moving advice

[thevendingguru]

I have been following some of the great advice that has been posted on here and I am looking for some more great advice for a situation that I find myself in.

I have 125 single head candy machines and 25 large spiral gumball machines. 68 of them are on a route spread out over a distance of around 2,000 miles (which I am slowly trying to sell or/and dismantle) and 82 are in my cousin's garage. The city where I live is saturated with machines (locators refuse to do any locating here) and many of the small towns around here already have machines. That is how my route ended up being so spread out.

At the end of August, I will be moving far away to a large city for college. The city and the area within a 5 hour drive from it has approximately 15 million people and manny business there do not have machines (I have been there personally and looked around). I have also checked out the licensing requirements in this city and its neighbouring cities.

In a nutshell, they are:

the business where the machine is located in has to have a food permit if I am selling food (ex. gum...in a restaurant).

no permit is needed if I am not selling food.

I think this could be a good opportunity to find places for the machines, but I am not sure of the best way to do it. I also could ship some machines at a time or all of the machines at once. When they arrive, I will have to pay for storage, gum and charity stickers. It also costs around $15 per machine to ship them.

For now, I plan to leave the 68 machines on location (if I can't sell them), go service them in a few months and just let them sit right where they are.

As for the other 82 machines, I have a few questions:

Is it better to ship them all at once (and pay for a storage unit) or ship a few at first (and save on a storage unit) and ship the rest in a few months?

I am comfortable locating but it will take time to locate 82 machines (and pay for a storage unit while I am locating). Would it be better to hire a locator and get them out all at once (so I might have to pay for only 1 month of storage), or slowly find locations myself?

The traffic and parking in the city is horrible, but the transit system is amazing. If I were to locate myself, would it be better to use public transit and go door to door until a place says that they will take a machine, at which point i can return later with the machine, or use my car which will probably involve more walking to get places as well as parking fees? I prefer to have a machine on hand when I locate, but this is easier in small towns that huge cities.

At some point down the road, if I decide to get more machines and locate them in places such as tire shops that don't have food permits (meaning that I can't sell gum or candy), what products would work in such places that are not food related? toys? balls? jewellery? ANy thoughts?

any good advice would be appreciated

[mission vending]

I have been following some of the great advice that has been posted on here and I am looking for some more great advice for a situation that I find myself in.

I have 125 single head candy machines and 25 large spiral gumball machines. 68 of them are on a route spread out over a distance of around 2,000 miles (which I am slowly trying to sell or/and dismantle) and 82 are in my cousin's garage. The city where I live is saturated with machines (locators refuse to do any locating here) and many of the small towns around here already have machines. That is how my route ended up being so spread out.

At the end of August, I will be moving far away to a large city for college. The city and the area within a 5 hour drive from it has approximately 15 million people and manny business there do not have machines (I have been there personally and looked around). I have also checked out the licensing requirements in this city and its neighbouring cities.

In a nutshell, they are:

the business where the machine is located in has to have a food permit if I am selling food (ex. gum...in a restaurant).

no permit is needed if I am not selling food.

I think this could be a good opportunity to find places for the machines, but I am not sure of the best way to do it. I also could ship some machines at a time or all of the machines at once. When they arrive, I will have to pay for storage, gum and charity stickers. It also costs around $15 per machine to ship them.

For now, I plan to leave the 68 machines on location (if I can't sell them), go service them in a few months and just let them sit right where they are.

As for the other 82 machines, I have a few questions:

Is it better to ship them all at once (and pay for a storage unit) or ship a few at first (and save on a storage unit) and ship the rest in a few months?

I am comfortable locating but it will take time to locate 82 machines (and pay for a storage unit while I am locating). Would it be better to hire a locator and get them out all at once (so I might have to pay for only 1 month of storage), or slowly find locations myself?

The traffic and parking in the city is horrible, but the transit system is amazing. If I were to locate myself, would it be better to use public transit and go door to door until a place says that they will take a machine, at which point i can return later with the machine, or use my car which will probably involve more walking to get places as well as parking fees? I prefer to have a machine on hand when I locate, but this is easier in small towns that huge cities.

At some point down the road, if I decide to get more machines and locate them in places such as tire shops that don't have food permits (meaning that I can't sell gum or candy), what products would work in such places that are not food related? toys? balls? jewellery? ANy thoughts?

any good advice would be appreciated

How about just loading up what your vehicle can carry whenever you go home and locating them before you come back for another load?

[sprint54fan]

Just curious where your from and where your moving to?

[thevendingguru]

I can fit 7 machines and stands at a time in my car. I have thought about just loading up the car and taking what I can and locating those when I get there. By doing that, I would have a place to store them (in my car), but it is a 1,500 mile drive each way. In the long run, I am not going to keep driving 3,000 miles return to transport 7 machines each time. I guess what I could do is go with 7 machines and if I find it is easy to find places for them, then I can ship the rest, knowing that I won't have to store them very long.

I have read the forums on locators and the locator that I last used charged $50 a location. Several of the locations are so slow that 1.5 years later, I am almost at the point of breaking even on some of them. These are in small towns, mind you.

I will be moving from western canada (north of montana) to toronto.