Venderman15 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 HI, I have a vending account (snack & beverage) at a site with 250 employees. I do not provide any commission. The owner has stopped providing free coffee via Bunn pots, due to the headache. Wants me to get a coffee vending machine and would like me to free vend coffee, can charge for tea or hot chocolate 1. Should I ask to get reimbursed 100% for the free vend coffee? 2. How often do these machines need to be cleaned & stocked? Realize this depends on sales, but lets say a busy or good account. 3. What are some good quality machines? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrCorey Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 yes. and supplies. should you feed them all for free? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 250 person account... this is a really tough decision. Firstly, I wouldn't agree to give stuff away just because the owner wants me to. That's worse than paying commission. You clearly have a good deal if you have a 250-person account with no commission, but you're in the business of making a profit. This deal will ultimately LOWER your profit. There are too many variables to determine profitability of this account let alone the potential loss you will take by giving away coffee for free. To my knowledge, hot chocolate and tea don't always account for a very high percentage of sales versus coffee. Another problem is that coffee vending machines are generally expensive, need to be cleaned often, and can pose issues that will cause YOU to get a headache from dealing with them. I have a few solutions here that you may want to consider... 1) Offer to provide a coffee machine but only if you charge a minimum per cup (ie. 25 cents per cup). 2) Bill them for the cost of the supplies at a rate that pays for the actual supplies + maintenance to your machine. 3) Provide a coffee machine and charge a normal price (ie. 60 cents per cup) and offer some kind of a high commissoin (ie. 30% on coffee. The hard part is that... if you don't satisfy this guy, someone else might take the deal. Here is my question though... what are the prices of the rest of your products at this location? If you have solid prices on everything else, it gives you more flexibility. If you have low prices, you're at a tough position and you need to negotiate something else (ie. increase prices of regular vending and work out a deal on coffee). I would imagine that the reason why he doesn't want to fool around with coffee anymore is because he makes the coffee and no one else does and he's getting frustrated with that. The truth in business though is that no one calls a company and says "Hey, can you do me a service AND pay for it so I don't have to do any work or pay anything?" That simply doesn't happen. It's hard enough to get people to do things AT COST. Businesses are in it to make up for their costs AND some extra profit so that they can live, grow, and expand. It shouldn't be difficult to explain to the owner that you cannot take on the costs of doing things especially because coffee machines are far more complicated than Bunns AND the cost of these things will affect your profitability at the location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 This should be in the full-line section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venderman15 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Thanks, AngryChris. To answer your question, I charge a dollar for Pepsi and SunChips, most expensive are Kind Bars for 1.85. I am concerned with the site getting a coffee vendor and then the vendor taking the snack & drink account. I have a very small company, just a couple of machines. If i were to charge a dollar a cup and get reimbursed 100%. I can easily see $50 dollars a day, 20% of employees drinking one cup a day. Do you think it would be worth it? Any suggestions for a reliable coffee machine? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 There are too many variables in the questions you asked to give you a simple answer. For example, there are single cup brewers using pods or other prepacks, there are fresh brew countertop machines with minimal selections, there is traditional coffee equipment like they are using now and then there are full size, full line coffee machines that are coin operated. If you are in the full line business and growing then a full size machine is not too much of a stretch for you. There are plenty of used coffee machines from AP and National that are perfectly serviceable if rebuilt properly prior to putting them in service. They are not hard to run or to maintain as long as you remember that they are a "wet" machine and you need to constantly be on the lookout for any unexplained water in the machine. Any coffee machine must be cleaned regularly while remembering that it makes and serves a food product, so cleanliness and sanitation are very important. Regardless of the type of equipment you use you should plan on servicing it every time you service your other machines, or at the very least (with 250 people) once per week. I would also encourage you to not give the coffee away as the business owner does now. Unless he purchases all the equipment and products then you must make a profit with your machine. You need to remember that coffee will be the best seller by far so you won't make enough on other products to subsidize the coffee. Ask the owner to subsidize it instead. He's paying for coffee now so he can continue to pay for it if he expects low or free prices. He just won't have to worry about the maintenance or product procurement any longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserri Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 This should be in the full-line section.The OP asked 3 questions. All 3 of them were about vending coffee. Why should this be anywhere but the coffee section? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 The OP asked 3 questions. All 3 of them were about vending coffee. Why should this be anywhere but the coffee section? Truthfully, I don't mind where this topic is. I just feel like the full-line section will give far more responses to his question than the OCS section. Many of the OCS guys don't mess around with full-size coffee machines as they might only work with bunns and counter-top versions. Furthermore, he is a full-line vendor that is considering adding a coffee option. His full-line operation is relevant to his coffee decision. I'll tell you this... you can do whatever you want, Casseri, as I am in no position to say otherwise. But I do advise him to post in the full-line section anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venderman15 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 HI Thanks AZ Vendor and Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserri Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Truthfully, I don't mind where this topic is. I just feel like the full-line section will give far more responses to his question than the OCS section. Many of the OCS guys don't mess around with full-size coffee machines as they might only work with bunns and counter-top versions. Furthermore, he is a full-line vendor that is considering adding a coffee option. His full-line operation is relevant to his coffee decision. I'll tell you this... you can do whatever you want, Casseri, as I am in no position to say otherwise. But I do advise him to post in the full-line section anyway. Y U so angry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserri Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 He can post wherever he likes however, when the post asks specific questions about a specific topic that we have a category for, it should be posted in that category regardless of how many people will see it. If someone posted that they had a bulk vending account and the location asked him for soda and snacks, the appropriate category to ask about soda machines would be the full line section, not the bulk section. Agree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Y U so angry? Why U so casseri? I agree with your point about bulk vending but I truly believe that this is less of an OCS question and more of a full line question regarding coffee. Also, you're a big doo doo head. There, I said it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Play nice, Chris. It's quite a large task for Steve to read and moderate all of the first time posts he gets and then decide where the post should be placed. When the coffee forum was started it was primarily for the countertop coffee machines and OCS fits right in there as well. The full size coffee machines are in a grey area as they are run almost exclusively by full line vendors but not on a large scale. It was hoped that having a forum dedicated to the countertop operators that their posts would finally have a home and be easy to find, which they are now. Personally I think that full size coffee machines fit right in in either forum so since I always scan the new posts as well as the full line forum, like you do, I will always see new coffee posts wherever they show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I agree with you Randy. I'm just trying to help this guy out seeing that, other than myself and you, absolutely no one has given him any advice on this at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwi Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Thanks, AngryChris. To answer your question, I charge a dollar for Pepsi and SunChips, most expensive are Kind Bars for 1.85. I am concerned with the site getting a coffee vendor and then the vendor taking the snack & drink account. I have a very small company, just a couple of machines. If i were to charge a dollar a cup and get reimbursed 100%. I can easily see $50 dollars a day, 20% of employees drinking one cup a day. Do you think it would be worth it? Any suggestions for a reliable coffee machine? Hi Venderman... Before recommending a reliable coffee machine I would need to know a bit more information regarding you site. - you mentioned that the site has 250 staff... are these staff all on-site at one time or split between 2-3 shifts? - how many people on average are on break at one time... this would determine whether you would be better using one standalone machine or multiple bench-top machines? - do you know how much the company were spending per month on consumables using the Bunn System they had previously? - how much are you prepared to invest in a coffee machine & are you prepared to spend the extra time needed to clean & maintain it? - how often are you currently servicing the account? You mentioned charging $1/cup... is that for fresh bean or instant coffee? You also mentioned that you were worried that if you didn't provide this coffee service that someone else may which would cause you to lose the site... you could also lose this site if you decided to provide a coffee service & did a poor job doing it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venderman15 Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Hi, Thanks for all your help, but when I informed the owner that they would have to get a plumber to run a line to a machine and asked if they were prepared to pay me $1500 a month, possibly more if the employees drink more than my estimate of 50 cups @ 1 dollar a cup. The owner said that they would return to the Bunn Brewers. I am relieved, since there were to may possible issues with this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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