marzvending Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 do you prefer Soda or Snacks? if you had to choose one over the other which would you choose and why? Which one makes more profit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 I'm not full line operator but id choose soda because you need less variety in stock ( approx 10 for soda, but more like 45 items for snack.) also snack has lots of stales that need to be thrown away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullyfrog Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Soda...but most places request snacks if you're gonna do soda. Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Personal opinion.....for me they compliment each other. From a strict profit margin, soda's will certainly have a higher rate of return. Cans can be purchased for 22 - 30 cents each, sell for 75-85 each. Some places are asking $1 now for a can. So it's easy to triple your money on drinks. Snacks vary, but candybars are now cost 55 cents each (wholesale) and sell for $1, so the rate is less then double. Chips you can almost triple your return. Depending on the soda machine, you can get a 45 selection soda machine (Glass front) and you can easily have 30 or more different selections when you count in energy drinks, milk, juices, water, sports drinks etc, so the amount of selections between snacks and drinks could not really matter, depends on the type of machines. From a repair and maintenance perspective, with soda machines, you not only have typical motherboard, vend motors issues, but you will also have compressor maintenance and repair that you will have to deal with, not typical on snack machines. I guess, if you had a choice between a snack machine or a soda machine only, I would probably go with a nice soda machine, but try to convince them to install a snack machine also.....but DO NOT do a combo machine..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adog Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Search the forums using there excellent search engine! There are many discussions on this topic with many more answers and info! Probaly so e debates on this to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamvend Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 I think that you really should do both to be a successful vendor but, I couldn't imagine just doing snack machines. Not only only is the profit margin higher on beverage machines especially cans but, the time that it takes to load the product and to service soda machines is typically much less, especially when loading cans in a stack vendor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 But if you are a beginner then it is easier and cheaper to get and use a bubblefronts so you could get by very well with 10 selections- try finding a snack machine with 10 selections only. Also snacks spoil quicker, combined with the fact that you need lots of variety means that its really hard to manage stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 I think that you really should do both to be a successful vendor but, I couldn't imagine just doing snack machines. Not only only is the profit margin higher on beverage machines especially cans but, the time that it takes to load the product and to service soda machines is typically much less, especially when loading cans in a stack vendor. I know some guys that make decent money doing soda only but I don't know anyone that lives exclusively off of soda only vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pp47021 Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Snacks are a pain, like you said you have to keep many different kinds of product and haul it all around with you. On top of that most snack products have some kind of expiration date on them, and some will melt if you leave them in your van or truck to long without air conditioning on during the summer months. I avoided snacks as long as I could, but you will find all of the bigger accounts will want snack and soda. In the long run its well worth it to get these great accounts. I sell everything with at least 100% mark up. So my candy bars cost me .55 I charge $1.25. They still sell well and it actually makes it worth my time. When I jumped the price about 6 months ago my existing locations gave me some flack, they stopped buying for about 3 weeks, but guess what...now they buy as many as they use to. I have acquired 2 new locations since then and just started them out on the higher prices and never had anyone say anything. Bottom line...you will make money with both, don't miss out on a great location because you don't want to do snack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 If you are just getting your feet wet in vending, stick with soda only for a while if you can. This allows you to get used to the ins and outs of one type of machine. When you are comfortable with doing soda, then consider branching into snacks. Just remember that when you begin doing snacks your stales and expired products will be high until you get several machines out to spread your inventory into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwi Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 If I had to choose between the two I would say soda only! In saying that.. only offering soda opens the door to the snack supplier if the are able to also offer both snack & soda. If I was doing soda only I would also limit myself to stack machines only because of the greater capacity. It may work if you teamed up with another operator who only wanted to do snack & you did soda or vise versa like some snack & drink operators team up with coffee vendors. I don't see this happening as much here anymore as even companies like coke also offer snack & coffee services to complement their soda machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyinchville Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 HI, I know some guys that make decent money doing soda only but I don't know anyone that lives exclusively off of soda only vending. Huh?.....Coke and Pepsi route guys do this all the time....;-) I think it would be tougher for a small independent to be drink only since most every stop already has a Pepsi and / or Coke machine. I started off as a snack only route w/ Pepsi placing soda machines for me and me getting a 10% comm off their sales for machines I helped place...Later, I branched out to a few soda machines of my own and I like it (BUT I really dread the day a compressor goes out....so far so good tho and it has been about 2 years since I've started drinks on my routes ( I only have 5 drink machines of my own out at this time (one is a part of a combo machine)...The other 5 machines are Pepsi commission machines (they do all the stocking, fixing etc...I get 10% commission). Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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