Bondad Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 A little over a week ago I ordered 25 white boxes from Dennis. They arrived last Friday, March 23. I spent a few hours over the weekend putting a few together and last night my wife and I along with our kids went to Costco and bought a bunch of snacks. The biggest surprise was the small number of items that fit in the box. I was only able to get 56 items in there but expected it to be at least 75. The biggest "real estate" hog is the chips. I bought the 1.5oz bags and have 10 bags in the box. Maybe that's overboard on the chips. I could really use some thoughts on that. I placed my first box this morning at my "real" job (about 15 people here) and let everyone know what it was and who had placed it. Later today my son is going to call on local businesses in the area. Mainly the place that cuts his hair (we've been going there since before he was born - they know us well) and a Real Estate office where a friend works. Then he will walk into the retail businesses in the area. We're hoping to place 1-2 boxes per day 5 days a week. Our goal is to get 20 boxes placed by April 30th and then stop in order to evaluate how each location is doing and if the business is even viable. If it is a "go" we will order more boxes and press forward - pulling boxes from poor performing locations and placing 1-2 per day. Since I work full time and my son is a junior in high school we plan to cap the number of locations at 50 for now. Assuming we have to service most of the accounts once every two weeks we will have to service 5 accounts per day. We believe this can be accomplished in about 30 minutes as long as they are all within a few miles from the house. We live in a highly populated area with hundreds of stores within 5 miles. We're hoping this will generate some gas and spending money for him and a few extra bucks for the family budget. If it is performing well after a few months, we will continue to grow the business from 50 to 100 and then from 100 to 500 to 1,000. But for right now, it's trying to place a box or two per day. Bondad Denver Metro Area Colorado Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbishop Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 what did you pay for ur honor boxes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 you should put the 1oz bags, put more chips remember chips and crackers are ur best margin items i have a smaller box but i put 2 lays and 2 doritos and 1 of the other flavors those are the best sellers for me. also u need some pasteries, honey bun, choc mini donut and poptarts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bondad Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 I paid $99.95 for 25 boxes but there is a steep shipping charge so I actually paid around $140. But that's still less than $6.00 per box. The difference between $4 and $6 is insignificant in my opinion. I should be able to cover the box costs in the first week. I placed the box in my office at 10:00 amd and sold six items from it today - and more than half the office is on vacation for spring break this week. If I can sell 4-6 items per day for 20 workdays a month, this box will do very well. My average cost of goods sold is 32.8 cents and I sell everything for $1.00 you should put the 1oz bags, put more chips remember chips and crackers are ur best margin items i have a smaller box but i put 2 lays and 2 doritos and 1 of the other flavors those are the best sellers for me. also u need some pasteries, honey bun, choc mini donut and poptarts Thanks for the tip. Costco doesn't have pastries or I just couldn't find them. I am hitting WalMart tonight to see if they have some at a decent cost per. Do you think it wouls be a problem selling 1 oz chips for $1? I want to keep pricing simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I paid $99.95 for 25 boxes but there is a steep shipping charge so I actually paid around $140. But that's still less than $6.00 per box. The difference between $4 and $6 is insignificant in my opinion. I should be able to cover the box costs in the first week. I placed the box in my office at 10:00 amd and sold six items from it today - and more than half the office is on vacation for spring break this week. If I can sell 4-6 items per day for 20 workdays a month, this box will do very well. My average cost of goods sold is 32.8 cents and I sell everything for $1.00 Thanks for the tip. Costco doesn't have pastries or I just couldn't find them. I am hitting WalMart tonight to see if they have some at a decent cost per. Do you think it wouls be a problem selling 1 oz chips for $1? I want to keep pricing simple. i never get complaints if they dont like the price they dont have to buy sams has pasteries, dont buy the walmart ones first of all they are not for resale, and second of all they dont have branding on the packs and shorter dates generally. the mrs freshleys honey bun sells very well for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
empowerdls Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Thanks DC....I was going to go with the "grab bag" size as well. Real estate was a concern though. I'll try the small bags at $1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Good luck on your venture Bondad. I may have missed something in your picture -- but if I didn't -- make sure you have a price listed somewhere obvious on your snack box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 On pastries Big Texas Cinnamon roll goes very well too. And Fruity Snacks empty out at a good price margin. Also Grippo BBQ Chips are great but they may be local. I think Sams has everything including pastry. The best ones for Sue is a cemetery office, apartment office and a beauty salon (12 operators). They beauty salon is filled twice a week. Makes about $250 a month. We found that Fruity Snacks sell well in offices and blue collar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bondad Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 Good luck on your venture Bondad. I may have missed something in your picture -- but if I didn't -- make sure you have a price listed somewhere obvious on your snack box. Yes I put a sticker on after I took the picture that includes my name, phone number and a big bold statement that says All Items are $1.00. Thanks for catching that. It's entirely possible for me to make a mistake like that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 A little over a week ago I ordered 25 white boxes from Dennis. They arrived last Friday, March 23. I spent a few hours over the weekend putting a few together and last night my wife and I along with our kids went to Costco and bought a bunch of snacks. The biggest surprise was the small number of items that fit in the box. I was only able to get 56 items in there but expected it to be at least 75. The biggest "real estate" hog is the chips. I bought the 1.5oz bags and have 10 bags in the box. Maybe that's overboard on the chips. I could really use some thoughts on that. I placed my first box this morning at my "real" job (about 15 people here) and let everyone know what it was and who had placed it. Later today my son is going to call on local businesses in the area. Mainly the place that cuts his hair (we've been going there since before he was born - they know us well) and a Real Estate office where a friend works. Then he will walk into the retail businesses in the area. We're hoping to place 1-2 boxes per day 5 days a week. Our goal is to get 20 boxes placed by April 30th and then stop in order to evaluate how each location is doing and if the business is even viable. If it is a "go" we will order more boxes and press forward - pulling boxes from poor performing locations and placing 1-2 per day. Since I work full time and my son is a junior in high school we plan to cap the number of locations at 50 for now. Assuming we have to service most of the accounts once every two weeks we will have to service 5 accounts per day. We believe this can be accomplished in about 30 minutes as long as they are all within a few miles from the house. We live in a highly populated area with hundreds of stores within 5 miles. We're hoping this will generate some gas and spending money for him and a few extra bucks for the family budget. If it is performing well after a few months, we will continue to grow the business from 50 to 100 and then from 100 to 500 to 1,000. But for right now, it's trying to place a box or two per day. Bondad Denver Metro Area Colorado Sounds like you are off and running, please keep us posted on how your business develops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bondad Posted May 4, 2012 Author Share Posted May 4, 2012 Okay it's been five weeks since starting my Honor Box business. I've foud it very difficult to get new locations. I work full time so I only have nights and weekends. The store managers are usually not working nights and weekends. I did take a day off abd was able to place one box that day. So far I have four locations. Two of them are doing very well - averaging over $10.00 per week in profit each (my COGS is close to 33 cents and I sell everything for $1.) In a Real Estate office we compete with a vending machine in the building that is 90 cents per item. We're mostly selling chips at that location. And in a Petco we placed two weeks ago we lost a bunch of product. Of 30 items missing we collected $21 so we were short $9 (this was restocked today for the first time). I have printed up a sticky note that I will put on the box tonight on my way home. I'm hoping my son can spend a few hours a day when school gets out placing more boxes. If not, I'll have to come up with another solution. I have proven that each box (even the Petco Box) can make money. I just need to figure out how to place a few more boxes quickly. And suggestions? BTW - here's my "script" - Hi! Is there a manager available? Hi, my name is Bondad and I run a small snack box business in the area. What I like to do is place these boxes (showing the box contents to the manager) in an employee only type area so that your employees have access to snacks during the day. And if for some reason the box is ever missing money, that's my responsibility, not yours. Is there any reason I can't place this box with you today?" Objections have been "corporate doesn't allow it" almost every time I get an objection. Some businesses say they have tried it in the past and it didn't work. I'm looking for and suggestions to improve my success. THANKS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdendy Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Is there any reason I can't place this box with you today?" Never include an open invitation for them to turn you down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Question for you Bondad. You mentioned your only times to locate are evenings and weekends. I take that to mean you're probably doing a lot of your locating late in the business day? I've found that far and away my best success locating are Tue/Wed/Thur. mornings when the customer foot traffic is still relatively quiet. On Mon. managers are generally their busiest playing catch-up from the weekend and Fridays are generally no good because they are swamped tying up loose ends before the weekend. Also, in the morning people are still fresh and haven't been annoyed by 100 customer questions/complaints yet. Try putting yourself in the manager's shoes. If you're pitching a guy or gal that works Mon-Fri 8a-5p at 4:45 in the afternoon that's a recipe for disaster. They'll say anything for you to just go away at that point. If you have some vacation time, I'd highly recommend setting up some vacation Tue/Wed/Thur for 4 hours each day in the morning and spend that time locating. Regarding the pitch itself... ...so that your employees have access to snacks during the day. How about we give it a try for a few weeks and see how it goes?" I stop right there. In the art of negotiation, if you can get them to ask just one question (that you're prepared to give them an answer which they want to hear) your odds of getting a "yes" go up. And your odds keep going up for every question they ask you after that. What's the one question every prospect probably has on their mind when you ask if you can place your honor box? It's "What's this gonna cost me if there is money missing?" When you include "And if for some reason the box is ever missing money, that's my responsibility, not yours" in the initial pitch you're robbing them of the opportunity to ask you that question (a question which you and I both know they're going to like your answer to). The only other thing I can think of that might work is, don't be afraid to be a little pushy (in a nice way). When they tell you, "Corporate doesn't allow it", I find that answer to be insincere the majority of the time. It's hard to believe that a mid/large size corporation would have a standing policy that stores cannot have 3rd party vendors providing snacks for their employees (unless it's a corp. that 1) actually deals in consumable products and doesn't want competing products in their stores or 2) the company provides vending to their employees). When they give you that answer, I'd ask the follow-up question "I understand. Do you happen to have corporate's phone number so I can follow-up with them? Who knows, maybe I can get them to change their policy." That could cause them to re-think their answer if they believe you're actually going to follow-up and check their policy. ANYTHING that extends the conversation is a good thing! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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