided to test the water using 2 empty display boxes from Walmart. I thought it is easier to sell the snack boxes than bulk vending machines but I was wrong. I recieved my first batch of snack boxes yesterday and tried to place at least 2 boxes today but I did not get any luck. We approach nail salons, flower shops, Riley's Auto Shop, and Loan offices. It is so frustrating when we receive "no" but I know that I just need to get used or practice my spiel every now and then until the time that I am comfortable in using it. I serviced my 2 locations today which is c/o my husband and here is the outcome. I sell each items for $1. snack box#1 - Thrift store - 5 volunteers and up. This is our first snack box location and we made a rookie mistake by offering the owner 20% commission. I do not know how to change it from commission to charity. 20 - 1 oz chips 6 - assorted cookies 9 - Quaker Chewy Granula bars 2 - pastries 5 - assorted Lance crackers 5 - assorted candy bars 47 - items COG - 32% items left in the box 21 money in cash box $26 %lost - 0 snack box#2 - Postal Annex - 5 employees 20 - 1 oz chips 6 - assorted cookies 9 - Quaker Chewy Granula bars 2 - pastries 5 - assorted Lance crackers 5 - assorted candy bars 47 - items COG - 32% items left in the box 42 money in cash box $5 %lost - 0 What should be my next step? Should I keep the box at postal annex? I also need to know the process in knowing how much is the net of each box? Also if anyone can share me the spreadsheet that you are using for your inventory and in every pull that you are making I will really appreciate it. This is the only business that my husband and I are interested in investing our time and money. What are the places that I should hit to get yes? The nail salons and flower shop they said no because they said that there is no enough space for the box. What can I answer the manager or the owner if I will encounter the same response again? Thank you. =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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