JCS Vending Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Just put together my first honor box last night. 45 items - chips, kellogg nutri-grain bars, gum, soup, smartfood. My husband and partner is insisting we charge $.75 per item because those little bags of chips from Sams are just too small to sell for $1.00 - and a pack of gum for $1.00 seems too much too. So cost on my box was about $11.00. If I sell everything through it'll be $33.75 so $23 net. Doesn't seem worth it. My arguement on the price point is I agree that those little bags of chips for $1.00 is just too much but $.75 doesn't seem like enough for all the time we'd have to put into them (picking up money/refilling once per week?). Also I thought more people are likely to have a $1 bill over 3 quarters in their pocket. However this box is going into a bank's break room so lots of change to be found there. Your thoughts and suggestions appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xfire2004 Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Looks good, good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Just put together my first honor box last night. 45 items - chips, kellogg nutri-grain bars, gum, soup, smartfood. My husband and partner is insisting we charge $.75 per item because those little bags of chips from Sams are just too small to sell for $1.00 - and a pack of gum for $1.00 seems too much too. So cost on my box was about $11.00. If I sell everything through it'll be $33.75 so $23 net. Doesn't seem worth it. My arguement on the price point is I agree that those little bags of chips for $1.00 is just too much but $.75 doesn't seem like enough for all the time we'd have to put into them (picking up money/refilling once per week?). Also I thought more people are likely to have a $1 bill over 3 quarters in their pocket. However this box is going into a bank's break room so lots of change to be found there. Your thoughts and suggestions appreciated. sell everything for $1, dont even bother if you arent going to do that. and yes $23 net isnt bad, consider the box only cost you what? $5 ? thats a pretty good return on investment, find me another form of vending where u get over 100% ROI in 1 week like any vending its a volume business not just margins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCS Vending Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 I cannot price at $1.00 because mostly all boxes in my area are $.50 and $.75. I'm now thinking of making everything 2/$1 - that would keep it cheap enough for people to stay interested and I'm thinking I'd sell more that way. Thoughts appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 try it at $1 u can always lower the price later. but you cant raise the price later...TRUST ME Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I cannot price at $1.00 because mostly all boxes in my area are $.50 and $.75. I'm now thinking of making everything 2/$1 - that would keep it cheap enough for people to stay interested and I'm thinking I'd sell more that way. Thoughts appreciated! What state do you live in? Aim high, shoot low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCS Vending Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 I'm in NY (not NYC). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I'm in NY (not NYC). isn't cost of living high in NY state? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decaturjack Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I'm in NY (not NYC). How much are can and bottle drinks in the machines there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I know a dollar sounds high but listen to dogcow. We were going to do the same thing you are thinking about because we felt those prices were high. You will encounter some theft. If you leave the box set for two weeks they will pay and eat anything you have in the box. She only puts in 4 or 5 choc. things because they eat the candy stuff first. You don't have much margin on candy. Also I don't see any cheese crackers in your box. They sell well at 2 for a 1.00. Also Welchs Fruit snack sell very very well. Any type your supplier carriers will probably do well. This past week she spent $161 at Sams. She pulled out 10 boxes the next day and picked up on average $22 per box. She has enough product to do two more runs 10 box runs..might be a little short on white donuts. Today she is out picking up some of her best ones and I bet the average will be closer to $32 per box. She started out keeping all kinds of records. Now each box gets 35 items. Each item is 1.00, when they come back she counts the number of items left in the box to the money. If they are short she calls her contact and lets them know they were a little short, could they remind everyone. Normally they ask how short. Many of them will give it to her on her next stop. She gets to know her contacts and keeps that relationship solid. The best ones are in apartment building offices, beauty salons (almost 150 per month on one of them), KOI Auto Parts and tool rental places...car repair and collision centers too. The slowest ones are in offices or banks. Bev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I know a dollar sounds high but listen to dogcow. We were going to do the same thing you are thinking about because we felt those prices were high. You will encounter some theft. If you leave the box set for two weeks they will pay and eat anything you have in the box. She only puts in 4 or 5 choc. things because they eat the candy stuff first. You don't have much margin on candy. Also I don't see any cheese crackers in your box. They sell well at 2 for a 1.00. Also Welchs Fruit snack sell very very well. Any type your supplier carriers will probably do well. This past week she spent $161 at Sams. She pulled out 10 boxes the next day and picked up on average $22 per box. She has enough product to do two more runs 10 box runs..might be a little short on white donuts. Today she is out picking up some of her best ones and I bet the average will be closer to $32 per box. She started out keeping all kinds of records. Now each box gets 35 items. Each item is 1.00, when they come back she counts the number of items left in the box to the money. If they are short she calls her contact and lets them know they were a little short, could they remind everyone. Normally they ask how short. Many of them will give it to her on her next stop. She gets to know her contacts and keeps that relationship solid. The best ones are in apartment building offices, beauty salons (almost 150 per month on one of them), KOI Auto Parts and tool rental places...car repair and collision centers too. The slowest ones are in offices or banks. Bev yeah same as me, after a while you get the feel for it, 35 items is a good amount. i did 1 lance pack at $1 but and never had complaints but i bet 2-for-$1 gets u better volume never thought of it. funny i find banks to be great accts , solid volume and low theft. but i only target the big branches with a lot of employees. hair/nail places are the best IMO but tons of theft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pp47021 Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Good luck I am not a fan of honor boxes to much product gets taken and not paid for, or people drop in a few dimes or pennies and think they are doing you a favor (I guess they think we don't have to buy the product and it is donated or something...) People also take something with the "good intention" of paying for it tomorrow when they come back to work and then frequently forget to follow through with that intention. I am not trying to discourage you I hope it works great in your area. If I was you I would set it at $1 and see what happens you can always go down. I would also move away from honor boxes if you notice that the amount of money does not add up with the amount of product taken. Just my .2 cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Good luck I am not a fan of honor boxes to much product gets taken and not paid for, or people drop in a few dimes or pennies and think they are doing you a favor (I guess they think we don't have to buy the product and it is donated or something...) People also take something with the "good intention" of paying for it tomorrow when they come back to work and then frequently forget to follow through with that intention. I am not trying to discourage you I hope it works great in your area. If I was you I would set it at $1 and see what happens you can always go down. I would also move away from honor boxes if you notice that the amount of money does not add up with the amount of product taken. Just my .2 cents... do u run honor boxes? or ur just speculating? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pp47021 Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I don't have any now and my experiment with them was short. I started out several years ago with 3 of them. It only took me a month to figure out they were not going to be in my future long term. I found my first coke machine shortly after that and by the end of my third or fourth month I moved on from honor boxes all together. I just focused on soda and snacks for a while and have recently expanded into bulk candy. I know honor boxes work for some, but there are virtually none in our area ( one of the reasons I tried it). Had I continued to work with them I could have probably found spots that would have worked better, but I got on the soda machines and never looked back. Best of luck to you! PS. I wish I would have found this forum way back then too It would have been a huge help, I learned most of what little I know about vending the hard way. Had I had the help of others or a place to ask questions I bet I could have had more success with honor boxes too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I don't have any now and my experiment with them was short. I started out several years ago with 3 of them. It only took me a month to figure out they were not going to be in my future long term. I found my first coke machine shortly after that and by the end of my third or fourth month I moved on from honor boxes all together. I just focused on soda and snacks for a while and have recently expanded into bulk candy. I know honor boxes work for some, but there are virtually none in our area ( one of the reasons I tried it). Had I continued to work with them I could have probably found spots that would have worked better, but I got on the soda machines and never looked back. Best of luck to you! PS. I wish I would have found this forum way back then too It would have been a huge help, I learned most of what little I know about vending the hard way. Had I had the help of others or a place to ask questions I bet I could have had more success with honor boxes too. I'm not meaning to offend you at all, but as with anything in vending, three honor boxes is FAR too small a sample size to come to any conclusions. Your experience may have been nothing more than bad luck. I say "may" because it's also possible that honor boxes really won't work in your area and your experience was the norm, we really don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pp47021 Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I'm not meaning to offend you at all, but as with anything in vending, three honor boxes is FAR too small a sample size to come to any conclusions. Your experience may have been nothing more than bad luck. I say "may" because it's also possible that honor boxes really won't work in your area and your experience was the norm, we really don't know. LOL I am not offended at all, I am not the kind of person who gets offended often. To be clear I was not trying to discourage the original poster I was just sharing my personal experience. In fact I started by saying good luck "I am not a fan..." I am the type of person that likes to know where everything is and that it was paid for. It really really really bothers me when people steal things. So when I would collect my honor box even if I was $1 short it would really bother me. I only had one box in my short experience with them that came up nearly empty, all product was gone and there was only like $4.53 cents left in the box. The other boxes where usually $1-$6 dollars short. For some this is not a big deal, but it really really really bothered me. So when I got my first 2 soda machines and rolled up after the first week to find that I had over $200 in each of them and the counter and money matched up perfectly (no one took anything) I knew that this kind of vending was a better choice for me. By the end of the first month I had collected over $1700 (gross) from those two machines and I was on my way. As I said in a previous post, honor boxes work for some people and some people love them and make money with them, and I think that is great! I am just not a fan of them, other types of vending fit my area and personality better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosborn415 Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 If you feel that $1.00 is too much and $0.75 is not enough. You could try an $0.85 price point.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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