betty Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 I have always wondered how other vendors do this . Do you stock pile your products that you need for your route or do you go out and buy them as you need ? Do you keep a certain amount of money from your route to buy your stock?? I know I do this and its been working out pretty good . A few times in the past I had put the purchases on the Sam's Credit card and thought "Oh yes I will pay this off when the bill comes in ", well I did not get to pay it off and did this a few times . Well, I no longer charge it . I pay it up front now. Do you know what percentage you keep to buy more products?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T BIRD Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 With my 61 locations, I buy as needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betty Posted November 23, 2008 Author Share Posted November 23, 2008 I have 101 locations and I do buy as needed too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmuseStar Vending Co Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 I have to stock. I am always running out of all my products. I normally buy 20 cases of gum, 25 cases of Crazy Bananas. This lasts about 5 months. I also buy about 50-100 bags of toys each month. Kyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
that1dude Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 With my very few machines out right now, it only makes sense to buy it when I need it, but I think when I "make it big", I will have some stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bacho Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 I buy as needed also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Coast Vend LLC Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 If you don't need to buy stock you shouldn't unless you can get a better price and you know you will sell it in a reasonable amount of time. I buy extra on non-perisable items if I see a real good deal. Candy & gum I buy from Sam's Club as I need it. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nepavend Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Toys/Balls/2" caps - I buy as needed unless I find a steal or if I need initial stock for for new locations/upgrades (has happened a few times already which inflates my order). I try to make no more than one order per week to control shipping costs, but will probably switch that to every two weeks once I get a handle on all my new locations. Gum - I got my first pallet from Oak Leaf in July and just about through it, by February 1 or sooner I will have to order again and this time it will only last half as long because of 100+ new locations since July. I also occasionally get Dubble Bubble golpher from Sam's and mix them in with Oak Leaf to get more longevity out of the pallet. (I wrote about that strategy previously). Candy - I buy every two months or so at Sam's Club and only what I am low on or out of (usually MM and PMMs) but I do not do much candy. My goal is to minimize what candy I have on hand at all times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-man422 Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 Because Sam's is about 30 mins from me, I usually buy enough product for a month or two. I reinvest 100% of my money from the route so I really don't specify a percent for COGs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markvend Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 I buy our candy from Sams on an as needed basis simply because I'm always going by there and its not out of my way. I also want to keep it fresh and manage my inventory well to keep cash flow consistent. I have gone to ordering pallets for the gum in 85 cases and have found it has been MUCH fresher than Sams sold it to me. The last several times I bought from Sams the candy part of some of the gumballs were cracked and falling off - a real mess and horrible to put in my machines. For toys, I keep enough on hand to always be able to change out my capsules when something is not moving but also try to really manage my inventory. I run 75% gumballs, 10% toys, and 15% candy. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shvend Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 I have gone to ordering pallets for the gum in 85 cases and have found it has been MUCH fresher than Sams sold it to me. The last several times I bought from Sams the candy part of some of the gumballs were cracked and falling off - a real mess and horrible to put in my machines. Mark Mark, It is good to see I am not the only one running to the problem of the outer shell of the gum comming off. Where are you ordering your assorted gum from? As far as we go we order every couple of weeks or as needs. We keep 30% of sales to use for the purchase of products. This works out pretty good for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandymachinesCom Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Hello All, We have heard from some of our customers that they too have had issues on occasion with quality from some of the warehouse stores. As a general rule of thumb, we let our customers know that the shelf life for gumballs is about 18 months as long as they are kept in a cool dry location and not exposed to high humidity. If you do order a lot of product and need to store it, many of our customers have said that they put it into a simple ziploc type bag and it stores fine. Hope that helps! Tonya http://www.candymachines.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Snacks Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 Mark, I stopped buying Dubble Bubble years ago. It was always stale (like marbles) and had a very short shelf life. Got a lot of finger pointing between Sam's and Concord on whose fault it was. I only buy Ford now. I avoid buying from a 3rd party since you don't know how old the gum is AND you don't know if it was stored properly. I have many horror stories buying gum from TJ and AA. Buy factory direct if possible. Jax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Coast Vend LLC Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Tonya Welcome to VENDiscuss.com. Please be sure to introduce yourself in our new member section. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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