jwrogers21 Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Hello Everyone! I have been interested in this business for several years but never stepped into it. I believe the time is now though for me. I have a couple of questions. 1. What are some of your choices for the best vendor of machines? 2. I had heard that when you buy the machines from many vendors they assist in placement. Is this true? 3. I am more into coke/food/coffee vending at the moment more than candy/toy bulk vending machines. What are some of your preferences? 4. Some machines are sold new and some refurbished. Being in the computer indusrty I have purchased refurbished PCs and to me its basically buying new. It is that it doesnt have the " new " tag. THANKS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Hello Everyone! I have been interested in this business for several years but never stepped into it. I believe the time is now though for me. I have a couple of questions. 1. What are some of your choices for the best vendor of machines? 2. I had heard that when you buy the machines from many vendors they assist in placement. Is this true? 3. I am more into coke/food/coffee vending at the moment more than candy/toy bulk vending machines. What are some of your preferences? 4. Some machines are sold new and some refurbished. Being in the computer indusrty I have purchased refurbished PCs and to me its basically buying new. It is that it doesnt have the " new " tag. THANKS! Look to start with a good soda machine, they're easy to service and you don't need a new one. I prefer the Royals but Dixie and Vendo also make pro quality machines. Get a multipriced machine that holds at least 500 cans - you should be able to get a refurbished one for less than a grand or search Craigs list if you don't mind cleaning it up yourself. Be prepared to hire a vending mover as these suckers are heavy - definitely not something to tackle on your own unless you've got some sort of "death wish" Hold off on the coffee machines as they are maintenance intensive and avoid the snacks until you can place a few of them - solo snack machines will kill you with the stales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry1973 Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Hi Jwrodgers21 welcome to the forums. If you are interested in getting into full line vending (soda, snack, coffee, etc) then I would recommend buying ONLY american made machines that are not combo type machines. For soda try and stick with brands such as dixie narco, vendo and or royal, and for snack I like AP and Crane, but there are others. The best thing you can possibly do starting off is just pause and don't buy anything, but read read and then read some more here in these forums and ASK when you have a question and post questions about ANY machine you are looking at buying. There are some very very experienced vendors on this site and most are very willing to help. They have helped me a ton, and I am very grateful for their guidance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Welcome, the previously mentioned advice is sound. Buying a account(s) from another vendor is one way to start. Be careful though because they likely are selling off their dog accounts and there is no additional value in the location, just the value of the equipment and inventory. If you are buying from a refurbisher that sells it on the premise that he will also secure the location, BE VERY CAREFUL, a lot of scam artists work in this arena, do not pay in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrogers21 Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 What about this site I came across? www.vendorsequipment.com I found several AP sites..which AP for snacks were you referring to? Hey there Mission, What do you mean by buying accounts? Like to taking over from a different vendor? I had heard that when buying these machines the company that sells them helps to locate them. Is this true? How did most of you all find your locations and what steps from beginning to end do you follow to place one? Cold Call? Chamber of Commerce inquiries about new plazas/building/ going up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 What about this site I came across? www.vendorsequipment.com I found several AP sites..which AP for snacks were you referring to? Hey there Mission, What do you mean by buying accounts? Like to taking over from a different vendor? I had heard that when buying these machines the company that sells them helps to locate them. Is this true? How did most of you all find your locations and what steps from beginning to end do you follow to place one? Cold Call? Chamber of Commerce inquiries about new plazas/building/ going up? Buying an account from another vendor is a very common way to get started - the upside is that the machines are in place and you should have a good idea of what to stock, while the downside is that many of these accounts are somebodies' dregs they're just trying to dump. Yoiu can often find accounts for sale on CL - just run the specifics by us before spending any money AND BE PATIENT. There are good accounts for sale but they won't come along too often. The AP snack machines are higthly regarded by most experienced vendors, specifically the AP7600 and 113 models, for their reliability - the site you pasted is usually very high in price versus what you might find on CL - and don't forget the added shipping if you buy something out of your area Avoid any site that offers to locate machines they sell - this is usually a "pig in a poke" in regards to the quality of the location you will get. Your biggest obstacle will be finding a suitable account - machines are usually readily available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrogers21 Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 How have some of you gotten your foot in on an account with a restaurant? Hospital? School? Did you just stop by with a biz card or did you have someone that worked in the zoning in your city who knew the person building a new strip mall, etc. to get ahold of and beat everyone else to the punch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 How have some of you gotten your foot in on an account with a restaurant? Hospital? School? Did you just stop by with a biz card or did you have someone that worked in the zoning in your city who knew the person building a new strip mall, etc. to get ahold of and beat everyone else to the punch? Now you're asking the million dollar question. There is no golden answer as to how to secure good accounts, if there were a lot more people would be in the vending biz. Personally, I wait for a good opportunity to pop up on CL but many people here will tell you to make up a nice brochure and start knocking on doors. As the poster boy of growing quickly by placing a lot of machines in locations that had no previous vendor, I can tell you that this doesn't work - I placed thirty machines in my first six months and ended up with a bunch of dog accounts where I was basically just chasing my tail and making little or no profit on many of them. Start with a soda machine in a blue collar account and grow from there - this is the easiest and least expensive way to get your feet wet in full line vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 do you have a business plan? if not step back and make one read these forums extensively for a few weeks or a month at least until you have a solid biz plan put together. you should be able to answer the following questions before going "in" to the venid biz something i didnt think of when i started, how are you gonna move the equipment but most importantly you gotta decide how much you are willing to invest and what is your expected payback period and how do you intend to get there read this forum and ask qeustions you will get realistic numbers and get a good idea if vending is for you. if you fail to do this you will end up changing money without making much profit, its easy to do in this business. make sure you add up all the expenses and have accounted for everything . if you arent sure ask we can tell you also how is your sales skills. vending is a service business it is not for people who are timid. i was not an outgoing person but i worked really hard and pushed myself to a place where a lot of people would not be comfortable going. the fact is you have to be able to sell, if you cant sell you have to be willing to learn. this is the cold hard truth, locators and so on arent going to build your business, in any real way at least not for soda/snack vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrogers21 Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 Good info so far. Looks like I will start with my partner with a soda machine or two, refurbs of course. I will look around on Craigs list for an account, but my current town, which is of good size, is not listed under Craigslist, only Louisville is. So I may have to cold call some people. Do any of you use credit card acceptance for your machines and use wireless monitoring of your machines as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Welcome to the forums! You will want to begin posting in the Food and Beverage forum to get more responses to your questions about soda and snack machines. When you go there you need to plan on reading many, many threads that have asked the same questions you are wondering about. In a nutshell, as a noob, you should focus on vending 12 oz cans which have the longest shelf life and will sell from the most basic of machines. Look for small and medium size blue collar locations to place your first machines. This will allow you to begin to understand the vending business from the ground up. Do not get caught up in the whiz bang of credit card readers and remote monitoring just yet. Wrap your head around vending first and then in a few months/years you can worry about the fancy stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.