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Anyone Up For Ice Vending?


gdbutler

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the guy that mentioned he "worked for ice vending company" was not even talking about what this thread is about..He was talking about where you put a freezer on curb of c-store and a route truck comes by every week and fills the freezer with bags of ice,,the c-store pays for the ice and they provide freezer for free,just like coke and pepsi do the glass door coolers in the stores..

that is very profitable,,as the c-stores sells the ice for you and there is not theft as the c-store is responsible and pays for the ice bags when they are delivered..

this vending machine we are talking about on this thread is a competing biz that is totally self service and bags etc automatically... the are a real biz op thing and i don't think they will ever turn a profit.. a local guy here in my town has one and he cries all winter about his dumb mistake of sinking 100k in this biz op/blue sky business...

all the machine is really is a restaurant ice machine,most make over a 1000 lbs a day and dumps in bin beneath so waitress etc. can just scoop out for glasses... now you get you a "grain elevator" like is used on a farm to elevate corn etc, basically a belt with ridges on it to elevate the material, in this case ice. like this

now you get a coin/dollar operator timer mechanism (like on car wash,air compressor etc) and figure out how long it takes for that belt to fill a bag of ice and set timer for that...there you have a ice vending machine,,get a fabricator to make you a nice stainless steel box, and insulate it really really good.. total costs,,less than 5K id guess and you can make it smaller so it could fit on steps on c-store so you wouldn't have electric bill etc. just plug into their water/electric.. forget the auto bagging etc. just make it so its like walmart with bags on a roll in produce section..make it cheaper than anybody else sells bagged ice..

I think you can make money with them but with that big of investment they are just fishing for someones retirement savings by promising the "pie in the sky" which like they say a "fool and his money are easily parted."

you can normally spot the biz ops when you see them for sale on ebay and craigslist in location for half of what they sell for new,,normally they will say "Selling due to health." and just point potential buyers to the original snake-oil salesmen's marketing material....

ron

ron

That is exactly what I was thinking, "the way overpriced for what they are" part.  The reason I joined this forum is that I would like to put together my own ice vending machine for my lot which is on a pretty busy street in a fishing county in Tennessee.  I think it would do well or at least well enough, but not well enough for the $50K+++  they want for the other ice venders.  You have a good idea but not sure I like the conveyor system, see, I don't know alot about ice but it is not always the same, not like "sands through the hour glass."  If you get any clumping it may not deliver any at all for several seconds or minutes or if it is clumped just the right way it might over deliver.  It's colder and drier at times which effect how it acts on the conveyor belt.  I would go for a weighted tipping plate set for the weight of the ice you want to vend.

 

As a matter of fact if anybody wants a hands off project and willing to coach me through this, for 1) their own satisfaction 2) to help me out or 3) to show up the nest-egg-robbers  I'd love to work with that person and build an ice vending machine.  I've got the investment money (the low end kind mentioned in this post haha) and the willingness to do it.  If your certain you know how to do this let me know.

 

Also, Ron, all of the "house" and "hut" makers talk about "raking" (not nest eggs but ice) to keep the ice from turning into a block, I guess one of those would have to be figured in as well.  Great thread, great post, thanks.

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Downunder theres a chinese machine that's being imported and modified locally that's selling for around $20,000.00 have a look at google fastice.com.au. I know some guys here that has these machines and in fact I am considering buying 2 to see how the go for the upcoming summer season.

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I actually got a call from a guy that had 2 of these things last week. He was calling and looking for someone to buy them because wanted to get out. He has had them on several locations and his best results are in lower income areas averaging 80-100 a day each which to me was quite surprising, I did not think the sales would be that good.

 

No I'm not going to buy them, for that kind of revenue I'd offer a whole lot less than he was asking.

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Downunder theres a chinese machine that's being imported and modified locally that's selling for around $20,000.00 have a look at google fastice.com.au. I know some guys here that has these machines and in fact I am considering buying 2 to see how the go for the upcoming summer season.

 

 

I actually got a call from a guy that had 2 of these things last week. He was calling and looking for someone to buy them because wanted to get out. He has had them on several locations and his best results are in lower income areas averaging 80-100 a day each which to me was quite surprising, I did not think the sales would be that good.

 

No I'm not going to buy them, for that kind of revenue I'd offer a whole lot less than he was asking.

 

I looked them up "fastice" and found them but I also found a USA company called Texas Snow Man that has a machine for $19,900.

@mission vending are those 80-100 bags or 80-100 $s.  Most of the time the ice people speak of bags.

 

Just for a side note, I had a visit from 2 reps from a certain ice vend company today, who met me at my site.  They were "BESIDE" themselves at what a great location I had and how smart I was to buy that lot.  I gotta say they made me feel real good about myself for 45 minutes.  Of course they thought the $50K machine was where I should start so that I could go "at least a year" before I'd need to upgrade.  They did make some good points and they definitely helped me look at my location in a different way.

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I looked them up "fastice" and found them but I also found a USA company called Texas Snow Man that has a machine for $19,900.

@mission vending are those 80-100 bags or 80-100 $s.  Most of the time the ice people speak of bags.

 

Just for a side note, I had a visit from 2 reps from a certain ice vend company today, who met me at my site.  They were "BESIDE" themselves at what a great location I had and how smart I was to buy that lot.  I gotta say they made me feel real good about myself for 45 minutes.  Of course they thought the $50K machine was where I should start so that I could go "at least a year" before I'd need to upgrade.  They did make some good points and they definitely helped me look at my location in a different way.

 

Its the same thing, he is selling 10lbs for a $1.

 

"At least a year" before you need to upgrade? upgrade what, the emptying of your wallet?

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yeah, I don't know how you get out with that much money up front.  That is why I'd like to build my own ice vendor.  Really would love someone who would just act as my sounding board as I try to put this together.

 

I think that "upgrade in a year" bs is a way of saying, here is this huge machine, big bucks and you are going to max it out (see all the dollars) before you need even more.  It's just a pump.  I know.

 

Any gear head want to talk me through it a bit.  I've done a lot of research already.

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Any gear head want to talk me through it a bit.  I've done a lot of research already.

 

I would have no idea how to help but if you do proceed with this project I will be sure to read the updates and offer what help I can.

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These ice machines are very intriguing. My uncle owns four very large marinas. Tons and tons of foot traffic durning the obvious time scale. They cannot keep up with the ice demands during major holidays. I've got permission to set up shop at all of his locations. Just like all new machines the price will come down. My whole thing is gambling on weather. I hate not having control of my income. This past fourth of July is a prime example. Those four marinas did ONE million dollars less than last years.

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These ice machines are very intriguing. My uncle owns four very large marinas. Tons and tons of foot traffic durning the obvious time scale. They cannot keep up with the ice demands during major holidays. I've got permission to set up shop at all of his locations. Just like all new machines the price will come down. My whole thing is gambling on weather. I hate not having control of my income. This past fourth of July is a prime example. Those four marinas did ONE million dollars less than last years.

I would get the contract for ice vending at the locations then allow a ice machine operator set up for a cut of the take. Your investment is nil and you reap a cut. Those ice stations are costly to maintain and may take time from your main biz.

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I would get the contract for ice vending at the locations then allow a ice machine operator set up for a cut of the take. Your investment is nil and you reap a cut. Those ice stations are costly to maintain and may take time from your main biz.

Thats a excellent point. 

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Hello fella's.  First time on the forum, I'm sitting at home and had the idea to look for ice vending forums on google and it took me here.  If anyone is really interested to know how this business works out I'll give you guy's a play by play if you want.  After reading your threads my nervouseness is back with a vengeance as my nice new ice machine was plopped down on Tuesday and today (Saturday, Aug. 31) im ending my second full day of vending.  I'm not going to say how much I have invested, makes me nauseous if I think about it too much, but lets just say it's a damn sight more than what has been talked about in here.

 

The machine is located in a farming/bedroom community of a largish (100,000 +) town in a southern/southwestern state.  The population of the town is a little more than 3,500 but there are alot of folks building homes in the area outside the city limits, so the population of the surrounding area is probably in the 10,000 range I'm guessing.  The location is very good as it's on the east side of a small shopping center/strip mall with highway frontage on the west side of town...the side that all the commuters take to go to the larger city.  It's also a highway to two lakes within 15 miles of the town. 

 

The machine is capable of making a little over 9,600 lbs of ice in a 24 hour period....it uses a Vogt VT100 commercial ice maker.  The "bin" (it's actually a barrel similar to a cement mixer, it rotates to despense the ice) holds 1,000 lbs.....max is 1,500 (I have it set to 1,000), it despenses 20lb bags for which I charge $2.  It also vends 1, 3, or 5 gallons of water which I have priced at .25, .75 and $1.  The water is city water that has been run through a water softener and through a two stage filter then through a UV light to kill any bacteria etc...although, like I said...it's city water so that would be a non-issue as far as I know.  From 5pm Thursday (when the machine was finally prepped to run) to Friday at 8pm I sold 78 bags.  From then till 9pm tonight I had sold 81 bags.  I'm actually happy with that performance for a brand new machine for which I never marketed in any way.  I was told by a family freind who owns 5 simillar machines, that I can expect 10-15% annual increases in sales for the first 3 years.  The distributor for this particular company stated the same thing as well.  After 3 years the machine will be doing all it's going to do, of course assuming the community stays the same.

 

I built my business plan with information shared to me by the family freind that owns 5, that man is actually a close personal freind to my uncle.  He shared with me what each of his machines did on a month by month basis....he did this through sharing his vending software information which keeps live track of each of his machines daily.  All but 1 of his machines are in rural farming communities of less than 7,000 population.  The one machine that isn't is located in a town of around 60,000 which does even better.  IF my machine can average what his machines do, I will make the payments, pay the monthly overhead and take home $15,000 profit a year.  After 7 years the machine will be payed off and I hope to make much more money.

 

I first saw a big ice vending machine 3 years ago and was intrigued, after mentioning it to my unlce he told me of his freind that has several and now, 3 years and alot of headaches later, mine is up and running.  Like I said, if anyone is interested I'll be more than happy to share what happens next.  Believe me, I've been a nervouse wreck these last couple of months.  But after taking money out of the machine these last two days I am feeling much better.

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There are a few of these around town. They're in lower income areas usually in like vacant lot/ unused parking space type of areas. I'm assuming the rent is cheaper that way. The original location has been in place for well over 5 years. I have to assume someone is making money with them.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2.

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Hello fella's. First time on the forum, I'm sitting at home and had the idea to look for ice vending forums on google and it took me here. If anyone is really interested to know how this business works out I'll give you guy's a play by play if you want. After reading your threads my nervouseness is back with a vengeance as my nice new ice machine was plopped down on Tuesday and today (Saturday, Aug. 31) im ending my second full day of vending. I'm not going to say how much I have invested, makes me nauseous if I think about it too much, but lets just say it's a damn sight more than what has been talked about in here.

The machine is located in a farming/bedroom community of a largish (100,000 +) town in a southern/southwestern state. The population of the town is a little more than 3,500 but there are alot of folks building homes in the area outside the city limits, so the population of the surrounding area is probably in the 10,000 range I'm guessing. The location is very good as it's on the east side of a small shopping center/strip mall with highway frontage on the west side of town...the side that all the commuters take to go to the larger city. It's also a highway to two lakes within 15 miles of the town.

The machine is capable of making a little over 9,600 lbs of ice in a 24 hour period....it uses a Vogt VT100 commercial ice maker. The "bin" (it's actually a barrel similar to a cement mixer, it rotates to despense the ice) holds 1,000 lbs.....max is 1,500 (I have it set to 1,000), it despenses 20lb bags for which I charge $2. It also vends 1, 3, or 5 gallons of water which I have priced at .25, .75 and $1. The water is city water that has been run through a water softener and through a two stage filter then through a UV light to kill any bacteria etc...although, like I said...it's city water so that would be a non-issue as far as I know. From 5pm Thursday (when the machine was finally prepped to run) to Friday at 8pm I sold 78 bags. From then till 9pm tonight I had sold 81 bags. I'm actually happy with that performance for a brand new machine for which I never marketed in any way. I was told by a family freind who owns 5 simillar machines, that I can expect 10-15% annual increases in sales for the first 3 years. The distributor for this particular company stated the same thing as well. After 3 years the machine will be doing all it's going to do, of course assuming the community stays the same.

I built my business plan with information shared to me by the family freind that owns 5, that man is actually a close personal freind to my uncle. He shared with me what each of his machines did on a month by month basis....he did this through sharing his vending software information which keeps live track of each of his machines daily. All but 1 of his machines are in rural farming communities of less than 7,000 population. The one machine that isn't is located in a town of around 60,000 which does even better. IF my machine can average what his machines do, I will make the payments, pay the monthly overhead and take home $15,000 profit a year. After 7 years the machine will be payed off and I hope to make much more money.

I first saw a big ice vending machine 3 years ago and was intrigued, after mentioning it to my unlce he told me of his freind that has several and now, 3 years and alot of headaches later, mine is up and running. Like I said, if anyone is interested I'll be more than happy to share what happens next. Believe me, I've been a nervouse wreck these last couple of months. But after taking money out of the machine these last two days I am feeling much better.

Welcome here glad to have you.

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There are a few of these around town. They're in lower income areas usually in like vacant lot/ unused parking space type of areas. I'm assuming the rent is cheaper that way. The original location has been in place for well over 5 years. I have to assume someone is making money with them.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2.

I was told that's your bread and butter areas of town.  The folks that pay your bills are the people that buy ice and water every day.  Farmers/ranchers, brick layers, electricians, etc...people that work for a living.  Meaning physical labor every day.  I was born and raised in a small farming community, most of my closest freinds are ranchers and farmers, they buy ice every single day.  Where I am now, theres still alot of farmers and ranchers but theres also plenty of plumbers, electricians, bricklayers etc.  Hopefully they really WILL pay the bills!  Weekends like this one, I suppose, are icing on the cake so to speak but I will know more after my last take on Monday night.  I haven't been to the machine all day but I think I'm going to head out in another hour or so and see how things have gone.  It was 104F yesterday and 101 right now but I'm really not sure how much difference the temperature makes.  I'm going to assume not a whole lot once it gets past normal summer temperatures.  I do know one thing, I have one decent month of selling ice, maybe October but I'm not holding out much hope for December through Feb. but that was known going in and I do have some "backup" in the account to help me through this winter.

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Hello fella's.  First time on the forum, I'm sitting at home and had the idea to look for ice vending forums on google and it took me here.  If anyone is really interested to know how this business works out I'll give you guy's a play by play if you want.  After reading your threads my nervouseness is back with a vengeance as my nice new ice machine was plopped down on Tuesday and today (Saturday, Aug. 31) im ending my second full day of vending.  I'm not going to say how much I have invested, makes me nauseous if I think about it too much, but lets just say it's a damn sight more than what has been talked about in here.

 

The machine is located in a farming/bedroom community of a largish (100,000 +) town in a southern/southwestern state.  The population of the town is a little more than 3,500 but there are alot of folks building homes in the area outside the city limits, so the population of the surrounding area is probably in the 10,000 range I'm guessing.  The location is very good as it's on the east side of a small shopping center/strip mall with highway frontage on the west side of town...the side that all the commuters take to go to the larger city.  It's also a highway to two lakes within 15 miles of the town. 

 

I first saw a big ice vending machine 3 years ago and was intrigued, after mentioning it to my unlce he told me of his freind that has several and now, 3 years and alot of headaches later, mine is up and running.  Like I said, if anyone is interested I'll be more than happy to share what happens next.  Believe me, I've been a nervouse wreck these last couple of months.  But after taking money out of the machine these last two days I am feeling much better.

 

Ed,

 

I'm glad that you joined us and REALLY appreciated your being willing to share your experiences with us. I hope we didn't make you too nervous because all of our posts are pretty much based on speculation and little actual experience with one of these machines so the information you share with us will answer many questions for our members and readers.

 

We typically have around a couple of hundred members log in each day but it is not uncommon to see traffic of several hundreds more of people stopping by TVF on a daily basis that do not have a account. I do hope that you will continue to participate and share with us here.

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Thank you guy's you have made me feel welcome.  Today my total sales (from 9-ish Saturday till 8pm tonight) was 62 bags.  I also sold 15 gallons of water....I think.  The water counter isn't working, I need to contact the company (I have 3 guy's I can call at any time, day or night) to see what can be done.  As (I think) I stated earlier, the bag vend totals aren't working either.  What I'm doing is simply counting the cash...not coins...so truthfully the counts are probably off a few bags.  For the first time I did clean out the coins tonight and had $27 in quarters...that however wasn't tallied.  The 62 bag SWAG was from the cash only as were the other totals I've been reporting.  I did get a text message from the machine as I was headed to it (I live in the larger town about 20 minutes away) stating; Vend Cycle Jam.  Then a few seconds later: Out of Order.  I sent a text to reset the machine and I got a reset reply followed with Out of Order.

 

When I pulled up to the machine there was no Out of Order text on the display....it was the normal text.  I looked in the machine and nothing seemed out of place so I decided to cycle the machine through text.  That's when I noticed a new message that simply stated; Modem OK.....it was sent 20 minutes after the last Out of Order message.  Hmm, I went ahead and made it vend a bag and there were no issues other than the bag seemed to be hanging slightly after the blower blew it open so I reshuffled the stack to loosen them up.  The bags are blown open with a blower and if their stacked too tightly the one being blown open wont billow out into the loading chamber (my terms lol)  I'm assuming the customer that used the machine when it went out of order got his ice because there wasnt one still in the machine and I never got a call....my cell number is prominently displayed on the machine.

 

Which brings up another point from Saturday.  Somthing similar happend shortly after checking the machine that afternoon (It's my new baby and I'm rarely gone from it for more than a few hours)....anyway, I recieved a Vend Cycle Jam text on the phone followed by the dreded Out of Order text.  That time however my phone range a few seconds later, it was a customer.  I told him I'd be there asap, he said he had some more running around to do and would meet me back at the machine.  When I got there he was sitting in his pickup so I went in the machine and his bag was sitting on the tilt tray (it tilts up to slide the filled bag down the chute).  I grabbed the bag and two $1 coins and gave both to the customer.  He was appreciative and I went back inside to see what the heck was up with the machine.  I looked the innards over as best I could but for the life of me couldn't see anything wrong.  At that point I made a big mistake.  I did a manual vend. 

 

The large stainless steel drum started spinning and dumping ice on the floor of the machine...I just about crapped my pants.  By the time I got the breaker box open and shut off the drum motor there was, conservitavely, 100lbs of ice on the floor.  At that point I called the mechanical tech guy.  With his help we figured out the door that opens to dump ice into the bag wasn't shut.  After looking at it, it was obvious that the door was about 1/3rd open.  When this machine vends a bag the drum spins to dispence the ice into a chute.  When the ice builds up to a point that it intersects a sensor the blower kicks on that blows a bag open under the trap door at the bottom of the chute.  Then the trap door opens dumping the ice in the open bag.  Once the bag is filled other sensors detect that and closes the bottom door.  Once the bottom door closes another sensor detects that and the tray tilts open to slide the bag out to the customer.  So when I did the manual vend, the door just simply dumped the ice down to the floor, without a bag to fill, the drum kept turning until I had a glacier down there....I guess eventually it would have stopped but with the sensors to turn the drum off about 5 feet off the floor only a Saint Bernard would have found me lol  But to get the machine going again I simply whacked the bottom door and it closed....in a herky-jerky kind of way.  Which made me think theres a rough spot on the door.  I disconnected the actuator and the door swung without any issues.  Now I'm worried it might be the actuator itself.  But I havent had any other issues with that door since then, and I've had many vends so maybe it's just a hickup that wont happen again....but I'm not going to hold my breath.  It will probably stick again on Tuesday while I'm at work.  I really need to find someone close to the machine that I can call if the need arises.  Having a machine sit for hours on end with Out of Order flashing on the display cant be good for business.

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I uploaded a video to youtube...it's showing a new problem I'm having;  The bag isn't blowing all the way out into the channel under the dump door....I had to stick my hand under there and help the bag billow out into the chamber so the ice could dump.  I think I caused this problem when I added some more bags to the machine.  I think I packed them a little too tight and the bottom of the bag was being held in place too tightly by all the other bags and the sliding weight.  I loosened the slidding weight a little and fluffed the bags, then it started working like a charm.

 

The video shows a complete vend...usually faster of course because I had to help the bag into the dump chamber.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ng4f7B26o&feature=youtu.be

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Ok, just got back from the machine...today's total is 49 bags.  About what I thought it would do on the last day of a three day weekend.  Tomorrow is really judgment day I think, really interested what this thing is going to do on a work day.  Please, please, please don't let this be a weekend only machine!  Daddy needs to make a BIG payment in a month!

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@edsurly - what did you have to get for permits for this unit?  Inspections? electrical/vending/water/dept of health/dept of agriculture?

just curious about who's looking at you.

 

You never mentioned credit cards.  Does this machine take credit cards?  How does that break down to percentage of use, what percent cash vs credit.

 

I'm not asking your monthly payment, but what I am interested in is the monthly charges from 3rd parties or the ice vend manu (NOT to include, bank note, electrical, water) for the cell phone program, remote access, credit card servicing, servicing contract, monitoring contract, scheduled maintenance, scheduled cleaning, web access, sales trend monitoring and reporting, brand support contribution etc.  Some monthly charges may include several or all of these.

 

what is your filter change schedule suggested to be?  Do you do that or they do that?

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@edsurly - what did you have to get for permits for this unit?  Inspections? electrical/vending/water/dept of health/dept of agriculture?

just curious about who's looking at you.

 

You never mentioned credit cards.  Does this machine take credit cards?  How does that break down to percentage of use, what percent cash vs credit.

 

I'm not asking your monthly payment, but what I am interested in is the monthly charges from 3rd parties or the ice vend manu (NOT to include, bank note, electrical, water) for the cell phone program, remote access, credit card servicing, servicing contract, monitoring contract, scheduled maintenance, scheduled cleaning, web access, sales trend monitoring and reporting, brand support contribution etc.  Some monthly charges may include several or all of these.

 

what is your filter change schedule suggested to be?  Do you do that or they do that?

I just got finished meeting with the state health inspector.  The only thing he stated that needed to be done on his report was I needed to have signage that stated the type of filtration, UV sterilization, water softener system and water source.  Basically what one would put on the side of the machine for advertisement....That visit was called a "Plan Review" and it cost a one time fee of $200.  I will also have to submit $350 to the state health department and $250 a year thereafter for their "stamp of approval"....he called it a "Food manufacturing/production license fee".  I'm also required to submit water samples to the county health department quarterly at a cost of $15 or so (his words).  The health inspections are done once a year.  I had to have a building permit from the city at a cost of $1250, water meter for $250 and water meter hookup fee for $75.

 

The machine does take credit cards and I use USA Technologies for that.  I filled out an EFT form (electronic funds transfer) with a voided check, then I sent them a check for $70 for the activation fee.  The fees USA Tech charge are 5.10% for an average vend price of $2.00-$2.99....which is what I pay.  Pretty damn high I think but I didn't shop around for another vender.  I haven't seen any money from credit/debit cards deposited to my account but I did see a $2.95 charge from something called "Bill Matrix/Bill Pay Fee"....honestly I don't know if that's from USA Technologies or the electric company.  I payed the hook-up fee of $250 by phone with a check.  Now that I think about it, it think that's what that $2.95 fee is, the service charge for the electronic check by phone for the utility company.

 

I'm getting e-mails at aroung 4am from USA Technologies called USALive Reports that list the credit card activity for the machine.  I haven't been counting those in the totals I've been listing here.  I just havent thought about it till now.  They havent been much, $2, $16 on Saturday and I think another $2 from Monday.  So as of now the card reader isn't brining in much business.  It's mostly been $1 bills.  I've only removed a total of $29 in quarters from the ice side of the machine. 

 

There are no monthly charges from the manufacturer of the machine.  For the cell service I just got a pay-as-you-go plan from AT&T and a sim card.  The plan was for 1000 texts a month and was $11 and change each month tax included.  Unlimited texts was $20 +tax.  The remote access is limited and is accesed via text messages I send the machine.  I can tell the machine to reset, vend a bag of ice or.....hmmm, I cant remember what the other one is at the moment, but there were only 3 things I could get the machine to do remotley.  I have no monitoring on the machine, that's around $40/mo plus the equipment plus internet and with only one machine it wasnt needed.  I have no internet for the machine, nor do I need it.  The text system does what is required.  All the scheduled maintenance and cleaning etc will be performed by me.....there isn't any maintenance per se.  No brand support either.  The brand is on the bag I guess, it's my company name and my cell phone number.  In all reality the ice machine itself is the advertisement for my ice as well as the manufacturer of the machine.  I did peel off the "To buy a ** ice machine call; ...." sticker lol  Dont want to make it too easy on people to plop them down all over the place :P  Assuming I make my investment back that is....

 

Which brings us to how the machine did today;

18 bags....18 friggen lousy bags!  Now this is as of 3pm, when I met the health inspector but it's not looking too good for a weekday.  Part of me wants to believe that it's just a slow start to the work week after the 3 day weekend and part of me is scared golpher-less.  Nevertheless I won't be revisiting the machine today.  I'll check it tomorrow when I get off work and if it's not substantially better I'll go to an every other day schedule on the machine...at least for weekdays.  I was really hoping all the folks that do labor for a living would be buying their ice and water from me on their work days.  Maybe they still will, maybe not.  Time will tell. 

 

I'll repost my sales from this evening and Wednesday (sales till around 5pm anyway) tomorrow on this thread.

Forgot to talk about the filter change schedule, I do that and it's not on a regular time frame.  This machine has pressure gauges and the filter will be changed depending on the pressure drop across the filter system.  I was told the "main" filter should last a month or two and the charcol filter should be good for 6 months at a time.  The pressure readings will tell me when they need changing.

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What is kind of interesting is that when you speak to the manu they never know any of this stuff.

 

Ice is food.  Which is why I thought the Dept of Agri would be involved.

 

I spoke with Kooler Ice a manu out of Georgia and they had a bunch of monthly charges attached to owning a machine.  I think you would pay them $20 a month for them to support the brand "Kooler Ice" nationally, not locally for me.  And their warranty required you use their twice yearly cleaning system by their tech.

 

I'm sure USA Tech also has a monthly fee, you might have overlooked it but everyone I inquired about had a monthly fee, somewhere between $8 and $12 for the connection.  Actually I thought your 5.1 % was low from all the ones I heard quoted.  5.1 is high generally but low with regard to Bill Acceptor charge attachments.

 

18 bags is scary, (sorry I miscarried the number in my head and thought it was $18) I thought the morning after a big weekend might be below average, I hope so.  But I have to go to a city a couple of hours from here and they have a 100K machine in a parking lot that I check out in my spare time, I know the price because I ran into another "stake out guy" who shared this info with me he had gotten from the company.  Neither one of us had ever seen a vend, and this machine is like a caboose in size.

 

How many ice bins in the area, a few miles in all directions from you?  For instance my area it's just saturated with bins of ice, every kind of store sells the stuff.  The manu's say this is very good 'cause it means there is lots of ice sold, which is potential business for the ice vendor.

 

Also, what is the price of the ice being sold in the competitors bins?  How big is the Walmart Ice lockers, do they sell one size or two sizes (10&20).  $2 for 20 lbs seems like you are the low price provider by a lot.  If that is the case (in my area generally it is $2 for 10 lbs & $4 for 20 lbs almost everywhere) then I would think your sales increase year over year might be better than 10-15% as you state, because you really should capture most of the non-impulse or those that value convenience the most, business.

 

In an unrelated question, I liked your video but was wondering, since I didn't see a bag seal process or bag tie inside the machine (it seemed like the bag tilted out with the top part just folded over) does your machine seal the bag or is that done by the customer?  Do you have a bulk vend option?

Is bulk vend same price for unbagged ice?

 

This is all fascinating.

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What is kind of interesting is that when you speak to the manu they never know any of this stuff.

 

Ice is food.  Which is why I thought the Dept of Agri would be involved.

 

I spoke with Kooler Ice a manu out of Georgia and they had a bunch of monthly charges attached to owning a machine.  I think you would pay them $20 a month for them to support the brand "Kooler Ice" nationally, not locally for me.  And their warranty required you use their twice yearly cleaning system by their tech.

 

I'm sure USA Tech also has a monthly fee, you might have overlooked it but everyone I inquired about had a monthly fee, somewhere between $8 and $12 for the connection.  Actually I thought your 5.1 % was low from all the ones I heard quoted.  5.1 is high generally but low with regard to Bill Acceptor charge attachments.

 

18 bags is scary, (sorry I miscarried the number in my head and thought it was $18) I thought the morning after a big weekend might be below average, I hope so.  But I have to go to a city a couple of hours from here and they have a 100K machine in a parking lot that I check out in my spare time, I know the price because I ran into another "stake out guy" who shared this info with me he had gotten from the company.  Neither one of us had ever seen a vend, and this machine is like a caboose in size.

 

How many ice bins in the area, a few miles in all directions from you?  For instance my area it's just saturated with bins of ice, every kind of store sells the stuff.  The manu's say this is very good 'cause it means there is lots of ice sold, which is potential business for the ice vendor.

 

Also, what is the price of the ice being sold in the competitors bins?  How big is the Walmart Ice lockers, do they sell one size or two sizes (10&20).  $2 for 20 lbs seems like you are the low price provider by a lot.  If that is the case (in my area generally it is $2 for 10 lbs & $4 for 20 lbs almost everywhere) then I would think your sales increase year over year might be better than 10-15% as you state, because you really should capture most of the non-impulse or those that value convenience the most, business.

 

In an unrelated question, I liked your video but was wondering, since I didn't see a bag seal process or bag tie inside the machine (it seemed like the bag tilted out with the top part just folded over) does your machine seal the bag or is that done by the customer?  Do you have a bulk vend option?

Is bulk vend same price for unbagged ice?

 

This is all fascinating.

I'll try to answer your questions in order.

 

The warranty on the equipment is 4 years for this manufacturer.  It's not Kooler Ice and it's also not the one you spoke about seeing in the parking lot.  I'll bet that one was a Twice the Ice....based on the size you stated and the cost.  I think their the big dogs in this business.  Although their technology isn't nearly as good as the manufacturer I used*, Twice the Ice is also quite a bit cheaper.

 

You are right on the monthly fee, I rechecked the service agreement and the fee is $9.95/MO for the connection.

 

When you say; "How many ice bins in the area."  I'm not really sure what you mean by ice bin.  I'm going to assume you're speaking in general terms for convenience store ice etc.  In the small town where the machine is located there is an old convenience store just across the street and another large new convenience store next door....across an unused lot...not immediately next door.  There is also a grocery store about 1/2 mile away.  Those stores sell "Ready Ice" in coolers located in front of their stores.  The ice sold is anywhere from $1.95-$2.25 per 10lb bag....some places in the area only carry 8lb bags for a similar or same price.  The larger town 15 miles away has too many convenience stores to mention and one Twice the Ice in the entire town....a town which has over 100,000 people.  That machine does a very brusque business, I don't know the particulars but I have heard from people that know the gentleman that he does very well with his machine. 

 

That particular machine is located on a property along with a car wash, coin Laundromat and a coin operated dog wash...all owned by the same gentleman that owns the ice machine.  I tried to get my machine located in that town but the requirements were far in excess of what I was willing to spend on my first machine; 3 parking spots with a handicapped spot...concrete cue line and approaches, and landscaping requirements...plus if I had to get a location without a water meter the city would require me to tap the main line.  That alone would cost in excess of $20,000.  The best spots for one of these machines will be on busy avenues in town...the main sewage and water lines are buried 10-15 feet below those streets.  I would have to close one lane of traffic, hire a track hoe and spend money out of my nose.  I just couldn't dig a hole any deeper than what this machine alone was going to cost and "basic" setup costs; Concrete pad, wiring and plumbing etc.  The two Wal-Mart Super Stores carry ice as well, it's priced at $1.85 for a 10lb bag.  The freezers at the Wal Mart's aren't any larger than those located in convenience stores.

 

The machine doesn't seal the bags...the bags are dispensed open, there are twist ties on the outside of the machine and the machine only dispenses bags, there is no bulk purchase option.  Most customers have been dumping the ice in their coolers and placing the bag on one of the bollards protecting the machine.

 

 

*The fellow that owns 5 machines in the eastern part of this state (the close friend of my uncle I spoke of earlier) has "The other" ice machines (what I suspect you check out in your spare time).  He was the one that told me to get this particular machine.  He stated the technology/design is far better.  His machines make a ton of money but he has had trouble keeping them up and running reliably.  Those particular machines require an air compressor to power the actuators and those air compressors don't last long.  The way the ice is retrieved is also more complex.  The machine uses a "rake" assembly on chains that break apart the ice and drag it into the dispensing area where it is moved by a conveyor belt to a weight table.  Once the table reaches the preset weight (set by adding or removing weights on the other side of the scale) it dumps into a bag that's blown open with compressed air.  The rakes are forever breaking or malfunctioning, he has to constantly fix air leaks and replace air compressors.  He started out buying good quality air compressors but has since began to just treat them as throw away devices and he uses the cheapest he can find.  Harbor Freight/Grandpa's Tools made in China crap.  He says the problem is the moisture and the crappy ones last just as long as the good quality ones in the environment of the ice machine.  My machine has none of those problems.  Other than the ice maker itself and changer...there are 3 moving parts.  It's beautiful in its simplicity.

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Sold 32 bags today.  Not too bad considering the machine was down all morning because the dump door jammed again.  Got the text at 8:23am but couldn't get to the machine until I got off for lunch.  When I got there I gave the door a good whack and went back to work.  After I got off I went back to the machine, removed the door and "tweaked" it a bit.  I figured out that the actuator for the door has a tendancy to slide to one side of it's hinge.  When it does that it puts the door in a bind.  I loosened the bolt that affixes the actuator to the hinge a small amount and it worked ok, and has been fine sice (knock on wood),  Tomorrow I'm going to head back and put a washer on one side of the hinge so it will then be a permanent fix.  This machine is really well made, I know it doesn't seem like it by my writing but the process of vending the ice is the best I've seen, once this issue is resolved I honestly don't see why I would ever have any more issues.  The bag Issues I had earlier was fixe by simply not stacking to many bags on the despenser at once.  I had over 1,000 bags on it and it just put too much weight on the bag next to the machine.  Once I got rid of about half of them the bag issues went away...and 500 is plenty of bags to have on the machine at a time.

 

I also figured out how to read the vend monitor so tomorrow I'll have honest numbers to report.  The vend monitor reads 317 bags vended since Thursday, but not all of those were customer vends, we vended many bags on Thursday dialing in the machine and I've vended numerous bags while trying to fix the small problems with the machine.  Overall I'm feeling much better than I did last night.  I had several custmers come by while I was tinkering with the machine, I had vended a few bags in case customers came by while it was shut down.  I spoke with every one I saw, they were all excited about the machine and were complementing me on it.  Made me feel good, one of the customers was a volunteer coach and stated he was going to tell everyone he could about the machine.  Made me think that maybe I need to order a pre-paid card for the machine and give them to the school.  Just a little taste...the first ones always free!  :-)

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