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Dentyne Ice machine vandelized


acvending

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I tried sanding with a dremel tool. To be honest, I just gave up after a couple of minutes of doing this. I am just very frustrated with even having to do this to get a consistent vend out of this machine. The sanding was making the round edge rough which is not good IMO.  Steve.......it would be great if a second generation machine that I know you had spoken about a good while ago to me would come to fruition on the market for us to buy. I am like on egg shells going into this high end beauty shop and spa tomorrow with a double there for the first month. I am keeping my fingers crossed. ( which I should not have to do! )

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Hey Polecat.  3 of my DI locations today had awesome amounts (about $25 for the month).  However, the owners from all locations have told me that their customers are complaining that they get 0 candy.  I was also told this last month from another location owner, but I thought it was just a fluke.  I was pretty depressed earlier because I did not know how to solve this.  I'm really glad I found this post.  How much bigger should we make the holes (like 1/16 increase in diameter)?  Are you going to make a new wheel with the increase in hole size?

The issue with the zero vend is that certain gum pellets will slightly swell and if they fall just right into the hole, they can get wedged in there, resulting in no gum being able to pass through. This didn't start happening until late spring as the weather warmed up. Hopefully with temps cooling a bit this will not be an issue going forward. We are mfg. a wheel that's approx. 1/16th larger, which solves the jamming problem, however, it may result in a higher % 3-piece vends.  Given a choice, it's probably not a bad trade-off.  -Steve
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I have made several attempts to get the machine to vend consistent. (NW machine with their wheel) I can not get it to work. Has anyone? I hope the bugs get worked out. But as of now Product cost is to high and vending on a consistent basic isn't possible. 

 

Mike

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Hey Polecat.  3 of my DI locations today had awesome amounts (about $25 for the month).  However, the owners from all locations have told me that their customers are complaining that they get 0 candy.  I was also told this last month from another location owner, but I thought it was just a fluke.  I was pretty depressed earlier because I did not know how to solve this.  I'm really glad I found this post.  How much bigger should we make the holes (like 1/16 increase in diameter)?  Are you going to make a new wheel with the increase in hole size?

The issue with the zero vend is that certain gum pellets will slightly swell and if they fall just right into the hole, they can get wedged in there, resulting in no gum being able to pass through. This didn't start happening until late spring as the weather warmed up. Hopefully with temps cooling a bit this will not be an issue going forward. We are mfg. a wheel that's approx. 1/16th larger, which solves the jamming problem, however, it may result in a higher % 3-piece vends.  Given a choice, it's probably not a bad trade-off.  -Steve
Three pieces of gum brings the COGS up to about 10-11 cents Steve?  I think I would sell more gum because of that fact alone.  It may not be so bad to hand a customer 3 pieces.
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From a customer perspective, 3 is better then 1 (and certainly zero...). The larger hole may edge the 3-piece vend % up slightly, but will reducing the 1-piece vend and should eliminate the zero. Again, please keep in mind the periodic jamming has been caused by the gum swelling, especially in high humidity areas during the warmer summer months. 95+% of our customers have never experienced any jamming, or at least they've not been reporting it if they have.

One note to Big Mike regarding your comment on product cost: At the highest, the vend cost is about .08/vend, 30%cogs. Many perceive the cost to be higher because of the cost-per-bag. But when you consider there's about 490 vends per 3 lb. bag, it puts it in better perspective. Most VENDiscuss members who have purchased are probably in the .07 to .075 cpv range. Obviously, the cost is higher then gum balls, but now we're talking apples and oranges...

Also, compare this to other premium bulk products, like P M&M's, where 1 3lb. bag produces about 70-75 vends and is .10-.12 vend cost, I'd like to think we're providing the product at a pretty fair value.

As always, thanks for the valued feedback.

Steve, spvg

 

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