treadmill Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 So, here's another question.... those of you with mint boxes, how long have you fond that you keep a location? Any long term, or do they get tired of having the box after a while? I have had most of my locations (75%) since day 1. I think you are overthinking this thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 I agree, fill, wait, fill, repeat! And expand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpalm Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 It's official, I'll have 250 locations by this time next week. I would like to slowly transition from my current job to full time entrepreneur by adding boxes gradually over the next few months to a year. This may just be a problem with the way I think, so correct me if I'm wrong, but bulk vending machines seem to be more of a reliable long term income than honor boxes. My plan was to initially take the profits from the honor boxes and use them to grow a bulk route for long term stability. I'd love to hear the opinion of you folks that have far more experience than me. Can honor boxes be a long term, RELIABLE source of income? Are bulk machines any more stable? I know some of the responses are to not "over-think" this thing, but when you have a family of 6 to feed, clothe, shelter and educate, over-thinking things may be somewhat reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 It's official, I'll have 250 locations by this time next week. I would like to slowly transition from my current job to full time entrepreneur by adding boxes gradually over the next few months to a year. This may just be a problem with the way I think, so correct me if I'm wrong, but bulk vending machines seem to be more of a reliable long term income than honor boxes. My plan was to initially take the profits from the honor boxes and use them to grow a bulk route for long term stability. I'd love to hear the opinion of you folks that have far more experience than me. Can honor boxes be a long term, RELIABLE source of income? Are bulk machines any more stable? I know some of the responses are to not "over-think" this thing, but when you have a family of 6 to feed, clothe, shelter and educate, over-thinking things may be somewhat reasonable. One question I have for you. How are you servicing your route? Are you doing it by yourself? How many locations are you servicing per day? Sorry for the additional ?? Would share with us what your avg gross pull per box is and what you are grossing per cycle? If you don't feel comfortable putting it out on a open forum feel free to pm me your results. Just interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrCorey Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 soon as they get done it will be time to start over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Not trying to hijack this thread but I heard the other day through another member (name will not be disclosed) that Sheridan supposedly took a survey of honor box operators and how many locations could be done per hr. The consensus was 26 locations per hr is what the survey showed. Is this realistic or not? I can only do about 7 or 8 maybe 10 an hr if I push it. This includes walking in greeting owner or manager and dropping off box and walking back out to my vehicle and go to next location. My locations are pretty much close together. I don't think 26 locations an hr is on the up and up? What say you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Unless those are all next door to each other, how is that possible? Unless maybe having a backup box that you can swap every location, meaning you need a backup for every location. Even then, if there is any traffic....... This would be an interesting thread to see the input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Not trying to hijack this thread but I heard the other day through another member (name will not be disclosed) that Sheridan supposedly took a survey of honor box operators and how many locations could be done per hr. The consensus was 26 locations per hr is what the survey showed. Is this realistic or not? I can only do about 7 or 8 maybe 10 an hr if I push it. This includes walking in greeting owner or manager and dropping off box and walking back out to my vehicle and go to next location. My locations are pretty much close together. I don't think 26 locations an hr is on the up and up? What say you. I don't know how anyone could do 26 of anything per hour. That's not realistic at all and it must be based on some weird information. I think a fast bulk vendor can take care of a bulk machine in 5 minutes or less. A mint box can probably be serviced very fast since you can just swap things out. Realistically though, you should account for everything involved in a business. Part of any honor box is counting money. Another HUGE factor is driving. I do snack boxes composed of chips, cookies, pop tarts, and a few other items. If I'm really cranking, I can do 4 in an hour. About half of my time is driving. I seriously want to buy some new headphones and a portable radio so I can listen to the radio all day while I work. I often find myself too involved in a radio discussion to leave my car! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 I do snack boxes composed of chips, cookies, pop tarts, and a few other items. If I'm really cranking, I can do 4 in an hour. About half of my time is driving. I seriously want to buy some new headphones and a portable radio so I can listen to the radio all day while I work. I often find myself too involved in a radio discussion to leave my car! Don't, remember your dealing with large ish sums of money, you need all the situational awareness you can get Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran78 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Mine are typically done after work, unless my wife does them on her way to making a Sams run. But even then she only does 3-4 locations that require servicing weekly while others are less frequent. Just the other day I did 7 locations in 2.5 hours, which included making a quick run to Sams and hitting each location. I don't bring a spare box loaded for each location. I just bring two boxes and the bags of mints in a rubber maid, each bag containing 50 mints. When I get to the location, I load the box with the appropriate amount of mints needed and walk in and swap them out. Once I get back into the truck, I count the left over mints (if any) and place them into a bag (in multiples of 50) and the money into one of the bags that the mints were in. I write down what was left over on my route sheet and head to the next location. This has been a pretty successful process for me. I bring the extra one in case a box is damaged. I've been doing this almost two months and so far had 2 boxes damaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lake Cities Vending Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 I have a helper. I usually run my bulk machines early in the day and save the mint boxes for later because they go so fast. If we are running late I just pull up in front and he runs in and switches out the boxes. This way I don't even have to park. Even then we probably only do 10 an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lake Cities Vending Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 This doesn't count the time loading the boxes, counting money and mints. I have started weighing the mints when filling empty boxes. It's not real accurate because they don't repeat very well. It's a lot faster and I don't really care if there's 99 or 101 mints in bix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran78 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 I didn't think about weighing the mints, that's a good idea. Would certainly save time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grazing Hippo Vending Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 I service about 8 mint boxes per hour. That includes drive time, wiping down boxes, counting money, parking car, etc. I do not count how many mints go into a box. I can eyeball it pretty close now. It helps save me time. Also, while I do count the money for every box while I service, I sort the cash when I get home. On the road, I count and then toss all cash in an empty York box. The bills are all folded and crumpled. I usually spend about 30 minutes getting the cash organized correctly once I arrive back home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 So we can all agree that 26/hour is completely bogus. I bet the question was "how fast can you refill an honor box?" And people said 1-3 minutes so they just took ALL other variables out of the equation to give an unrealistic, unhelpful answer of 26/hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 sounds like it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Thanks folks. I didn't think one could do 26 boxes in a hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 So it sounds like the fastest way is to weigh the mints instead of counting? Has anyone thought (i'm sure they have) of pre weighing and putting in plastic zip lock bags ahead of time? That would only work if they were empty or knew how many they went through though. Other thoughts that come to mind is having zip lock colored bags and writing the business name on them to put money in and count later? Unless that's what you were talking about Three lakes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lake Cities Vending Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I do put some in the gallon bags. They hold 100 mints great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Dialing in the service times it's important. I'm actually buying a handful of acrylic boxes sho it will help me understand better what my customers go through. Who knows? I might start doing that as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I just keep an extra 50 or so boxes to be swapped out. I bring swapped out boxes home and do everything at home. No need to advertise you have money in your van or car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 I just keep an extra 50 or so boxes to be swapped out. I bring swapped out boxes home and do everything at home. No need to advertise you have money in your van or car. That's how I would do it if I had mint boxes. Snack boxes really need to be custom done for most customers so it isn't really feasible but mints are mints. I suppose you could just leave a note inside each box you take out so that you know where it came from (to track revenue/loss) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 That's how I would do it if I had mint boxes. Snack boxes really need to be custom done for most customers so it isn't really feasible but mints are mints. I suppose you could just leave a note inside each box you take out so that you know where it came from (to track revenue/loss) I actually put a route card with the name and address of the business that has all the information of sales # of candy left and date of service so I can determine if I need to pull box. I place this card in that box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran78 Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I use zip lock bags with 50 mints in each. All my boxes have quantities in multiples of 50. So if a location requires 200 mints, I dump 4 bags of mints into a box and swap it out. Once I get back into the truck, I count what was left (if any) and annotate the difference and place whatever was left in the zip lock bags for future use and monies into an empty bag with a paper indicating what location the money came from. This process has been serving me well with minimal space needed. I usually have about 10-15 bags of mints in a rubbermaid bin. But the counting the mints have been time consuming and will try to weigh them. Sounds a lot quicker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I just keep an extra 50 or so boxes to be swapped out. I bring swapped out boxes home and do everything at home. No need to advertise you have money in your van or car. I don't have very many honor boxes, but I use a similar process. My boxes are all numbered underneath. I walk into my location with a fresh box fully stocked to put in place of the one already on site. Once I'm back in my vehicle I note the location and box # on my service sheet so that when I get home I can count money and inventory product. This may or may not work with snack boxes. Mine are all mint and gum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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