havending Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 I have not done candy for years. But I have a new location and owner wanted some candy in the dining area and it as a whole should do 800 or so a month. So what the hell I had some new vend star machines in the shop. I put locks in them bought mm, skittle and tab gum. Ok here is the thing candy is high as hell. MM we're over 10 a bag and skittle 8 a bag. I can make money on the gum but I see the other two as a break even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Mike and Ikes, Skittles, and hot tamales are about the only thing cheap enough to make money with these days. Runts are cheap, too, but you have to buy them 30 lbs. at a time. I hate candy and hope to phase it nearly completely out of my route by 2015. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Action Vending Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 no commission thats how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newheart53 Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 I agree unless you can get .50 cent mechs you do not make a lot of money on candy. I have a whole route of candy machines and can't change them over to toys. Am going to try to change over to .50 cent mechs as soon as possible. If the restaurant will let you add a rack of toys that should make it worth while to supply it with candy [ good profit on toys to cover small profit on candy]. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted August 20, 2013 Author Share Posted August 20, 2013 If those six heads break even or worse I don't care because the account has lots of profit in it. But I started years ago as a candy guy and I made good money and I paid com. It's crazy how candy prices have gone out of control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 no commission thats how. Exactly. The only "candy" I am willing to do in any of my commission spots is gum. If those six heads break even or worse I don't care because the account has lots of profit in it. But I started years ago as a candy guy and I made good money and I paid com. It's crazy how candy prices have gone out of control. It is crazy! And unfortunately, there's no hope of those prices ever dropping again IMO. I remember the peanut items like BBB, RP, and PMM all sky rocketed when we had the peanut harvest issues in the U.S. That was in 2011. That fiasco is well over with and prices have yet to come back down a nickel on any of those items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiley Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Exactly. The only "candy" I am willing to do in any of my commission spots is gum. It is crazy! And unfortunately, there's no hope of those prices ever dropping again IMO. I remember the peanut items like BBB, RP, and PMM all sky rocketed when we had the peanut harvest issues in the U.S. That was in 2011. That fiasco is well over with and prices have yet to come back down a nickel on any of those items. Just like Oil peaked at $145 a barrel in July 2008 causing the price of everything we buy to go up. Oil went down and 90 percent of the prices of our stuff never did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makes Cents Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 ; Exactly. The only "candy" I am willing to do in any of my commission spots is gum. & It is crazy! And unfortunately, there's no hope of those prices ever dropping again IMO. I remember the peanut items like BBB, RP, and PMM all sky rocketed when we had the peanut harvest issues in the U.S. That was in 2011. That fiasco is well over with and prices have yet to come back down a nickel on any of those items. Once suppliers increase cost they try to keep that price point. Why, because they can. Once they hit a higher price point they believe consumers psychologically become less resistant to the higher prices. Examples: Peanut drought. Not only is the peanut drought over, there is a surplus of peanuts. Prices should come down. When bulk vending toy prices went up @2007/8 importers claimed it was based on costs such as oil and shipping. They had no choice but to raise prices. Once the prices went up they kept them there. They encouraged bulk vendors to raise their price points and many have and/or are starting to. This is a sham IMO and I think what you will find is that once the higher price points become more established, importers will start taking a larger and larger piece of that new margin. Heres an example: Once they establish an item is a hot seller, boom, that price is raised and it is kept there. Oil. Went up, wont come down. It may fluctuate $1-$20 a barrel but that equates to 1-.50 cents a gallon- Its fixed. Vending sales are down. How many of you toy & bulk candy vendors are making as much profit as you did 10 years ago? Can we do anything about it, yes! Recognize whats going on and resist: I stopped recently stopped running M&Ms anymore. So Ive lost 2 out of 116 accounts and those were replaced. I buy the cheapest gas in town, out of principle. If I find a supplier gouging me, I stop doing business with them. Same with Freight companies trying to slip in fuel surcharges and huge lift gate and other bs fees- Uship! I just cancelled my ups account because they like to gouge the small guy. Sorry for the rant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davco1 Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Believe it or not, Peanut M&Ms have come down $.50/bag (that's 5%) in my neck of the woods. It takes a while but if the free market goes unmolested by government, free market competition will cause prices to come down.....IT JUST TAKES TIME. Pay attention to your vend portions...we run mainly candy and our margins are steady at 75%. I've been told by some of the older players that "if the portion is not a big handful people wont use the machine". I say BS if I can't sell at a profit, what the hell's the point? I have some machines that only vend 4 peanut M&Ms and people are using the hell out of it. Either they use the machine or I'll find another location that will. Also another thing to be hopeful of in this business is deflation (when the currency goes up and prices fall)....if the economy continues to stall we may experience some of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casey259 Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Is the candy business on the decline? So if you were starting off is the long term profits better in toys vs. candy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Believe it or not, Peanut M&Ms have come down $.50/bag (that's 5%) in my neck of the woods. What are you paying for those PMM? And where do you get your product from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davco1 Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 What are you paying for those PMM? And where do you get your product from? I operate in the Dallas area, I've seen them at several of the SAMs in the area for $9.30 a bag. They were at $9.86. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 I operate in the Dallas area, I've seen them at several of the SAMs in the area for $9.30 a bag. They were at $9.86. That is a low price compared to most around here. The sam's prices I've seen are all still at around $9.88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davco1 Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Is the candy business on the decline? So if you were starting off is the long term profits better in toys vs. candy? You can still make money in candy, it just takes three easy steps! 1) Don't buy into the BS 2) Buy a set of scales 3) if your candy isn't selling move it before it expires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davco1 Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 You can still make money in candy, it just takes three easy steps! 1) Don't buy into the BS 2) Buy a set of scales 3) if your candy isn't selling move it before it expires Don't misunderstand the message. I'm adding toys to my route as fast as possible in order to diversify some. The only thing is toy locations are in much higher demand than candy stops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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