jpvending Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 Last week I went to the county animal control center to pick up a foster dog. I was surprised to find a double head vending machine there. Not out in the front office area - but back where the dogs were. To me it just seemed potentially unsanitary and not a place I'd want to eat candy! Eww. Then I had to take foster dog to the vet for kennel cough. The vet had same type of machine with same charity sticker on it. Not as strange of a location but thought the connection of the two machines was interesting. Also thought it interesting that neither charity had anything to do with animals. The vet location did give me an interesting idea...what about a triple head with dog treats in one, cat treats in another, and human treats in the third (labeled as such). I think that'd be cute. Not sure what price point the animal treats would have to be though or how long they stay good before going bad. Jane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I've seen machines in vet clinics and animal centers. Not the publicly-funded humane society though- their director thinks that free money in exchange for floorspace isn't worth her time. Also, kudos on taking in a foster animal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpvending Posted July 28, 2012 Author Share Posted July 28, 2012 I just thought the machines being back in the concrete room with the animals was not very sanitary. Out in the waiting area made perfect sense. I don't know...seeing someone hose out dog poop and pee really makes ME want to get a handful of candy. This is my first foster dog and I suspect she is going to end up being adopted by me. I don't think I can give her away to anyone else. Ironically if I'd adopted a dog they were offering a $10 special but because I took in a sick dog and fostered it (and then adopt it) I have to pay all the vet bills to the rescue organization. She's been to the vet once so far and still needs to be fixed. She had puppies before she came to me so not sure if there are associated vet bills from that. And to top it off...I generally HATE chihuahaus so thought this'd be a safe bet. I could foster her and then send her off in a couple weeks...but darn it I've become attached. She's laying in the recliner with me as I type this. Just stamp 'sucker' on my forehead. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I just thought the machines being back in the concrete room with the animals was not very sanitary. Out in the waiting area made perfect sense. I don't know...seeing someone hose out dog poop and pee really makes ME want to get a handful of candy. This is my first foster dog and I suspect she is going to end up being adopted by me. I don't think I can give her away to anyone else. Ironically if I'd adopted a dog they were offering a $10 special but because I took in a sick dog and fostered it (and then adopt it) I have to pay all the vet bills to the rescue organization. She's been to the vet once so far and still needs to be fixed. She had puppies before she came to me so not sure if there are associated vet bills from that. And to top it off...I generally HATE chihuahaus so thought this'd be a safe bet. I could foster her and then send her off in a couple weeks...but darn it I've become attached. She's laying in the recliner with me as I type this. Just stamp 'sucker' on my forehead. LOL. That is weird that they'd allow it to be back by the animals- I'd hate for the county health department to see that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdad65 Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 I bet the pipe stand gets rusty in a hurry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedvender Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 No Doubt it gets lot of use from pissers by (Yep I had to go there) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerformaVending Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 No Doubt it gets lot of use from pissers by (Yep I had to go there) You are a card Big Red! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpvending Posted July 29, 2012 Author Share Posted July 29, 2012 Thanks for the great laugh! Pisser bys! LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetstop Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I have thought about that I just picked up a monthly paper route delivering a pet newspaper (http://www.downeastdognews.com/) I deliver to about 70 animal places each month, vets, humane society, pet stores etc. might be an easy in? my only fear is some kid chowing on some cat food after his mom gave him a quater, I can here the call now?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrCorey Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I have thought about that I just picked up a monthly paper route delivering a pet newspaper (http://www.downeastdognews.com/) I deliver to about 70 animal places each month, vets, humane society, pet stores etc. might be an easy in? my only fear is some kid chowing on some cat food after his mom gave him a quater, I can here the call now?? It wont hurt them. just label it well. I have seen kids at petting zoos eat the food for the animals they have in venders for the kids to feed the animals. hey, it will keep thier coats nice and glossy too. thou, I have rats, and they would rather eat my food then thiers. I have seen one of my rats suck the filling right out of a apple pie. hey, rats really do suck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronsidney Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I have several machines in local marinas with "floating catfish food" in them...I live by the lake and I had a place ask for one and after i placed it I had 3 other marinas with bar/restaurants ask me for same setup...They are just NW 60's with candy wheels ..I have a large pond(6 acres) that i stock with catfish so i had the food already,,the kids buy it to feed the ducks and fish around the marina.. They usually do really well between memorial day and labor day (about three months) at about 2-300 a head for that time as i have to fill them every 4-6 weeks and they are empty..I also put tattoo machines in their stores .. I wouldn't pursue driving all over doing this as its a short window of time n my area,,but my farthest stop is only 15 miles away and my 17 year old actually took care of them this year.. I had seen the same setup a few years ago in a mini golf to feed the Koi so i had the idea already.. ron www.blazingquarters.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedvender Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I have several machines in local marinas with "floating catfish food" in them...I live by the lake and I had a place ask for one and after i placed it I had 3 other marinas with bar/restaurants ask me for same setup...They are just NW 60's with candy wheels ..I have a large pond(6 acres) that i stock with catfish so i had the food already,,the kids buy it to feed the ducks and fish around the marina.. They usually do really well between memorial day and labor day (about three months) at about 2-300 a head for that time as i have to fill them every 4-6 weeks and they are empty..I also put tattoo machines in their stores .. I wouldn't pursue driving all over doing this as its a short window of time n my area,,but my farthest stop is only 15 miles away and my 17 year old actually took care of them this year.. I had seen the same setup a few years ago in a mini golf to feed the Koi so i had the idea already.. ron www.blazingquarters.com Hey Ron That sounds like an Idea I know of a couple of Places I could try that at next year. I will have to put that on my things to check out list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCS Vending Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 I thought about hitting up some vet offices to see if they would let me put a treat machine in, but thought they likely wouldn't because most vet offices I've been to either have a bowl of free treats out on their counter or sell treats themselves Love the catfish food idea! I live near a major US lake and may try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbolley Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 Ditto on the "kudos" for fostering... It would be wonderful if more people would do that. We have a house full of critters that no one wanted or loved until they came here. @(http://www.downeastdognews.com/) What a great looking paper. Interesting idea, I got on their mailing list! Thanks for posting that I posted about what else your able to do with gumball machines. I love the idea. http://allaboutthevendingbusiness.com/greenaid-vending-not-your-normal-gumball-machine/ We don't have gumball mahines but this sure would be an idea for those who do. Cindy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpvending Posted July 29, 2012 Author Share Posted July 29, 2012 At this point I only have Vendstars so can't dispense much of anything but candy (not even 1 inch gumballs I'm sadly told). But I've kicked around other ideas with my boyfriend...different ideas for different locations. Pretty muchly anything smaller than a couple inches could vend out of some of these machines so then you just think about the location and target market. But then the problem becomes carrying too many different products may not be cost effective. Love the idea of the fish food. Although I'd think your machine might stink afterwards even with cleaning? Also if it's an outdoor location how do you keep someone from stealing it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedvender Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 On a vendstar it would be hard I have started with several I got 14 picked up `1 from a slow account and just put a single GB in it. I have just started now to get some singles and doubles eagles and NW. Placed my 1st two yesterday One in a bar a double MM and M&I one in a hair salon single MM. Will have to see how they do. I do like the Flexibility with the singles and doubles. I had earned some extra cash this summer and so I decided to invest it in the route. Stick with the vendstars as you get them located you can always upgrade them later or keep them for slower accounts and as you squire better machines place them in your higher volume accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpvending Posted July 30, 2012 Author Share Posted July 30, 2012 That is what I was thinking. I would love to have some machines that are capable of dispensing 1 in gumballs or bouncy balls but will wait until I start bringing in some money. I suppose I could place some of my vendstars up for sale on CL and see if I could make $$ to buy a few singles or trade. But for now...I just want to get a few machines placed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedvender Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Your on the right track. You can always move a better machine into a good location. Also if you have a few so so locations as you acquire singles you can place them in those places as a Gumball machine and check it every other month maybe. As long it doesn't run empty and you check it and clean it you will be ok. Also with GB you have about a 10% COGS for your product as opposed to 25-40% COGS with most candy. COGS (cost of Goods served) The main thing is to make the stop worth stopping. If you can service a head instead of every month make the same amount on a two or three month cycle you have more machines out and a larger amount each spot will cash-flow. That is where Gumball spirals are nice. 3-4 cases of gumballs and your good for 6 months. Even if you offer a .25% commission your COGS is still only figures out to about 33% Found that out from talking to the owner of a Pizza shop. Didn't get to place a rack there but did learn some valuable info. I wouldn't have been doing singles so soon if I didn't have a chance to work a decent amount of overtime this summer. I also got a good deal on some units I guy had on Ebay that didn't sell. He had those and another set so I got all my eagles for about 30 bucks each shipped. I got 4 NW 60's with double stands for 144.00 72 each slightly used. Just watch CL Ebay you can find good deals. I have been doing this for just over 2 months and have learned a lot here. I have learned the toughest in getting started is getting machines seeded (loaded with product) So I can harvest quarters. I would tell you as you place don't fill your machines up. 1st month Check them after 2 weeks. Don't fill unless empty. If you set up your vend size right a Basic fill I have been doing is about 25.00 a machine If you got your machine set right 21 bucks means you only used about 7 bucks in candy. You loaded it with 25 to start so you don't need to go crazy unless the machine was empty when you arrive the fill it otherwise just add enough to cover what was sold maybe a little more and you will get to be profitable in no time. Vend size is the most important aspect of this. I try to keep my general candy cost per vend 6-8 cents. I make money the customer receives a nice handful of candy for his money. I have recently bought used machines I wonder if the guy that had them really ever made any money. Candy wheels were as wide open as they could be. He was more like just trading dollars. I not trying to harp just sharing some of the things I have learned as I start out in this business Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpvending Posted July 30, 2012 Author Share Posted July 30, 2012 BigRed...go ahead and harp! I'm loving all the info. Was planning on only filling halfway to start and checking in two weeks. Then adjusting for a 4 week cycle. Really not liking the 'adjusting' of the vendstars for dispensing. Seems like you either get what seems like too little or what seems like too much. If I'm doing 13mm gumballs - how many do you think I should dispense? Part of me says since you chew gum and don't eat it then you really don't need it to dispense more than 3 or 4. But my 12 year old told me I owed him a quarter when only 3 came out and he felt gyped. LOL. So just wondering what others though. Gumballs run .10/oz as do the Runts and the PMM's are .16/oz. I'm figuring to dispense about 1/2 oz per dispense (maybe less for the gum). Or at least as close to 1/2 ounce as I can get with the multitude of settings the vendstar offers Does that sound reasonable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdad65 Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 BigRed...go ahead and harp! I'm loving all the info. Was planning on only filling halfway to start and checking in two weeks. Then adjusting for a 4 week cycle. Really not liking the 'adjusting' of the vendstars for dispensing. Seems like you either get what seems like too little or what seems like too much. If I'm doing 13mm gumballs - how many do you think I should dispense? Part of me says since you chew gum and don't eat it then you really don't need it to dispense more than 3 or 4. But my 12 year old told me I owed him a quarter when only 3 came out and he felt gyped. LOL. So just wondering what others though. Gumballs run .10/oz as do the Runts and the PMM's are .16/oz. I'm figuring to dispense about 1/2 oz per dispense (maybe less for the gum). Or at least as close to 1/2 ounce as I can get with the multitude of settings the vendstar offers Does that sound reasonable? Better go with tab gum. Gumballs don't vend well out of vendstars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedvender Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 What I try to do is keep my vend price at .08-.10 cents a vend. 3-5 of the small gumballs should be fine. Just tell him hey 3 smaller gumballs are more then one larger one. MM's I do .4 of an oz same for RP Runts I would do .8 or so. The thing is you don't want a handful so large that a kid cant hold it. It also depends on where I locate my machine. I have chain of check cashing places Those machines are set a little tighter. Break rooms where you have a lot of repeat business and mostly adults I might go up a couple of tenths on my portion size. I will make up the little bit of vend size difference in the amount of return business I get. example MM's are around 1.6 oz if you vend .4 tenths of an oz they are getting the same amount from you as if they bought a bag. Nobody is getting ripped off. I just want to give a fair amount of product for a fair price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpvending Posted July 31, 2012 Author Share Posted July 31, 2012 I had read on here that the smaller gumballs vend ok (13 mm). Is that not true? I bought a box of gobstoppers which are approx same size and shape and they vended ok. I couldn't try the gum since you have to order it online from Sam's for the smaller size. Hopefully it vends ok. Better go with tab gum. Gumballs don't vend well out of vendstars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdad65 Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I have never had any luck with any size out of a vendstar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpvending Posted August 1, 2012 Author Share Posted August 1, 2012 Well that is disappointing to hear. What happens? Do they misvend and not come out at all? Get stuck together inside the machine? Or get crushed in the process of vending? Just wondering why they won't work. Guess if they don't work then my kids will enjoy LOTS of bubble gum for awhile because I've already ordered it. I'm sure they wouldn't mind. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdad65 Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Well that is disappointing to hear. What happens? Do they misvend and not come out at all? Get stuck together inside the machine? Or get crushed in the process of vending? Just wondering why they won't work. Guess if they don't work then my kids will enjoy LOTS of bubble gum for awhile because I've already ordered it. I'm sure they wouldn't mind. LOL. All of the above. They work for awhile then the misvends start. Kids will enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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