sprout healthy vending

[wallstreeterww]

Hey Folks has anyone tried them? They seem to be able to secure some great locations but they arent cheap.

[AZVendor]

I doubt you will find anyone around here who recommends you do business with the "healthy vending" part of the business.  They sell you an expensive "franchise" and expensive machines, then require you to put only healthy products in the machines - which no customer truly wants to buy, especially at exorbitant prices.  Post this question in the Food and Beverage forum and wait for similar answers to come.  Better yet, do a search for healthy vending in that forum as there have been several threads about it in the recent past.

[HealthyVendingOperator]

AZ Vendor! Thank you for being as close minded and simplistic as you are. Please stay that way as long as possible!! What you fail to either realize is that if done right- the "Healthy Vending Operator" can earn much more net revenue per machine than you ever will. The key is that we cherry pick traditional vending operators best machine locations and secure them for ourselves so we can have less machines and do much better than you ever will. Case in point, I have 35 machines and average about $20,000 gross per month. The majority of my machines are placed in locations with over 200 daily foot traffic and people are HAPPY to buy healthy products. Granted there are a few companies out there that price their machines and services to high but if you do your research you will find that there are a few that do not. Your narrow mind can still think of healthy vending as granola bars and trail mix but we know we offer great tasting drinks and snacks that equal traditional vending products. I GUARANTEE my business does better than yours all day long and I GUARANTEE my return on investment is quicker and better than yours. As I said, please keep that train of thought for the next generation and I will continue to take your best locations and increase my business. 

[mission vending]

That's the great thing about the internet anyone can claim anything but without knowing who you are and your experience AZ's posts carry a lot more credibilty.

That's the great thing about the internet anyone can claim anything but without knowing who you are and your experience AZ's posts carry a lot more credibilty.

[moondog]

AZ Vendor! Thank you for being as close minded and simplistic as you are. Please stay that way as long as possible!! What you fail to either realize is that if done right- the "Healthy Vending Operator" can earn much more net revenue per machine than you ever will. The key is that we cherry pick traditional vending operators best machine locations and secure them for ourselves so we can have less machines and do much better than you ever will. Case in point, I have 35 machines and average about $20,000 gross per month. The majority of my machines are placed in locations with over 200 daily foot traffic and people are HAPPY to buy healthy products. Granted there are a few companies out there that price their machines and services to high but if you do your research you will find that there are a few that do not. Your narrow mind can still think of healthy vending as granola bars and trail mix but we know we offer great tasting drinks and snacks that equal traditional vending products. I GUARANTEE my business does better than yours all day long and I GUARANTEE my return on investment is quicker and better than yours. As I said, please keep that train of thought for the next generation and I will continue to take your best locations and increase my business. 

Smells like plants in here all of a sudden - combo machines that are approaching $600 a month average gross? Hmmm

 

Any ideas on where I can get some "healthy" BBQ pork rinds or Flamin' Hot Cheestos ?

 

Ps. Thanks Randy for being closed minded and simplistic

[AZVendor]

Dear HealthyVendingOperator,

 

Welcome to the forums and I encourage you to engage in any industry debates you find.  Thank you for suggesting that I stay on path with my current thinking.    If you would be so kind as to read through the Food and Beverage forum or perhaps search for the topic of healthy vending here on vendiscuss.com you will find several long threads regarding the viability of healthy vending.  There have been many vendors debating on this subject for years (including myriad of round tables at the NAMA shows) and there are some operators on both sides of the fence.  I'm not trying to prove your position wrong or your position right.  There are various ways to look at the healthy vending subject and as a 28 year veteran (an old dog, perhaps) of the vending industry, a former million dollar per year operator and now a vending technician for the past 12 years, I continue to see all aspects of this business from a variety of angles.  I stay up on industry news and trends and as a good entrepreneur I continue to stand on the side of caution for all new trends.

 

The original poster came to this site requesting any information on a specific company.  If you'll notice, I did not give an answer to the question of that company per se, as I have no knowledge about them, but rather spoke on the topic of healthy vending in general.  My response was cautionary to the original poster, and while it is clear of my stand on the subject of healthy vending, the poster was encouraged to search for additional posts and to ask the question in the forum they would most likely get good responses from.  While my response could be construed as railing against this category of vending, it is always my intention to caution operators to do their due diligence prior to dropping a wad of cash. 

 

I'm sorry if I scared your customer, or perhaps you are afraid of anyone who speaks out against this category.  You do have to realize that there are many experienced vendors who have struggled for years with the healthy category in their machines, and there aren't too many who have lived to tell about it (or at least the category didn't). 

 

I also encourage you to search my post history and make a determination if I have any king of an agenda here.  I doubt you could conclude that.  Good luck selling your business model and as always I will be watching to see if healthy vending can yet succeed.

[HealthyVendingOperator]

What a great forum this is. Of course I have to be healthy vending seller of machines right? That has to be the only answer!! Very forward thinking again on your part. I can see you have a few cronies in the forum as well. To all you non believers out there- we have machines that continually sell over a 100 products a day. The next time you are in Portland let me know and I would be happy to show them to you. Two of our machines do over 200 products per day. The numbers are real. I run my route of 35 machines on my own. My wife runs my reports, helps me pre kit the machines and I fill them.  I simply saw an ignorant comment about the industry we have been successful in. I might add that we are NOT operators of the company listed but of another. 

 

I understand your concern for the original poster. Like any vending operator I am continually searching for new information and new ways to improve my business but forgive me for being a little protective of an industry I believe can and does work. The point I made in my previous email is very true and something vending operators who struggle with it should learn from. Healthy vending does work given the right location and the right product mix and given the right service levels. Do you know how many locations I met with that told me horror stories of broken machines, empty machines, bad product choices, poor service? It was EASY getting location given the service levels these traditional operators were giving. And yes every school, ymca, large location I secured was taken from a traditional vending operator. Thats not on me being good, thats on operators in your industry simply being bad at what they do and being close minded to any technology or forward way of thinking. I am certain my average profit margin on product is less than yours in most cases but I easily make up for it in volume which is what you are not taking into account. I would NEVER be in this business with 35 machines doing 5-10 sales a day- especially given the amount of money I spent to get in it however I am sure you realize return on investment is based on more than just how much money you spend on a machine. Just like traditional vending- some operators make it and some do not- take a look at a few craigslist ads if you don't believe me. 

 

I would suspect that your friends who did not learn to tell about making it in healthy vending made mistakes but to go back to the original comment- There are bad vending machine sales companies out there. Both traditional and healthy however you are in this industry so you bought your machines from someone did you not? Did you know how to fill and run your route when you started or did were you taught? Did you get locations on your own or did someone help with it? Of course its a bad idea to overpay for anything but just like bad car repair mechanics but there are also good ones out there as well. I am not trying to slam you are anyone in this form, I just felt that the original comment was far off base and a little to one sided. 

 

Good luck losing locations to smarter operators like myself. You somehow think that because you cant make it in healthy vending then it just cant be a good idea right? I apologize if I find that a little dim. You made a blanket statement and I debated you with facts. As I said  the fact is that the longer people in your industry believe that people will not eat healthy vending items then the better it is for me and my business. Thats all.

 

 

[dogcow]

portland is one of maybe 3 cities where i could see having a 100% healthy vending business and making it work. portland is extremely unique in that regard. i would suspect san francisco, boulder/denver, co and austin,tx are other places where such a thing might be slightly viable. if u look at the demographics of these places you would understand. they are very heavily occupied by "granola" types who are into that sort of thing.

 

That is giving "HealthyVendingOperator" the benefit of the doubt that he is real which i believe is probably not the case. it is very suspicious that there are HUNDREDS of healthy vending threads on this forum but your only posts show up in a thread which mentions the name of a specific company. I think its far more likely you are a online marketing guy for the company and you got a google alert about this thread and came on here spewing BS.  

 

Vending is generally geared toward people who make bad money decisions, these are people who also tend to make bad eating decisions. Long term thinkers generally pack a lunch and do not even look at the vending machine. Also most experienced vending operators don't talk about locations in terms of "foot traffic per day" that is something that is generally discussed by biz-op companies looking to reel in a newbie. Most vending biz cant depend on foot traffic, your bread and butter are employees.

 

Healthy vending is a tool like any other in your arsenal you use it to get locations. However  even if you decide to do 100% healthy vending, never go in with a "business opportunity" they are simply selling you a bunch of hot air for an inflated price.

 

I looked at  "sprout healthy vending", it is basically an AMS machine with a wrap that any sign shop can do for $100 and some bells and whistles you can install yourself. You can have the same machine for likely a quarter of what they charge. What about the locations? Yes they will try to get you a few locations but if you want to be in this business long term you need to be able to locate. You may as well develop that skill early on. Where is "Sprout healthy vending" when you lose your biggest account? they are not gonna get you a new one. I can tell you from personal experience Biz Op people are the best of the best in terms of sales. They have an answer for everything but ultimately they are selling you lies. Most biz op stories end with broken dreams ,an empty savings account and equipment on craigs list for pennies on the dollar. This is harsh but it is reality. Read this forum in the Food & Bev section, you will find all the help you need to build a successful vending business without blowing out your savings account.

[mission vending]

Just thought I'd point out that "healthyvendingoperator" is somehow associated with one of the healthy vending biz-ops out there as determined by the e-mail registration.

 

Not going to post a link to their website and give them free advertising but if anyone wants to know PM me.

 

So are the revenue claims true or just a bunch of BS? Given that HVO started posting here under false pretenses you be the judge.

[AZVendor]

Thanks Mission, it's what I suspected from the tone of HVO's first post.  Thanks to you and moondog for the support as well.  I didn't really want to respond to him again and I won't now that I've become "ignorant." 

[moondog]

Just thought I'd point out that "healthyvendingoperator" is somehow associated with one of the healthy vending biz-ops out there as determined by the e-mail registration.

 

Not going to post a link to their website and give them free advertising but if anyone wants to know PM me.

 

So are the revenue claims true or just a bunch of BS? Given that HVO started posting here under false pretenses you be the judge.

Why am I not surprised?           

[CajunCandy]

Post pictures of your healthy machines what type of products you sell.

 

In my small area of the world, I would go broke and be very miserable. Carrot Cake, Chocolate pie, Apple pie, Ding Dongs, rule in my section of the state.

 

So I would have to stand behind the older vendors on this site, even do i'm consider a rookie!

 

mike 

[wheelermj]

AZ Vendor! Thank you for being as close minded and simplistic as you are. Please stay that way as long as possible!! What you fail to either realize is that if done right- the "Healthy Vending Operator" can earn much more net revenue per machine than you ever will. The key is that we cherry pick traditional vending operators best machine locations and secure them for ourselves so we can have less machines and do much better than you ever will. Case in point, I have 35 machines and average about $20,000 gross per month. The majority of my machines are placed in locations with over 200 daily foot traffic and people are HAPPY to buy healthy products. Granted there are a few companies out there that price their machines and services to high but if you do your research you will find that there are a few that do not. Your narrow mind can still think of healthy vending as granola bars and trail mix but we know we offer great tasting drinks and snacks that equal traditional vending products. I GUARANTEE my business does better than yours all day long and I GUARANTEE my return on investment is quicker and better than yours. As I said, please keep that train of thought for the next generation and I will continue to take your best locations and increase my business. 

Would you mind sharing some information with me about what healthy products you are selling in these healthy vending machines? I have always been skeptic of a dedicated healthy vending machine, but I am not opposed to selling healthy products in my current machines. Could you give me a top ten list, or more if you are willing, of the specific name of items sold, where they can be purchased, and how much you are able to sell them for. Also, what healthy items have you tried in your machines that have turned out to be duds? I survey my customers all the time and get requests all the time for healthier food in the machines, but the healthy food just doesn't sell as well. This information might give some ideas to some of us skeptics about healthy items we should try in our own machines. Thanks for your time.

[Golfdogs]

I have learned much on this forum over the past two years. I have spoken with people like AZ about MY business and the industry. I trust their experience and knowledge. For this, I am forever grateful.

[mission vending]

Would you mind sharing some information with me about what healthy products you are selling in these healthy vending machines? I have always been skeptic of a dedicated healthy vending machine, but I am not opposed to selling healthy products in my current machines. Could you give me a top ten list, or more if you are willing, of the specific name of items sold, where they can be purchased, and how much you are able to sell them for. Also, what healthy items have you tried in your machines that have turned out to be duds? I survey my customers all the time and get requests all the time for healthier food in the machines, but the healthy food just doesn't sell as well. This information might give some ideas to some of us skeptics about healthy items we should try in our own machines. Thanks for your time.

 

I doubt that he will respond and give away what I'm sure they consider their "trade secrets" on how to build a multimillion dollar 100% healthy vending business using combo machines

 

I picked up 5 yonaturals machines from a guy a few years back that paid 55K for the opportunity and got them from him for 5K 18months later. I ran them for about a year trying the 100% healthy concept and actually had one location that did allright, about $500.00 a month. It was a children's museum, but the guy that had the regular vending outperformed my machines by about 8 to 1 so relatively speaking the performance was not impressive. I gave up on the heathy vending attempt simply because it was such a hassle to deal with as something ancillary to my existing business. I purchased my product from UNFI http://www.unfi.com . I'd bet that HVO will be beside himself that I told one of the "secrets" about where to get their product.

 

If you are really interested I can dig out a couple of old invoices and tell you  what I was ordering.

[dogcow]

good reading on yonaturals, h.u.m.a.n/human healthy vending 

 

http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/category/franchisor/yonaturals-vending-franchisor/

http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/h-u-m-a-n-healthy-vending-a-scam/

 

bottom line, stay away from biz ops.

 

 

friend of mine whos living outside the US asked me how to get into the DVD vending biz (like private label redbox) 

because it doesn't exist where he lives. i did some research and thanks to someone on this forum

for giving me the ins and outs of the biz i was able to write a business plan for him. the plan was based on buying

used equipment. I told him up front do not contact the DVDNow company, I gave him the ebay listings of several 

used like-new machines that were going for less than $8,000.00 and some craigslist ads even cheaper. 

 

Fast forward a few months he said he bought one from DVDNow for $20,000 I said oh my god why he said

they promised him first right of refusal for anyone else trying to buy one (yeah right). I said for $20k what 

do you get? I expected they would at least send a locator . NOPE !!!! For $20,000 you get some flyers

and a sample service agreement and THATS IT..NOTHING ELSE.  my head was spinning I could not believe it. they

ripped him off so bad,,but these guys get you so mixed up he doesnt even get that hes ripped off. 

 

Now the next triick from them is they said if you have trouble placing the kiosk for $4,000 they will

do a direct mail campaign (http://kioskplacement.com/) LOL i just have to shake my head....its amazing what you

can do when u have no conscience. 

[mission vending]

Well yonaturals is no longer around, they morphed into Fresh Healthy Vending. I was told by another member at one point when it came up in a discussion, several years ago, that yonaturals was under investigation by the California Attorney General's office. I honestly don't know if it is true or not

[moondog]

Here's an opinion from one of their victims

 

If you want to lose a TON of MONEY, then be a Sprout Operator. I would never recommend ANYONE to give these people a dime. They took our money and never looked back. We got new machines, were promised these machines would do certain things, they do not. The machines aren't the problem though, SPROUT HEALTHY VENDING is the PROBLEM. They are CROOKS and will take your money and run. They will promise you profitable locations and in return you get locations that act as storage units for your product to sit and expire. You will make countless trips to your machines not to fill them but to empty them of expired product. All because Sprout places your machines in horrible, non-profitable locations. Locations that they make you think will perform. They will tell you, "This location is going to be great because they have 1000 members." Or, "this location is willing to get rid of their current vendor for Healthier Vending choices." When you deliver your machine, you find out they never planned on getting rid of the current vendor, they are just adding your machine. You end up with under performing locations. 

Then when you confront Sprout with the problems, they will blow you off. They will tell you they owe you profitable locations, but they will never follow through. They won't answer your calls or emails. 

DO NOT do business with SPROUT HEALTHY VENDING. They are a SCAM and will take $1000's upon $1000's of your dollars!!!!!

[mission vending]

Moondog, can you post a link to the source or pm it to me?

[moondog]

Moondog, can you post a link to the source or pm it to me?

It came from Yelp - I couldn't paste the actual link.

[TKK]

Wow what a crock. $20,000 a month on 35 combo machines. Maybe even then youd have to service like daily to fill up the machines. Imagine how much the snack and soda machine next to his are making! I cant sell healthy, ive tried it and about to.offer it to a location again. Prices are too high, and they just dont sell. Anything baked or Sun dried becomes Sun dried in the trash can. Biz op, biz op sucks!!!!

Im w az on this one! Just as I am in all of them lol

[mojorhino]

After looking at this  

 

http://www.franchisegator.com/sprout-healthy-vending-llc-opportunity/

 

I would have to say that Sprout Healthy Vending is a total scam to take your money just masquerading as being pro healthy.

• Liquid Capital Required: $50,000
• Net Worth Required: $50,000
• Total Investment: $50,000 - $300,000

My advise to anyone looking at Sprout Healthy Vending would be to listen to the "narrow minded cronies" on this forum unless you want to lose 50 to 300k.

[RJT]

I always recommend that all vending operators offer a “healthy” selection program within their offerings. It is a necessary evil that is needed to have a well rounded company to appeal to a broad audience of accounts.

 

I will address why all healthy vending does not work in most if not all areas.

 

The number one problem is to get enough accounts that all healthy vending would work in it is near impossible to find enough in any geographical area. How many locations do you think that would accept all healthy vending only in your area that you could service? There are only so many YMCA’s, schools, hospitals, etc.

 

I have done hospitals, YMCA’s schools etc and can tell you all healthy don’t work even in them. A YMCA is about is as good as you are going to get as far as your target audience that would buy healthy items out of a vending machine. I have and had YMCA’s over the years and even have one now. I do a healthy selection program blended in with regular snacks and can tell you that the regular items out sell the healthy 2 to 1. I constantly throw out healthy selections and never regular items. The YMCA wanted to do a 50/50 healthy to regular selection and I refused. I told them I would do a 70/30 to start and if that was working I would expand if the demand was there. I have since scaled back and started putting in even less healthy because of stales.

 

Hospitals that I have had are the exact same way. A company that has the hospital started out with healthy selections and have since did away with most of them due to low sales.

 

The school systems cant even get vendors in my area to do vending anymore because they have became so restrictive with product selection the vendors were not making enough money to make it worth their time. I turned down 5 schools just this year because it is just not worth doing even without commission.  

 

The problem I see is these companies pushing the all healthy concept are they have never been a “regular” vending operator with success. Maybe there is one out their but I have never seen one. If they were a successful operator and saw “healthy” was the way to go then maybe. The largest vending companies in the world with pockets deep enough, the resources, buying power, etc to pull off the all healthy vending concept are not doing. Why is that? If there is money to be made I promise you they would do it. Why are the largest operators in the world not offering all healthy vending?

 

I have people call me all the time with the idea of doing all healthy vending and I simply will not take them on as a client. I am not going to be responsible for them knowing it has a very slim chance at working out for them. If I thought it worked why wouldnt I be either doing it or pushing it to my clients?

 

Healthy vending is here to stay but far from mainstream enough to do stand along accounts doing that only. A blended program that satisfies your customer needs yet keeps you profitable is the only way I see it working.  

[RJT]

FYI,

 

Like dogcow said if you heart is in it to try all healthy go have a machine wrapped with some all healthy graphics and have a try. Vendors Excange even offers a "revision door" series already to go with healthy graphics. Also any sign shop that does vinyl graphics can wrap a machine.

 

http://www.veii.com/equipment

 

Want a new machine ready to go then try this one. Or AMS will be glad to do another machine of your choice I am sure if you give them a call.

 

http://www.amsvendors.com/vendors.aspx?Vendor=HealthyVend

 

If anyone decides to try it report back and let us know how it goes.....

[bo0tsy1]

Swear I saw this biz op on Shark Tank or Dragons Den. The sharks actually thought healthy would sell! Glad I saw this episode after joining the forum, because I was laughing at this point. The Sharks make the point, anyone with a vending machine could do it and all they had done was rewrap a combo electro/mechanical vendor.