A Few Questions

[mcvendingservicesjax]

I recently found a vending products distributer that is allowing me to meet the truck driver at his hotel on Sunday afternoons to collect my order and pay without a fee for not meeting minimum.  For a small fish like me, I think that's a big win because this will allow me to buy the exact products my customers want without having to buy the variety packs at the wholesale club and half the product expires before I can sell it.  I will still continue to buy from the wholesale clubs, but having this arrangement with this distributer will help me drive the business forward.

 

Please share with me your top 5 or more sellers in your drink and snack machines.  My locations are all white collar businesses and 1 private school grades k-12.

 

I've been having an issue with my 20 oz bottle Aquafina in my royal 650.  The bottles jam (stick together) in the column.  Is there a fix for this?

 

I had an issue while servicing my vend 721.  It looked like a soda exploded when it fell into the bin.  There was soda splatter on the live display and the promotional back drop door and a small puddle on the bottom of the machine inside.  There was not splatter in the product columns.  At one time I had a problem with the diet coke freezing, so I set the temperature to hhh.  A few days ago I set the temperature to hhhh when I saw the soda splatter.  No one has informed me of the exploding soda and that's very odd because this location informs me of everything.  Should I assume the soda exploded when it dropped into the bin or could someone have accidentally pulled the tab on the can when they were taking it out of the bin?  Has anyone else experienced this issue?

 

Just want to thank everyone who is a part of this forum.  You have been a great help to me.  I now have a 3 location business with only 4k in debt and gross revenue each month of $1700.  Looking to add another location before June.

[AZVendor]

Congratulations on your arrangement with the vend products distributor.  It's very unusual but it will definitely be of help to you.

 

On the Royal 650, are you using Aquafina bottles that are hard when they are warm?  If you open one of the bottles do you hear air pressure escape and does the bottle get noticeably softer?  If yes to both, then you are using the vending version of the Aquafina bottle that is injected with nitrogen to firm the bottle up.  If you answered no then you need to stop using that bottle and locate some that are hard when warm.

 

If you have the correct bottles then what you're describing in your RV650 is "bridging" of the products.  You can add "funnel slides" which are adhesive backed sheets from Royal that are applied to the sides of the column to help the bottles slide down.  Your columns should already have one funnel slide on each side of each column but if they are beginning to curl at the edges or some are missing they should be replaced.  You could also add a couple to the water column.

 

On your V721, if you have products on display in the door, did one of them begin to leak?  What you described could be from a display item, unless you can tell that the spray pattern was upward from below the display.  There shouldn't be an opening above the delivery port for soda to spray upward from there unless it's just a small gap. 

 

You should not have to set your temperature sensor to hhh or hhhh to prevent freezing of the diet products.  A normal setting is c or cc, so you need to replace your temp sensor.  I'm surprised that your sodas aren't too warm at the hhh or hhhh settings and is a true indicator of a bad temp sensor.

 

If you need any parts to correct these issues send me a PM.

[mcvendingservicesjax]

I purchased the aquafina from vistar, so i'm assuming they are for vending.  Thanks for the tip on the funnel slides.  No product in display is leaking.  The vend is not a year old yet, so the temp sensor should be under warranty.  Another vendor in my trade area turned me on to the meeting the truck driver at his hotel to avoid minimum fees.  I think its a good thing for all vendors to play nice in the sandbox.  For me, I have a full time job and other businesses, so I'm just using the vending business as a hobby and I can always decide to grow it or sell it in the future.  Using all full size snack and drink machines.