MikeFeldman Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 If you have a bad location will you lose money? What if someone had a route with 300 triples all earning $5 a month with small amounts of candy and they made $1500 when servicing they're route each month would most of it be profit? I know this sounds like a silly hypothetical question but I was just wondering I have a triple on route that does $8 a month and I'm not sure If i should just leave it and use it for gas money while I place more machines in the area or move it so my candy doesn't go bad and I lose money, If I keep i keep it filled just a little do you think I could avoid losing money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vendsmarts Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 I have a few locations that do under $10 a month. I decided leave em since they are so close to other locations that do good. They would earn nothing sitting in my basement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj54 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 i wood move them when i found a new place, not before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdad65 Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 "They would earn nothing sitting in my basement" You and I think alike vendsmarts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vendsmarts Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Put little amount in them and check em every few months. Mark levels or use coin boxes to track what sells.Consider product changes. I added tab gum to some locations and sales have gone up. 1 location sells $30 in tab a month. It used to make only $20 a month total. now it making $60. Also adding nice product and price labels helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Put little amount in them and check em every few months. Mark levels or use coin boxes to track what sells.Consider product changes. I added tab gum to some locations and sales have gone up. 1 location sells $30 in tab a month. It used to make only $20 a month total. now it making $60. Also adding nice product and price labels helps. This is excellent advice. The short answer to the OP's question is: Yes! If by "bad locations" you mean "slow locations", they CAN cost you money. However, as vendsmarts states, sometimes it's not a bad location, but just a bad product match to the location that results in slow sales. I usually try more than a couple of products before deciding whether or not I pull a machine. If possible, don't give up on a location without trying at least each of the products you normally stock. Since you'd only be trying product you normally stock anyway, you aren't going to any great lengths to test the location's worthiness before pulling your machine(s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurtsman Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 I'd leave it until you have a new home for it. I'd also consider pulling if you had ZERO machines on hand. If you have 1 or more on hand, leave it there, keep candy levels low, set to a three month service cycle and hit it when you were going to be in that area anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 I have some real dud spots, but I keep them as they cost me nothing in commissions or rents. Now, I'm not a very big outfit, but I play it like a numbers game- the more I have the better. I took Hillbilly's advice a few months back and used either dividers or fillers to take up more space in my candy compartments. My Vendstar is only half full but appears full. I use, believe it or not, clear plastic Christmas ornaments in my Evervend to take up space without interfering with the mechanism. By doing something like this, you decrease your investment in each spot without sacrificing the "full" look a machine has, and when/if your candy goes bad, you have less to throw out. As long as commissions are low for me, I'll take literally any spot I can get these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 At the scale you're talking about, you probably wouldn't lose money; but if you're just starting out with only one or two locations you can definitely lose money. My first location was a real turd that only made like $6/month. It was my only location, and it was costing me more in gas to drive to and from the location than I was pulling out of the machine each month. I then got permission to move the machine into the factory where I work and I now spend nothing on gas since I'm using my gas to do what I always do regardless of vending, and just service it after my normal working hours. The machine now makes about $35/month and I have pretty much zero fuel costs. I know that the route you're talking about is much larger than my little single machine route, but finding ways to reduce cost helps and finding good locations helps even more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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