Lock, Stock, and Barrel and Kaboom Jawbreakers

[shepherdsflock]

I just put in Lock, Stock, and Barrel in 6 heads over the weekend. I ordered it from TJ King because they still have the old displays (which look much better in my opinion). It's actually a Cardinal product, but whatever. Anyhow, I stopped into one of my locations this morning on my way to work to check product level on one of my sticker machines. While I was there I checked my Lock, Stock, and Barrel head to see how customer response was. It was good. I didn't count the coins, but it looked like there was about $10 worth of quarters in the tray. Not bad for less than a week.

On the same day I put in Lock, Stock and Barrel, I also put Kaboom Jawbreakers in one of my gumball heads at this same location (I had two gumball heads at this location, which was overkill). The reaction was similarly positive. There appeared to be about as much money in the Kaboom head as I found in the Lock, Stock and Barrel head. I could also see that the product level had dropped.

These are encouraging results. I'm going to start trying these two products in more of my locations.

[Action Vending]

almost everyone of my locations has a gumball head and a lock stock head. BTW you could buy the displays from tj and the product from cardinal to save more money. Which displays does tj have the old "cuffs 'n stuff" displays?

[adog]

Will the lock stock and barrel vend out of an 1800 gumball wheel? I just picked up two 1800 machines and one has three gumball wheels and I mostly vend candy! How much do yo vend each capsule for?

[Rick]

Will the lock stock and barrel vend out of an 1800 gumball wheel? I just picked up two 1800 machines and one has three gumball wheels and I mostly vend candy! How much do yo vend each capsule for?

Yep, the 1-800 will vend any 1" cap. It looks like you're initially not enamored with the fact that one of them came with three GB wheels, but find a busy family-owned restaurant and put the Lock Stock in one head, GB in the middle and Sticky Jungle in the third. You may re-think your plan to vend mostly candy after you see the first month's pull. Good luck out there!

[adog]

Thanks for the reply Rick. Where is the best place to get these toys and capsules without shipping being way overpriced??

[shepherdsflock]

Will the lock stock and barrel vend out of an 1800 gumball wheel? I just picked up two 1800 machines and one has three gumball wheels and I mostly vend candy! How much do yo vend each capsule for?

Yes, acorn style capsules can be reliably vended from 1800 machines with a gumball wheel. To make it work, here is what you need to do:

1. Remove gumball riser that sits under the wheel.

2. Remove agitator spring from gumball wheel shaft.

3. Remove the shorter of the two springs on the gumball housing.

4. Open up gumball holes as wide as they will go. Depending on which style of gumball wheel you have, you may need to drill some new holes to get the slots to open up wider. I've had to do this on several wheels.

5. Get some 50 cent coin mechanisms and make sure they are NOT Buzz Bite mechanisms. Buzz Bite mechanisms WILL cause misvends! (50 cent coin mechanisms aren't really necessary to vend toys, but you'd be crazy to vend them at 25 cents in this day and age unless you've got a major price war going on with a competitor).

[shepherdsflock]

You may re-think your plan to vend mostly candy after you see the first month's pull.

This was exactly my experience. I was planning on doing only candy when I got started and did not want to do toys. Then I purchased some machines from a vendor who was moving out of state and went with him to run the part of his route I was purchasing. When I saw what kind of money he was pulling from the machines, I knew that toys were in my future. There's nothing like walking into a pizza place and pulling $80 out of your 1800 triple after a month of selling toys. You'll never want to do candy again! I only have a few candy locations now, mostly breakrooms and places that just simply wouldn't support toys.

[adog]

Thanks Sheperdsflock. Where is the best online supplier for these toys? What toys do you vend by the way. I understand the lock stock and barrel does good, how about those sticky hands?

[shepherdsflock]

I'm intentionally vague and sparse with comments about what sells well for me, simply because some new competition has moved into my area and I don't want to give them an advantage if they're reading this forum. You can try any of the popular suppliers that other members of this board use: A&A, Top Notch, Flat Line, Cardinal, TJ King, Allstar, etc. Cardinal is the distributor for Lock, Stock, and Barrel. You can buy it through other distributors, but it is a Cardinal product. I recently bought some through TJ King because they were still selling it with the old product displays (which look better in my opinion). I spent more than I would have if I purchased through Cardinal, but I got what I wanted.

The sticky hands are a consistent seller. They won't fly out of your machine, but they are consistent. Many products do well for a month or two and then trail off into oblivion. Sticky mixes usually don't have the initial sales explosion you see with some new items, but they also don't have the diminishing sales you see with many other products. They are a consistent stable product that you should be able to put in a machine and never really need to switch to a new product in that head. Kind of like gumballs.