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The beginning of an Honor Box Route


loach33

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Believe me. Would love, love, love, love to be driving york peppermint patties around town, trading them for money. I just really want to locate them myself or have someone I know doing it in person. My conflict comes from my regular job being really tough to replace. Good regular pay, flexible as can be, insurance, etc. To replace it I need a helluva lot of mint boxes.

So I sit here thinking maybe the balance of both is best. That's probably why I'm not busting my butt knocking on doors every possible minute. Not forced into yet.

I applaud you for the way you have done it. I just don't have that amount of cash upfront to get that many accounts going right away.

That said, I do understand that a year from now I will still be saying the same thing while you'll have collected $50,000 in that time. Believe me, I have read your thread multiple times and run the numbers, etc. thinking of how I could do it

Believe me. Would love, love, love, love to be driving york peppermint patties around town, trading them for money. I just really want to locate them myself or have someone I know doing it in person. My conflict comes from my regular job being really tough to replace. Good regular pay, flexible as can be, insurance, etc. To replace it I need a helluva lot of mint boxes.

So I sit here thinking maybe the balance of both is best. That's probably why I'm not busting my butt knocking on doors every possible minute. Not forced into yet.

I applaud you for the way you have done it. I just don't have that amount of cash upfront to get that many accounts going right away.

That said, I do understand that a year from now I will still be saying the same thing while you'll have collected $50,000 in that time. Believe me, I have read your thread multiple times and run the numbers, etc. thinking of how I could do it

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Sorry for neglecting this. Yes, still going and still going with those same 4 accounts. It's basically a matter of the guy I have running these 4 accounts lost interest in opening new ones. I went out and tried 3 or 4 but no luck. I don't have the time and he doesn't have the interest.

But, these 4 accounts are strong. Total of $2100 in sales to date with a profit of $1050. Shrinkage at the locations is 21.6%, 21.7%, 5.0% and 11.7%

I have opened a few mint box locations as well. Just a month in. Serviced one already. $12 in there on 63 mints gone. Geez, how easy was that.

It's all a matter of pounding through the no's until you get a location. Then take care of them. Soon enough you've got a good little business. Even though I only have those 4 honor accounts, it takes me about 1.5 hours every three weeks and I pocket about $50

Good luck

I do honor boxes as well. I have 10 locations. I use the small Sheridan ones and can put about 30-35 items in there. I'm just curious as to why it takes so long to service 4 locations. I am in and out of my locations in about 2 minutes. Are you stocking them while on location?
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Hey Loach. I see you like the mint honor boxes. Take that $12 and times it by say 100. I can do about 50-60 locations a day depending how far they are apart. Right now I'm at 155 locations with my locator coming in mid-April to locate another 125 to 150 for a grand total of 300 locations. Should be able to do these 300 in about 5 days. Keep it up and before long you will be quitting your full time job.

I have a rough estimate question..

For every 100 locations that are placed, how many of them do you still have after 30 days and after 90 days?

I do honor box (small boxes w/ candy) vending as well, full time.. my route is a few times larger than yours.. I self-locate..

I find that I after 30 days I lose 20% of locations, and probably 40% after 90 days.. the rest are keepers... is that consistent with your numbers?

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Floridavending your numbers are spot on with mine. Are you averaging around $18 gross per location per month? What is your price point? What is your shrinkage averaging per month?

I don't keep as close track location by location as some do.. I service hundreds and hundreds of locations per week.. I simply can't track them individually..

Gross and shrinkage follow a very predictable curve.. starts out great, steadily goes south, then it levels off.. Talking about mature locations (say, 6 months+) I'd put my gross closer to $15/mo (sales tax included) on average..

Nor can I calculate it accurately.. because while I go out with ~60 names on a list, quite often I look at the next name and go "oh I can skip them this time" or a location will be be closed because it's Monday or whatever..

Price point for lollis is $0.50 or $3/1 .. mints is $0.35 or 3/$1... they are separated and I never have both kinds of honor boxes at the same location.. With the mints I sprinkle in a handful of Laffy Taffy.. I mean it's 80-90% mints but I find putting the Laffy Taffy in there adds to the aesthetic which helps me in locating.. and they do sell so I put them in all units..

Shrinkage is pretty substantial by ordinary standards.. But I take a totally different view.. on one large street I could have 10 or 20 or 30 etc locations.. so I'm extremely lenient.. I'd rather make one dollar profit and go to the next spot than lose a location.. I've gotten very good at looking at the money and just "knowing" how much is there.. but I've probably serviced, without exaggerating, 20,000 times by now.. a buck's a buck.. and as long as a location is in the black I keep my unit there..

Every day I get the "hey man, people are just TAKING these things WITHOUT paying, maybe you should just take it out of here" .. like I haven't heard that 10 times this week.. so what I do is just go: Yeah sometimes people forget to pay.. (which makes them laugh, because we both know nobody's simply FORGETTING to pay).. but the mark-up on our products are high enough that we're totally fine.. it's normal.. I'll service 50 locations today and do you know how many will have the right amount of money? Zero.. Again, it's normal.. If it's a problem we can take the unit out, but seriously we're used to it and we're not worried at all.. we just appreciate your support..

And they usually let me stay.. pretty much always..

And every word I said about the mark-up and the appreciation is true. Because the markup does cover shrinkage and I DO appreciate the business allowing my unit there.

Anyway I just applied for a sales tax certificate for another county today and when the paperwork comes in I'll be back out locating at least another 100 new spots hopefully next week.. that takes me about 3 solid days... and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, doing it myself saves me well over a grand.. =)

(Just sayin')

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I do honor boxes as well. I have 10 locations. I use the small Sheridan ones and can put about 30-35 items in there. I'm just curious as to why it takes so long to service 4 locations. I am in and out of my locations in about 2 minutes. Are you stocking them while on location?

We service those 4 on location. Being that small still we can really tailor each box to what they like. So, for my time I'm counting the extra shopping time, loading the three plastic tubs with product, meeting the guy so he can service, meeting him again when he's done, and counting the money.

It takes him just under 2 hours for all four. Of course, if it was bigger we'd just fill at home and dash in and out. I think the profit increases this way though

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