mission vending Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Here is a link to a blog that I found interesting and also agree with. It's by Eliot Maras editor of Automatic Merchandiser. http://www.vendingmarketwatch.com/blog/10645698/reluctant-to-change-most-operators-undermine-the-industrys-progress Comments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leetvend Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I love technology and once I get large enough and can afford the cool tech I definitely will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shauna Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I agree with Leetvend. I love tech and I would love to incorporate it more into my business. But it has to make sense. Right now, we do not have any machines that would justify adding some tech to the machines, like credit card readers. But I am definitely heading in that direction eventually. Tech, while beneficial in many ways, can also get in your way and prevent you from doing your absolute best in your business. Don't let tech get in the way of the customer service needed to maintain and grow the business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 This is part of my job everyday as we try to match the account to the vending company that will provide the level of equipment/service needed to close the account and make it a win/win for everyone. We represent larger vending companies that can afford all of the new tech upgrades which allows us to market to larger companies. We also have a whole bunch of vendors that just have drinks, snacks and coffee. Some of those vendors just provide can machines with a couple of columns of energy drinks and water. All of that is fine but we need to know who can handle what type of account. In my opinion, you need to have an account with at least 150 blue collar employees to start bringing in those upgrades. If you have a food machine in your warehouse you might offer it to land a 100 plus account. But I wouldn't recommend buying a unit because you run the risk of turning that food vendor into another drink machine. Also, those credit card readers don't make sense to me in blue collar accounts. They are good for the office staff or hotels. My point is each account brings its own challenges which you have to consider when you develop your offer. There are things that are great for the operator such as bill recyclers (which the business doesn't even know about) and then there is remote monitoring which makes both parties happy. When you have commission accounts they love looking at the daily sales report and you know when to service. That saves you time and money. So I disagree somewhat with the article which implies that vendors are not willing to invest in upgrades. I think vendors are business people and they look at each situation which affects their bottom line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Personally, I have mixed feeling on technology. Don't get me wrong, I love the progression of technology in general but some concepts are either obsolete or too expensive to be deemed successful. Anyone can come up with an idea to improve productivity.... but at what cost? If you could purchase a robot that would replace the productivity of 10 workers who earned $10/hour but the robot cost $101/hour to run, would you purchase it? The answer is... if you have any business sense... no. On the other hand, if you could buy 2 robots that could replace the productivity of 20 workers but only cost $198/hour to run, would you purchase it? The answer is yes! Assuming you have enough demand to fully utilize the equipment! Basically... the argument of this article is kind of biased in my opinion. The article claims that operators aren't upgrading their equipment enough to help the industry.... but my argument is that the industry isn't doing enough to make better, cheaper technology! The vending PRODUCTION industry is quite an ologopoly. There are just a few companies that own probably 90%+ of the market in the United States and probably elsewhere as well. These companies might have some technology out there... but they set their prices too high with the concept that only the operators with large enough accounts will actually buy them. My conclusion is.... I think it's better to argument that the vending PRODUCTION industry is not lowering their prices enough to help the operators... not the other way around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snack dude Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I worked in the communications industry for over 20 years and I think technology is great when it helps you accomplish something but it is a mistake to purchase technology for technologies sake. I have been reading Automated Merchandiser for about 8 years and one thing I think you have to realize is Mr Maras has to keep the people who advertise in his magazine happy and those people are technology providers. In fact if you read some of Mr. Maras past columns you can throw away your coin mechs and DBVs because nobody uses cash anymore and you wont sell anything unless you have a digitouch or remote monitoring and anyone who doesnt is a lowballer. I have several locations with card readers and they work pretty well in those locations but we all have locations that we know that if we put the latest and greatest machines with all the bells and whistles the weekly gross will probably not change that much and theres the rub. I have one location where we put a card reader in and people used it but the weekly gross was on average the same because some people were now using a card instead of cash. After doing this for ten years I have come to the conclusion that what 99% of customers really want is to put money in a machine or swipe a card and get a drink or a snack and could care less if it is a ten year old bubble front or a brand new glassfront as long as its clean and working, has what they want and they get the product. And IMO no technology will ever beat personal contact and responsiveness with your customers I will get off the soapbox now, someone elses turn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I worked in the communications industry for over 20 years and I think technology is great when it helps you accomplish something but it is a mistake to purchase technology for technologies sake. I have been reading Automated Merchandiser for about 8 years and one thing I think you have to realize is Mr Maras has to keep the people who advertise in his magazine happy and those people are technology providers. In fact if you read some of Mr. Maras past columns you can throw away your coin mechs and DBVs because nobody uses cash anymore and you wont sell anything unless you have a digitouch or remote monitoring and anyone who doesnt is a lowballer. Ah, that makes sense. So basically, he's a politician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 I worked in the communications industry for over 20 years and I think technology is great when it helps you accomplish something but it is a mistake to purchase technology for technologies sake. I have been reading Automated Merchandiser for about 8 years and one thing I think you have to realize is Mr Maras has to keep the people who advertise in his magazine happy and those people are technology providers. In fact if you read some of Mr. Maras past columns you can throw away your coin mechs and DBVs because nobody uses cash anymore and you wont sell anything unless you have a digitouch or remote monitoring and anyone who doesnt is a lowballer. I have several locations with card readers and they work pretty well in those locations but we all have locations that we know that if we put the latest and greatest machines with all the bells and whistles the weekly gross will probably not change that much and theres the rub. I have one location where we put a card reader in and people used it but the weekly gross was on average the same because some people were now using a card instead of cash. After doing this for ten years I have come to the conclusion that what 99% of customers really want is to put money in a machine or swipe a card and get a drink or a snack and could care less if it is a ten year old bubble front or a brand new glassfront as long as its clean and working, has what they want and they get the product. And IMO no technology will ever beat personal contact and responsiveness with your customers I will get off the soapbox now, someone elses turn Good points. I have been reading Automatic Merchandiser for about the same amount of time and agree with your sentiment, Maras certainly is a proponent of anything new. While you certainly don't want to upgrade in a location that does not generate the cashflow to make it a good business decision, IMO he was referring more to the old dogs out there that refuse to implement new technologies that are available. I know a couple that are willing to lose accounts before they will upgrade equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Good points. I have been reading Automatic Merchandiser for about the same amount of time and agree with your sentiment, Maras certainly is a proponent of anything new. While you certainly don't want to upgrade in a location that does not generate the cashflow to make it a good business decision, IMO he was referring more to the old dogs out there that refuse to implement new technologies that are available. I know a couple that are willing to lose accounts before they will upgrade equipment. I agree with your comment about the older vendors refusing to upgrade but the author doesn't really specify. His point is that MOST vendors are to blame for this. My argument is that the manufacturers are more to blame because they provide technologies at very high costs. I think that the solution for them is to either produce their technologies more efficiently or just lower the price so that more vendors may be interested. Some upgrades (I am defining upgrades as updated replacement parts that do not replace the entire machine) cost so much money that you may be better off buying entirely new equipment. On the other hand, you could use that money to purchase equipment for a new account. Either way, it just seems better off to avoid upgrading for many accounts.. unless you bought junk for a nice account to begin with. Simply put.. if his article said "Large operators undermine the industry" or "high upgrade costs undermine the industry" or something else along those lines, I would agree... but most operators are 1-man shows that don't have the greatest accounts in the world and can barely afford to upgrade their equipment. It's just a silly argument in my opinion. I agree that it would be better for the vending industry if we all invested more money into various technologies.... but they gotta lower those prices!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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