bhumphrey829 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 I was wondering if anyone on here runs a snack box business full time. I have read everything Dennis Slack has posted on here and have actually talked to him on several occasions, but he seemed to have fallen off the grid and I also just wanted to get other people's prospectives on this. I started with 3 snack boxes along with 2 snack and 4 soda machines. I also have 21 U-turns. I have found that while I love vending, it's the snack boxes I truly enjoy doing the snack boxes. I am using the smaller boxes from cameron packaging. I currently lost my job and paid off most of my debt with my 401k and am ready to tackle it full time. I now have 13 boxes, averaging about 130.00 a week with very little theft. I alos purchased 20 of the big pink ribbon snack boxes from sheridan and while they are a little pricy, they look really nice. I have just put two of those out, with 60 items in each one. If anyone does do the snack boxes full time, please PM me so i can pick your brain(s) about this. I have read all the negative things the one guy had to say about the honor box system, but he just sounded like one of those people who had a bad expereince (usually thorugh faults of their own), and blamed everything on the business. So hopefully he is no longer around. Usually people with that kind of attitude don't last too long in a customer service business, but if you are still on here reading this please don't reply, I'm not interested in anything you have to say. Thanks, look forward to hearing from you guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I don't do it full time. In fact, I have consolidated down from 2 days each week down to 2 days per month. With that said, I am only holding onto my best accounts so I can keep making some extra money. With that said, I can give you some insight. One thing to keep in mind is that the maximum money you'll realistically make with honor boxes is probably about $20/hour profit, but it will require really good accounts and you'll be a full-time honor box operator. Another thing to know is that.. since the box is so easy to take out, people are quick to tell you to take your box out if there's a problem (even if it's their fault). So don't expect to keep your customers forever. It's just part of the game. I have done the math many times and, if I were going to retire, I would go back to honor boxes since I could easily work out of my car and the profits could easily pay for that car and my personal bills. So the business is viable, but it just requires proper decision making on your part to make sure you keep the money makers and remove/replace the money losers. Honestly, the only reason I got into the honor boxes was because I was working 2 days per week doing full-line vending while simultaneously working a full-time job working 4 days per week. The hours were brutal (3 first-shift days, 1 third-shift day) and I was missing sleep. The honor box opportunity came along and it was able to supplement about 35% of my full-time income while only requiring me to work a total of 4 days per week. I needed flexibility so I could provide better service to my vending machines so this was my ticket out of the full-time job. Now that I have a solid work-week with full-line vending doing the work week, I am finding that the honor boxes are sort of getting in the way of repairs that need to be taken care of ASAP. I have also lost several high-use accounts (some of which were profitable, some of which just ate everything but I didn't profit much) and I have no need to be out as often. My fuel expense remains the same but I only sell about 50% of what I did when I originally purchased the business. It has more than paid for itself now and, as I already stated, it's starting to get in the way. I make way more with full-line vending but it also require more work, more overhead, and more expenses. A good month with full-line might yield $3,000 in profits, while a bad month will yield $0 or even a loss. There's just no telling. Honor boxes are way more consistent and repairs are non-existent and there's no need for anything bigger than a large hatchback/small minivan, which means most repairs and cheaper and easier to get done since any mechanic can work on them (I have to take my box truck to commercial truck repair places because it's too big to fit into most mechanics' garages). So... I will tell you this: If you really enjoy honor boxes, I suggest you simply keep growing both your full-line AND your honor boxes. Since honor boxes are so cheap (compared to vending machines), as long as you have good sales ability, you can just keep placing honor boxes as fast as you can to get your income up. One thing I recommend though is to try to keep your honor boxes completely separate from your full-line vending. The money that comes in from honor boxes needs to go to one places (ie. bank account) and the expenses need to come out of that account too. That way, you know EXACTLY how much money you're actually making from the honor boxes or the full-line vending by themselves. Simply grow as fast as you can to offset the loss of your job. Once you feel comfortable, you can choose to go 100% honor box, keep your mixture of honor boxes, vending machines, and bulk machines, or do whatever else you like. The good thing is that you can sell vending machines for a fair price (usually) but honor boxes sell cheap. So... unless you are ready to be "retired", In which case I think you should focus primarily on honor boxes anyway, you might want to grow the vending machines significantly so that you have enough equipment out there to use up your product without having expired product. I know this was a long post but I hope it helped. It's not easy to operate a honor box business due to all of the random stuff that happens, but your primary two expenses are COGS and fuel. Other than that, it's easy money and keeping customers isn't hard as long as you have a regular schedule and you're friendly. Vending machines require way more overhead so don't get too crazy with them unless you are considering buying a larger vehicle for them in the future (unless you already have one). I think I will sell out within the next 10 years and get away from vending completely, but I will focus on making money for the time being. When I do sell out, like everyone else, I'll probably disappear from these forums, but I will also be about 40 years old and [hopefully] in a very exciting job managing a large operation somewhere. I'm not really passionate about "vending" per say.. I am passionate about operating a business and my business is operating vending machines so... lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 I don't do it full time. In fact, I have consolidated down from 2 days each week down to 2 days per month. With that said, I am only holding onto my best accounts so I can keep making some extra money. With that said, I can give you some insight. One thing to keep in mind is that the maximum money you'll realistically make with honor boxes is probably about $20/hour profit, but it will require really good accounts and you'll be a full-time honor box operator. Another thing to know is that.. since the box is so easy to take out, people are quick to tell you to take your box out if there's a problem (even if it's their fault). So don't expect to keep your customers forever. It's just part of the game. I have done the math many times and, if I were going to retire, I would go back to honor boxes since I could easily work out of my car and the profits could easily pay for that car and my personal bills. So the business is viable, but it just requires proper decision making on your part to make sure you keep the money makers and remove/replace the money losers. Honestly, the only reason I got into the honor boxes was because I was working 2 days per week doing full-line vending while simultaneously working a full-time job working 4 days per week. The hours were brutal (3 first-shift days, 1 third-shift day) and I was missing sleep. The honor box opportunity came along and it was able to supplement about 35% of my full-time income while only requiring me to work a total of 4 days per week. I needed flexibility so I could provide better service to my vending machines so this was my ticket out of the full-time job. Now that I have a solid work-week with full-line vending doing the work week, I am finding that the honor boxes are sort of getting in the way of repairs that need to be taken care of ASAP. I have also lost several high-use accounts (some of which were profitable, some of which just ate everything but I didn't profit much) and I have no need to be out as often. My fuel expense remains the same but I only sell about 50% of what I did when I originally purchased the business. It has more than paid for itself now and, as I already stated, it's starting to get in the way. I make way more with full-line vending but it also require more work, more overhead, and more expenses. A good month with full-line might yield $3,000 in profits, while a bad month will yield $0 or even a loss. There's just no telling. Honor boxes are way more consistent and repairs are non-existent and there's no need for anything bigger than a large hatchback/small minivan, which means most repairs and cheaper and easier to get done since any mechanic can work on them (I have to take my box truck to commercial truck repair places because it's too big to fit into most mechanics' garages). So... I will tell you this: If you really enjoy honor boxes, I suggest you simply keep growing both your full-line AND your honor boxes. Since honor boxes are so cheap (compared to vending machines), as long as you have good sales ability, you can just keep placing honor boxes as fast as you can to get your income up. One thing I recommend though is to try to keep your honor boxes completely separate from your full-line vending. The money that comes in from honor boxes needs to go to one places (ie. bank account) and the expenses need to come out of that account too. That way, you know EXACTLY how much money you're actually making from the honor boxes or the full-line vending by themselves. Simply grow as fast as you can to offset the loss of your job. Once you feel comfortable, you can choose to go 100% honor box, keep your mixture of honor boxes, vending machines, and bulk machines, or do whatever else you like. The good thing is that you can sell vending machines for a fair price (usually) but honor boxes sell cheap. So... unless you are ready to be "retired", In which case I think you should focus primarily on honor boxes anyway, you might want to grow the vending machines significantly so that you have enough equipment out there to use up your product without having expired product. I know this was a long post but I hope it helped. It's not easy to operate a honor box business due to all of the random stuff that happens, but your primary two expenses are COGS and fuel. Other than that, it's easy money and keeping customers isn't hard as long as you have a regular schedule and you're friendly. Vending machines require way more overhead so don't get too crazy with them unless you are considering buying a larger vehicle for them in the future (unless you already have one). I think I will sell out within the next 10 years and get away from vending completely, but I will focus on making money for the time being. When I do sell out, like everyone else, I'll probably disappear from these forums, but I will also be about 40 years old and [hopefully] in a very exciting job managing a large operation somewhere. I'm not really passionate about "vending" per say.. I am passionate about operating a business and my business is operating vending machines so... lol Angry, I really appreciate your post. I have done the honor boxes and my few full line vending machines for about 2 years and have had my bulk vending for about 3 years. With the full line, i agree that you make a lot more money, but unless you have brand new machines, or at least machines you know aren't going to break down all the time, to me honor box is the way to go. i have old vending machines at my location. the location is a nursing, great location (at least for me it is), but i never know what kind of problems i am going to run into when it get there where with the honor boxes i know at least they aren't going to be broke down, costing me sales lol. Eventually i am going to sell my location and use that money for more boxes and bulk machines. I don't know if this sounds like a lot or not, but I if i can build my boxes up 250 locations, averaging $8 a week i can make live comfortably. By the way, just would like you opinion as to how much you think i can get for my location. It averages about $260.00 a week in gross sales. I have two single price dixie narco machines and one snack machine, which i have no idea even the name of it lol. These are older machines, so i would really be selling the location more than the machines. I also have one more single price can machine inside a car lot that is in good shape, but it only does about $15 week. Thanks in advance and again, thanks for you input Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 You would be better off asking that in the full line section, but I would guess your location could sell anywhere from $4,000-$6,000. That's just a guess. $260/week is good. I would put a nice refurbished bottle and snack (still all cans though) and keep it if I were you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobTHJ Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I don't run honor boxes full time but it is a large portion of my vending business (almost half). I have about 150 honor box accounts currently on anywhere from 2-8 week service cycles. They can be very profitable but as AngryChris mentioned they can also have a lot of turnover. At this point in my experience about one in two accounts is a "keeper" money wise, but even the good accounts can drop quickly as small businesses move and change hands. On the plus side there are some good long-term honor box accounts on my route that have been in place 30+ years or more (not all under my ownership) that consistently buy and pay for their snacks - so there are some gems in the mix. A suggestion might be to try and find some larger size boxes. I use old Mini-Vend boxes and the woodgrain cardboard ones that Dennis Slack sells. I can load these up with 80-100 items each allowing me to push the time between services a little longer. One other observation I have made on the snack boxes is that a good box can turn into a bad one (or vice versa) if the business changes employees. Just like machines location can be a big factor too - having the box where people see it on a regular basis really seems to help improve sales. Feel free to send me a PM if you would like to chat more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 You guys rock! I would love to squeeze in honour boxes myself. Someone posted the cheapest ones somewhere within the forum.. I just can't recall where exactly it was! I will keep reading so I can learn something...carry on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 You guys rock! I would love to squeeze in honour boxes myself. Someone posted the cheapest ones somewhere within the forum.. I just can't recall where exactly it was! I will keep reading so I can learn something...carry on! I placed 2 more boxes this morning. That puts me up to 17 now. It depends on what size boxes you are looking for. I use the smaller snack boxes by cameron packaging. They come with dividers, but I don't put the dividers in there. I put 20 items in each box. I also have the big snack boxes that Sheridan systems carries. I bought 20 of these, thinking i was going to place them. I have 3 of them out and do pretty well, but I have decided to do is continue placing the smaller ones then upgrading my accounts that need the larger ones because it's better to upgrade from smaller to larger than downgrade from larger to smaller. And the smaller ones are just a lot easier to handle. My goal is only placing 2 boxes a day 5 days a week. When I go out in the mornings, I already have it in my mind that i am either going to place my two boxes or get 10 "no's". So today my first stop said no, then my next two said yes, day done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Awesome.have u ever tried doing this by phone? I see this type of Vending for those that would love to help out the charity that I help support,but don't have the room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 Awesome.have u ever tried doing this by phone? I see this type of Vending for those that would love to help out the charity that I help support,but don't have the room. I have done it by phone, but i have to make a lot more calls to get a "yes" over the phone than when I walk in with the snack box in hand. I use the women's breast cancer society charity because everyone recognizes the pink ribbon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Good deal. That's a good cause. You can definitely get the "no room" exscuses covered in person. Like I had stated. I had a couple places that were willing,they just didn't have the room. The honour box solves that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 I have done it by phone, but i have to make a lot more calls to get a "yes" over the phone than when I walk in with the snack box in hand. I use the women's breast cancer society charity because everyone recognizes the pink ribbon It's harder for someone to say no on Person, plus when they see you and your personable it works to your benefit to be there. More yeses. I personally pay my staff to cover an area for my route, then go in person tho fill in the route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 If you do decide to do it by phone by hiring a locating service, Rodney69, who is a member on here is your best bet. He the best out there and you won't anyone cheaper than what he charges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 Placed 2 more boxes today. that make 6 for the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Placed 2 more boxes today. that make 6 for the week.Yeah I hopefully have a small route purchase Saturday.. Then I might buy some boxes from Cameron myself. I was always skeptical about honour boxes myself, with the theft and all. I do want to give it a shot though. I've had big time product losses before.. Running a bunch of vendstars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglesfan1203 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 What type of locations do you target? What are you putting in the box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 24, 2015 Author Share Posted July 24, 2015 What type of locations do you target? What are you putting in the box? So far most of my locations are tire changing places, body repair shops, transmission places. I have one in a place that gives loans that does well.. I placed 3 more today, one at a radiator place, a tire repair shop and a locksmith place. Like I have said before, i use the smaller boxes with 20 items in them unless they require the bigger boxes which i have on standby just in case. I put 10 chips, 2 of the bigger peanuts, 2 crackers 3 pastries, and 3 candy bars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 How long are the pastries usually good for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglesfan1203 Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 One price point for the whole box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 How long are the pastries usually good for For a couple to 3 weeks One price point for the whole box? Yes, everything is $1.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 For a couple to 3 weeks Yes, everything is $1.00 Thanks for the education [emoji6] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadmill Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 If I remember correctly when Dennis was commenting on here on a regular basis, I think was charging $1.25 per item and had no problem getting it. More money more profit. Plus with more money coming in it took care of the stales he had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhumphrey829 Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share Posted July 26, 2015 If I remember correctly when Dennis was commenting on here on a regular basis, I think was charging $1.25 per item and had no problem getting it. More money more profit. Plus with more money coming in it took care of the stales he had. Yes, Dennis charges $1.25, but I just chose to do the $1.00 because it's still enough profit for me and I really can't see people really pulling an extra quarter out of their pocket but I could be wrong, and I haven't a whole lot of stales at least not yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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