kdub3821 Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 What is the difference between a cold food machine and a frozen food machine? Sorry this is such a dumb question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrCorey Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 one is a refridgerator and one is a freezer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdub3821 Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 What products go to each machine? I thought burgers subs sandwiches went into the cold food machine but iv heard about people putting them in a frozen food machine. Are both machines ran on a turret? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 there are frozen sandwiches and fresh sandwiches, just like there is gourmet food and fast food. cod is a turret, frozen can look like a snack machine or it can have a bubble front like a soda machine with a chest freezer inside and a robot picker(fastcorp brand) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrCorey Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 yep, mostly cold stuff gos in the refer and ice cream and frozen snacks go in the freezer. but like that person said, depends in the location. if the have a microwave and stuff, you can provide frozen food in the freezer, which will last longer. also sams and Costco has frozen foods individually wrapped for vendind and c store sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 What is the difference between a cold food machine and a frozen food machine? Sorry this is such a dumb question. Many of the prepared foods that you buy today come to you frozen and you thaw as needed so those can be sold either as a frozen or refridgerated item. The biggest difference between the two kinds of machines is that with frozen you can add ice cream, a high profit items. With the cold food machine the idea is to stock them with things like milk, salads and yougurt type items as well as freshly made food items. Some have mentioned selling energy drinks, microwave meals and other items out of cold machines as well. In most cases it is because the sales volume is low and in a effort to reduce shrink the operator stocks items that have a very long shelf life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdub3821 Posted March 6, 2014 Author Share Posted March 6, 2014 So it sounds like going with a frozen food machine is a better machine to have. Higher profits less food waste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 IMO, yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 kdub, It depends on what your account requirements are. Either direction will meet different requirements a location might give you. If you are simply asking what our preferences are then frozen is the winner due to the higher likelihood of making some kind of a profit. If you like the idea of offering dairy products or a machine you could fill with a variety of drinks that your other machines can't accommodate then the carousel style food machine might meet your needs better. The AP320 glassfront frozen machine can also be run as a cold food-only machine by changing settings on the machine. You can also get a machine from USI that will handle frozen and refrigerated items, but that machine would be the most expensive to buy. The Fastcorp frozen machines are smaller and use the vacuum hose delivery system. They are generally 12 selections with your food and/or ice cream stacked in bins inside a chest freezer. The chest freezer will give you the longest frozen time should you have a power outage as the products will stay frozen for up to 12 hours if the lid isn't opened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwi Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 So it sounds like going with a frozen food machine is a better machine to have. Higher profits less food waste. Until you have a meltdown....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelermj Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 I personally like Cold Food machines better than frozen machines. My cold food machines do a lot better than my frozen machines. My 6 dedicated cold food machines bring in more revenue a month than my 20 frozen food machines. I am actually phasing out my frozen machines due to poor ROI. Of course as is true with all vending, the right location is very critical to being successful. It would also be hard to properly do a cold food machine without a few machines just to ensure you go through product before it spoils. Adding cashless to my cold food machines helped a lot with sales also because customers aren't as concerned about the prices when they are purchasing with a credit card. I am selling some sandwiches for $4 in my machines now, when before we accepted credit cards, anything priced over $2.50 would not sell in my machines. I sell the Landshire sandwiches wedges that I get from Vistar. They arrive frozen and have a 28 day shelf life once thawed. I sell yogurt, a lot of string cheese, fruit cups, apples, oranges, muffins, lunchables, bagels, and milk. I actually sell more chocolate milk than anything else I sell including candy bars, soda, and water. There is money to be made in cold food, just keep an eye on your par levels and don't stock more than you can sell. Keep track of your expired product, if you get a reputation for selling expired goods out of the machines, you will lose customers and possibly the whole location. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 That's great information, wheelermj! This will be very helpful to someone considering cold food machines vs. frozen. I'm very glad your cold food machines are profitable and it certainly seems you know how to merchandise them properly. I'm curious how your 20 frozen machines do less volume than your 6 cold food machines. Would you mind expounding on that a little bit? Are the food machines placed in your top volume accounts while the frozen's are not? Do you have frozen along with cold food in the same account and the same breakrooms? How do those sales compare? Are your frozen prices dramatically lower than the food prices leading to perhaps the same unit volume but lower revenue? What models of frozen machines are you using? Have you tried card readers on your frozen machines and what were the results? I hope you don't think I'm too nosy but I believe this information can further help those considering these machine options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 That's great information, wheelermj! This will be very helpful to someone considering cold food machines vs. frozen. I'm very glad your cold food machines are profitable and it certainly seems you know how to merchandise them properly. I'm curious how your 20 frozen machines do less volume than your 6 cold food machines. Would you mind expounding on that a little bit? Are the food machines placed in your top volume accounts while the frozen's are not? Do you have frozen along with cold food in the same account and the same breakrooms? How do those sales compare? Are your frozen prices dramatically lower than the food prices leading to perhaps the same unit volume but lower revenue? What models of frozen machines are you using? Have you tried card readers on your frozen machines and what were the results? I hope you don't think I'm too nosy but I believe this information can further help those considering these machine options. Dang it!! beat me to the question again, don't you have parts to ship or something?? Seriously, those are good questions, would love to see the responses, if you are so inclined wheeler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelermj Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 The food machines are placed in my top locations, some of them also have a frozen machine and some have a separate frozen machine and a separate ice cream machine. I have some frozen machines machines that only do just under $100 a month. I have a few locations that I have really strong soda and snack sales but the frozen machine was only doing $200-300 a month, I swapped out the frozen machine for a cold food machine that now does $600-700 a month. My cold food prices are actually higher than my frozen food prices, sandwiches in my frozen machine are selling for $2.25 and in my cold food machine are selling from $2.50-4.00. The frozen machines that I currently have are mostly national 455, a few vendtronics, and a few AMS. The cold food machines that I use are mostly Wurlitzer machines, with a few Merchant Medias. I have card readers on all of my machines with the exception of my bubblefront soda machines. Keep in mind that I manage vending machines for a large corporation and only service locations owned by this corporation, so not every location I service is profitable, but I still have to service the location. That being said, I only service dedicated food machines at profitable locations. Hopefully this information is helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwi Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 The cold food machines that I use are mostly Wurlitzer machines Firstly.... thanks for taking the time to explain the benefits of fresh food v frozen food in your experience. I am curious to why you are using Wurlitzer as opposed to the other fresh food machine options you have? eg. AMS,USI,ect What model Wurlitzer are you using & what temperature do they come down to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelermj Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 I have been using Wurlitzer because that's what they were using when I started several years ago, I set the temperature at about 37 degrees. For the most part, I really like the Wurlitzer machines, they look really good even after being several years old, and they are pretty easy to work on. I stopped ordering them a few years ago because the cost just got too high costing $1500 - $2000 more than I could Merchant 6, and the support for the Wurlitzers is really lacking in the states. Since then I've heard that they no longer make the Wurlitzer vending machines. We have 50 of them and I still like them, but I do worry about finding parts for them in the future. I have already had some issues finding parts for the compressors, but I have a pretty good refrigeration guy that has been able to keep them all running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Thanks for all the information Wheelermj. This should really help our members here. Since you are in the state where the Wurlitzer distributor was (Automat I believe), are they now gone as well. My last calls to them have all gone unanswered. I think I used to call Mike(?) there, who was their tech guy. Even when they were in business a couple of years ago his was the only number I had and he rarely followed through with anything he said he was going to do. You might now be the most knowledgeable Wurlitzer guy around. If you wouldn't mind, could you PM me your number if you would have the time to periodically field a technical question? Like I said, I rarely see one, but I have no one to call for tech support so it would be great if I could bounce things off of you. Do you have any sources for parts at this time? Any distributors that still have a few left? I believe they were imported through a distributor in Florida and there a quite a few of Wurlitzers installed there. Thanks again for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelermj Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Thanks for all the information Wheelermj. This should really help our members here. Since you are in the state where the Wurlitzer distributor was (Automat I believe), are they now gone as well. My last calls to them have all gone unanswered. I think I used to call Mike(?) there, who was their tech guy. Even when they were in business a couple of years ago his was the only number I had and he rarely followed through with anything he said he was going to do. You might now be the most knowledgeable Wurlitzer guy around. If you wouldn't mind, could you PM me your number if you would have the time to periodically field a technical question? Like I said, I rarely see one, but I have no one to call for tech support so it would be great if I could bounce things off of you. Do you have any sources for parts at this time? Any distributors that still have a few left? I believe they were imported through a distributor in Florida and there a quite a few of Wurlitzers installed there. Thanks again for the info. Automat was sold several years ago to Vina Distributing who then became the Wurlitzer Distributor for this side of the country, last year Vina Distributing was sold and is now called Choice Vending Supply and their number is 801-683-8783. Choice vending supply would be the best contact for Wurlitzer parts. I will send you my information, and you are welcome to contact me with any questions and I will help however I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reel Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I find generally frozen machines don't turnover a load of money, the main sellers in this market are pies, sausage rolls and ice creams. I use them as a part of a total corporate package for large sites only and they can be helpful in securing large accounts. I also place pies and sausage rolls, burgers and chicken rolls into a normal combination machine like an AMS or USI for good turnover locations. I place the products into the combo frozen and generally it takes 2 days to thaw and then you have at least 5 days to sell the product before it becomes unsafe to sell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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