Mold The Rookie!

[White Dog]

First off, I’d like to say thank you.   As a prospective rookie vendor, I’ve been lurking on here reading and learning whatever I could for some time now.   I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from reading your posts and replies.   The free information that flies around here is invaluable.  I’ve been particularly impressed with the willingness of so many of the veterans to help so many of the rookies.  As a member of a few different forums, I can tell you that the same cannot be said for other sites.  So again, thank you.

 

I’ve read many posts from many newbies looking for advice on the many different topics that invariably come up.  As someone who’s looking to get into the business, I didn't want to post just another “newbie has a question” type of post.   However, as someone who knows the wisdom of taking advice from those with experience, I felt it would be just plain stupid not to not seek your advice for my own soon-to-be-venture.

 

All that said, I’d be curious to hear what moves the ideal rookie should make.  In other words, what steps would you tell me to take that would give me the greatest chance of success?  What should I do?  What should I not do?   Think of me as a clean, rookie slate.  Know that I intend to follow the consensus of your advice.  What steps should someone just getting in to the biz, take?

 

If you’ve ever wished that you could outline a start up plan (and I don’t know why you would  ) for someone who would actually listen, this is your chance.

 

A little background information:

 

• I’m an independent sales contractor (12 years experience) whose schedule is COMPLETELY flexible.
• I have a substantial amount of cash on hand to get started (this is quite different from saying that I want to spend it all)
• I do not do debt – ever.
• I have a fair amount of time to devote to this new enterprise
• I’m relatively handy and have a good knack for figuring things out
• I have a very reliable SUV (6 cyl thankfully) that will carry me through at least the first couple of years growth
• I have the full support of my significant other (and the White Dog  )
• I have a trailer suitable for hauling machines
• I’m not afraid of hard work or rejection
• I live 20 minutes from two large cities

I sincerely appreciate any and all advice.

 

WDV

 

 

 

[moondog]

Start with a good soda machine in a blue collar place with 20 or so employees.  If you decide to go for snacks, maybe buy a small route with three of four snack machines - trying to do just one is near impossible profit wise.  Think twice about moving soda machines by yourself.  Avoid locators and maybe run a Craigslist ad offering soda service, but first buy a decent machine and learn how it works.

[AZVendor]

Stick with can soda machines to start with as they are the easiest machines to learn and use.  Use Craigslist to find used machines for sale near you.  You will want to have a couple of machines available to place should you pick up a couple of stops.  This will give you time to learn the workings of the machines and do any refurb work and cleaning that they need before they go out.  You can post links to machines you're interested in and we can evaluate them for you.  You might also find some machines on location through Craigslist as well, but be sure you get some advice about them from this forum before you spend any money.  If you've been reading for awhile on this site then you already know to purchase only US made machines that have technical support and parts availability here in the US.  Avoid all foreign made machines and any internet, business opportunity or trade show machines offers you might stumble across.  They are just waiting for suckers to come along.  Remember that real vending machines are all electric with no mechanical vend mechanisms.

[orsd]

Remember that real vending machines are all electric with no mechanical vend mechanisms.

Except for bulk machines, there all mechanical but are very nice and reliable

Oh and yeah, avoid combos

Also, id stick to Dixie narco, royal and vendo for soda, and ap, crane, Rowe, national, and usi/wittern/fawn for snack. Usi also has good soda machines

Ps : read the back posts - there very helpful

[Walta]

Do not buy combo machines!

 

Do not buy soda machines that hold less than 350 cans.

 

Do not buy snack machine with less than 28 selections.

 

If a location has poor sales and you have a large machine you can fill it one a month and still turn a profit. But if you have only small machines you will need to go every week because one item will be empty and the gas and labor will eat you alive.

 

Keep your route small enough that you can run it yourself. This is a cash business very few employees can resist the temptation of unsupervised cash handling for long.

 

If you do employees let them know that you will be counting the cash in a machine in random machine before they collect and compare that with count from the money room for that machine.

 

Walta   

[White Dog]

All fantastic advice.  Thank you. 

 

A few questions based on the information you’re all giving me thus far:

 

Why are combo machines so bad?  I’ve heard over and over to avoid them like the plague but haven’t heard why.

 

Why is it near impossible to turn a profit on a single snack machine?

 

If I was to buy a soda machine, what should I look for?  I’ve got a good grasp of what brands I want to look for but unsure of what other criteria I should have. In my mind, I would think the ability to take cards would be critical this day in age.  Yes?  

 

I’m also toying with the idea of buying a small route.  I’m not quite there yet but believe I will be soon.   What should I be looking for in a route?  What questions should I be asking?   What criteria should I use to evaluate it?

[moondog]

All fantastic advice.  Thank you. 

 

A few questions based on the information you’re all giving me thus far:

 

Why are combo machines so bad?  I’ve heard over and over to avoid them like the plague but haven’t heard why.

 

Why is it near impossible to turn a profit on a single snack machine?

 

If I was to buy a soda machine, what should I look for?  I’ve got a good grasp of what brands I want to look for but unsure of what other criteria I should have. In my mind, I would think the ability to take cards would be critical this day in age.  Yes?  

 

I’m also toying with the idea of buying a small route.  I’m not quite there yet but believe I will be soon.   What should I be looking for in a route?  What questions should I be asking?   What criteria should I use to evaluate it?

 

Combo's don't hold enough product to satisfy a decent account unless you make two or three trips a week - you don't want to do this.  Combo's are best used as an add-on machine in a bigger location.

 

Operating a single snack machine is difficult because you'll have a lot of stale products - you need to be able to spread out case lots across at least four or five machines.

 

As you're probably aware, stick to the big three brands (Royal, Dixie and Vendo).  Get a multipriced machine with a good validator and coin mech.

 

Don't worry about cashless vending for awhile - that's only found in larger accounts.

 

If you see a small route for sale, run it by the forum before buying it.  That topic is a little too involved to be summed up in a nut shell.  There are a lot of threads dealing with this issue - you'll see some similarities and some differences between the situations discussed

[tc vending]

You have so little capacity in a combo its hard to make money. You can turn a profit on a single snack just has to be a larger location. Soda machine opinions vary I like royal multiprice machines. Buying a small route is how we got started. How big are the locations do they have soda and snack on location these are the most profitable accounts. If the locations are not great then it is an equipment buy so judge the equipment. Hopefully this advice is a little bit of help.

[moondog]

You have so little capacity in a combo its hard to make money. You can turn a profit on a single snack just has to be a larger location. Soda machine opinions vary I like royal multiprice machines. Buying a small route is how we got started. How big are the locations do they have soda and snack on location these are the most profitable accounts. If the locations are not great then it is an equipment buy so judge the equipment. Hopefully this advice is a little bit of help.

 

Yep.

 

I prefer the Royal's too (which I get no small amount of crap for around here  )

[CajunCandy]

Yep.

 

I prefer the Royal's too (which I get no small amount of crap for around here  )

 

Hey moondog

 

I see why you like the Royal's you have! The coke man emptied the machine they had located in our shipping warehouse, because of slow sales and left the sucker open for me to poke and prod it has a chain that operates all the columns and looking at it you can put cans and 20 oz bottles in it. To bad I can't find stuff like that here locally I would spend the money for it!

 

Mike  

[moondog]

Hey moondog

 

I see why you like the Royal's you have! The coke man emptied the machine they had located in our shipping warehouse, because of slow sales and left the sucker open for me to poke and prod it has a chain that operates all the columns and looking at it you can put cans and 20 oz bottles in it. To bad I can't find stuff like that here locally I would spend the money for it!

 

Mike  

 

That's a GIII with the chain drive Mike - it comes in the 660 and 804 size so it's a real big machine.  I have a couple of the 804's and a couple of the 660's all ex-Coke.  The other ones I like are the Merlin IV's - I have 4 of the 768's.  TC says that you guys have to go to Houston for machines - too bad you couldn't find out who's scrapping the bottler machines and head them off at the pass.

[White Dog]

Combo's don't hold enough product to satisfy a decent account unless you make two or three trips a week - you don't want to do this.  Combo's are best used as an add-on machine in a bigger location.

 

Operating a single snack machine is difficult because you'll have a lot of stale products - you need to be able to spread out case lots across at least four or five machines.

 

As you're probably aware, stick to the big three brands (Royal, Dixie and Vendo).  Get a multipriced machine with a good validator and coin mech.

 

Don't worry about cashless vending for awhile - that's only found in larger accounts.

 

If you see a small route for sale, run it by the forum before buying it.  That topic is a little too involved to be summed up in a nut shell.  There are a lot of threads dealing with this issue - you'll see some similarities and some differences between the situations discussed

 

Aha! Now it makes sense, thanks!   

 

Where do you all look to find small routes for sale?   I've been looking on CL but are there other sources I should be checking?  

 

The typical CL ad frustrates the hell out of me.   I typically find an ad like this:

 

Bulk Candy Vending Biz 4 Sale - $7500

I am selling my bulk candy vending business. The business includes 5 locations up and running plus 20 never been used quad head machines.

 

Getting info out of some of these guys is like pulling teeth.   It's seems to me that so many of these route sellers have no idea what their biz is really doing.  Perhaps that's why they're selling.  Typically I'll ask what a route is grossing or what the locations are like.   The typical response goes something like "Depends on the month.  Most of the locations are auto shops"    As you can see, no real information.  

 

As soon as I find a route for sale that looks interesting, I'll be sure to run it by you guys.  

 

 

 

 

[moondog]

Aha! Now it makes sense, thanks!   

 

Where do you all look to find small routes for sale?   I've been looking on CL but are there other sources I should be checking?  

 

The typical CL ad frustrates the hell out of me.   I typically find an ad like this:

 

Bulk Candy Vending Biz 4 Sale - $7500

I am selling my bulk candy vending business. The business includes 5 locations up and running plus 20 never been used quad head machines.

 

Getting info out of some of these guys is like pulling teeth.   It's seems to me that so many of these route sellers have no idea what their biz is really doing.  Perhaps that's why they're selling.  Typically I'll ask what a route is grossing or what the locations are like.   The typical response goes something like "Depends on the month.  Most of the locations are auto shops"    As you can see, no real information.  

 

As soon as I find a route for sale that looks interesting, I'll be sure to run it by you guys.  

 

CL is the best place to look, but you must be very patient.  Only about 5% of the deals I see are worth considering with the other 95% being just plain ridiculous.

[White Dog]

CL is the best place to look, but you must be very patient.  Only about 5% of the deals I see are worth considering with the other 95% being just plain ridiculous.

That's definitely the sense I'm getting.  Most of the routes I see for sale are either ridiculously over priced or just not grossing anything worthwhile.  

[White Dog]

Doesn't somebody around here have a well-respected book out about the ins and outs of vending?  I remember reading about it a while ago.  Anybody know what it is and where I can find it?

[moondog]

Doesn't somebody around here have a well-respected book out about the ins and outs of vending?  I remember reading about it a while ago.  Anybody know what it is and where I can find it?

 

RJT

[dogcow]

If u are a sales guy don't buy a route unless its a ridiculously good deal ur paying a ton of money for someone elses sales work which shoule come easy to you, like everyone else said get a line on a drink machine and go out and pitch when u find something buy the machine

[treadmill]

That sample ad you posted was for bulk candy vending machines and not for snack machines. Anyways that route and and machines sre way overpriced.

[White Dog]

That sample ad you posted was for bulk candy vending machines and not for snack machines. Anyways that route and and machines sre way overpriced.

Yah, I realized that after I posted it.   I was using it more as an example of how seller's post routes for sale without giving even much of the basic info.   Not against bulk but just not what I'm looking for at this point.

[White Dog]

If u are a sales guy don't buy a route unless its a ridiculously good deal ur paying a ton of money for someone elses sales work which shoule come easy to you, like everyone else said get a line on a drink machine and go out and pitch when u find something buy the machine

Agreed.  The sales work is not an issue for me.   However, I am hoping to find that ridiculously good deal that on a route that I can have up and running while I'm out doing some placement myself.   

[dogcow]

Agreed. The sales work is not an issue for me. However, I am hoping to find that ridiculously good deal that on a route that I can have up and running while I'm out doing some placement myself.

When u get a route up and running ur time to do sales evaporates ur always behind the 8ball I am closing in on two months behind on sales calls,feels like a nonstop game of whack a mole with service calls

[moondog]

When u get a route up and running ur time to do sales evaporates ur always behind the 8ball I am closing in on two months behind on sales calls,feels like a nonstop game of whack a mole with service calls

 

 

So true Dogcow,

 

Time is ultimately the big limiting factor.  If you load yourself up with a bunch bottom feeder locations, you'll never find the time to go out and get the good ones.  A good vending business is best built slowly and selectively - this is not something that will happen overnight.

 

What I like about the soda only locations for beginners is that a decent soda account will always fit into a larger, more profitable, business.  They're easy to service and won't take a lot of extra time while still making a decent return.

[FrCorey]

Mold the rookie?

and what will we get?

moldy rookies, moldy rookies