Newbie here, best cart to sell snacks to office bldgs?

[Depnomore]

Hi everyone!

I'm wanting to sell snacks, room temp, to office workers. Buildings have elevators, I only have a cpl ready to start with.

I can't lift heavy things (30 lb limit) and I drive a big car. I could restock at my car between buildings. But......

What type of cart would be best ?

It needs to break down or fold to fit in car, needs to hold snacks and also give visibility. Any ideas? Of course my budget is tight.

Thanks in advance!

[entrepreneur90]

Do you mean to just load up a cart full of snack items and push it through an office building and have people pay you for the snacks while you're rolling your cart through the building and actually collecting the money from the person yourself?

[shepherdsflock]

I think this is what they invented vending machines for.

[entrepreneur90]

I've actually thought of doing that myself. I used to run a hot dog stand but due to B.S. local government regulations where I was running my business, I had to shut it down. Right after shutting down my hot dog stand, I ALMOST tried to do what I think this person is talking about, which was to go from business to business (on a route) selling stuff from a push cart inside of the businesses. Based on how successful the hot dog business was for me it seemed very similar. All you'd have to invest in would be product and the cart, and you could even carry a Square Card Reader with you for those who didn't have cash on hand.

 

The only problem that I came to was that while the employees of those businesses where you were pushing your cart through would love you, the managers would probably hate you because you would be disrupting their employees from doing their jobs. Then on the other hand, who's to say that it wouldn't greatly raise employee morale and cause them to work better.....................Maybe this idea is worth exploring.

 

Is this what you had in mind Depnomore? 

[shepherdsflock]

I don't think you'd have much luck with it, considering that most businesses worth going to already have vending machines selling snacks. You'd probably be better off coming up with some kind of a cart that can serve hot meals. Buying a sandwich out of a vending machine and then spending half your lunch break waiting for the microwave to be available and another 3 minutes for the item to cook sucks. People would be more willing to pay you good money for the convenience of not having to mess with a microwave; it's hot and ready to eat as soon as they buy it.

[entrepreneur90]

I have to completely disagree with you Shepherdsflock about "most businesses have vending machines." I do a WHOLE LOT of locating so I'm in just about every business under the sun. Vending companies with full line vending machines stick to very large businesses. VERY SELDOMLY do they ever bother doing anything other than very large businesses. Even the very large businesses that do have vending machines though are a lot of times open to other types of vending as I've learned that through my own locating experience in dealing directly with them.

 

I think if you were somehow able to sell things from your cart in a non-intrusive and non-disruptive way then that would be an excellent way to make some serious cash for yourself. I think what you'd have to do is not expect that people would really buy much from you at first until they get to know you. People will buy from familiar faces and as they see you come around more often your revenue would pick up substantially. You could sell all kinds of stuff from your cart too. Everything from vending machine items to pre-wrapped packages of food to office supplies.I would bet that if you sold basic office supplies, then that in itself may be the deciding factor for a lot of management to allow you to vend there. You would also want to do everything you could to market yourself as a CONVIENENCE and NOT a DISRUPTANCE. It would be all in the marketing and how you came across to other people.

 

Based on what I saw for myself with my hot dog stand, I'll bet you could make $200 a day, working no more than about 6 hours a day EASY with a business like this, provided that you have a decent sized enough route. You would also want to provide your service to a place no more than about once a week maybe much less. Just work on getting as many places as you could. Trust me, when you walk in with good tasting food where people are hungry, they'll buy from you.

[entrepreneur90]

I think the best "cart" to use for something like this would be one of those green plastic wheelbarrows with the inflatable rubber tires that you can get at Lowe's. The reason for that is that you would have more surface space to display all of your items and they're much easier to pull through obstacles (such as up and down stairs and through tight corners) - they're designed to do that type of thing.

 

I think it would be of crucial importance also to have some type of sign on the wheelbarrow that has a classy and sharp logo on it of your business. Either that or have someone paint your logo directly on your wheelbarrow. 

 

I also think it would be of crucial importance to have a classy and sharp uniform as well. My idea for this would be to wear a white dress shirt, black apron and slacks with a bow tie (like the old fashioned Cheers bartender look.) That would LITERALLY make all the difference in the world and I thik would draw people to you like a magnet - you'd probably meet some women that way too

[Snack Express LLC]

Well, I'm a woman, and I'll put in my two cents. The apron is definitely a winner. It will make you look like a caterer, a professional. Change the color of the bow tie every other day or so to coordinate with the colors in your logo. Men seem to like their ducks all in a row, while women like variety in their presentation. It's a female thing. We notice stuff like that.

[Vendinglover]

ive seen this product its ideal for offices .im in for buying a few for large offices

 

http://youtu.be/ZGgj4WBtoEw

 

[matthew1585]

I'd go with at least a utility cart. They start around $100. You could later upgrade to a vending cart or wagon once you start earning money.

[dogcow]

look at going into the lunch truck/roach coach biz. it can be very profitable. often times the local operator will rent you the truck contingent on you buying from their commissary. this lets you get in the biz with less licensing hassle to see if you would like it or not. 

 

i did locating for a guy who was running a lunch truck it is very easy to build these routes most places were excited about the opportunity to have the truck come by, its just typical places that you would do vending. hospitals, nursing homees,factories, other blue collar locations. especially places with 24/7 shifts because the commissary/kitchen shuts down on off hours and the workers would have to cook their own hot meal if they wanted one.