SchligVend Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Corporate. .. average driver makes 100 a day here Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 Corporate. .. average driver makes 100 a day here Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk I don't doubt you but I live 45 minutes from Canteen Corporate and know quite a few guys over there and never seen them pay a straight pay and not commission based. A consulting client of mine just hired a Canteen driver and he was at around $1k a week in pay commission based. He had another Canteen driver before this one and he was around the same in pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 I don't doubt you but I live 45 minutes from Canteen Corporate and know quite a few guys over there and never seen them pay a straight pay and not commission based. A consulting client of mine just hired a Canteen driver and he was at around $1k a week in pay commission based. He had another Canteen driver before this one and he was around the same in pay. If I could make $1000 per week running a route for anyone then I'd drop what I'm doing because I could run circles around the quality of work Canteen guys put out. Canteen here just abuses their employees with ridiculous logistics and scheduling and they don't advertise any high paying route jobs at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 If I could make $1000 per week running a route for anyone then I'd drop what I'm doing because I could run circles around the quality of work Canteen guys put out. Canteen here just abuses their employees with ridiculous logistics and scheduling and they don't advertise any high paying route jobs at all. Why do you think my client was able to get them to come work for him. Sometimes even making BIG money to some is not worth it if the job is that stressful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry1973 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 RJT, I have had this conversation with you in the past. What you say is great information IF all those high profile accounts were so easy to get, but the reality is that it takes time and money and patients and hard work to get those from the big players. Maybe we are all just silly for not simply going out and taking all these super nice accounts just because we want them!! I will not pass up an account that grosses $100 per week for a simple soda and snack that i can service in 30-40 minutes or so per week, and I am doing very well in this way, and like Chris has said, there is something to be said about freedom and calling your own shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 RJT, I have had this conversation with you in the past. What you say is great information IF all those high profile accounts were so easy to get, but the reality is that it takes time and money and patients and hard work to get those from the big players. Maybe we are all just silly for not simply going out and taking all these super nice accounts just because we want them!! I will not pass up an account that grosses $100 per week for a simple soda and snack that i can service in 30-40 minutes or so per week, and I am doing very well in this way, and like Chris has said, there is something to be said about freedom and calling your own shots. I think you are missing the BIG picture here. It would almost be impossible to NOT make money buying $500 and $1000 machines and grossing $50 a machine if you keep the account long enough. The issue is it is very hard to grow to any size to make any sizable money. Only so much time in a day to work all those accounts making lower volume. It was to long for this post but I gave an example to look at it with this thread I started. http://vendiscuss.net/index.php?/topic/24123-how-many-accounts-to-make-50k-net-money/ Yes, it is hard but not impossible to get those accounts. In reality it is not as hard as you think it is unless the bigger operators have their stuff together and doing it right but many times that is not the case. Also it takes me the same amount of time to call on small accounts as it does the large ones. What I mean is the initial sales process of going out knocking on doors. Yes, it can take a little longer to go through the rest of the sales process but many times it has taken about the same amount of time big or small. The key is knowing the who, what when and where to get the larger accounts because I promise you their is large accounts in your are that is not happy about their vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 One more point I will make. You said "it takes time and money and patients and hard work to get those from the big players." Lets say it took you 6 months to get an account that does $1000 per week. How long would it take you to get those 10 accounts (at $50 per machine) doing the same amount of revenue? Can you get those 10 accounts in 6 months? Also now we have the cost associated with 20 machines when I might could have done that same volume with 8 machines in that larger account. Did those 10 accounts take you any less time money or effort to get than the one that took you 6 months? I realize this is not exacts and just used as an example because that same large account could have taken you two years to get or those 10 accounts could have taken you a couple of months but In think you understand my point I was making. In vending you have to take a hard look at your machine averages or the cost of doing business can be so huge you are not making any decent money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SchligVend Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I honestly love the accounts that do 50 to 100 a week, easy to vend, most have very few complaints, not much invested into the account, and most of the other guys aren't trying to steal those accounts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry1973 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 RJT, I do look for high end accounts, but I'm not going to turn my nose up at the medium sized ones when they come around, they have been profitable for me. I can see how if a guy went out and spent 8-10 grand in equipment and then only pulled in $100 at a time that it would take some time, but I have a way to store equipment, and when i find a good deal i snag it and keep it until a location becomes available. I usually have invested around $500 for soda and snack per account. There is not a my way is the right way, and everyone else is wrong in this business. RSchlig, I absolutely agree!!! low stress and quick and easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 RJT, I do look for high end accounts, but I'm not going to turn my nose up at the medium sized ones when they come around, they have been profitable for me. I can see how if a guy went out and spent 8-10 grand in equipment and then only pulled in $100 at a time that it would take some time, but I have a way to store equipment, and when i find a good deal i snag it and keep it until a location becomes available. I usually have invested around $500 for soda and snack per account. There is not a my way is the right way, and everyone else is wrong in this business. RSchlig, I absolutely agree!!! low stress and quick and easy. I never said turn your nose up at them. This is about AVERAGES. If you only AVERAGE $50 per machine per week it is hard to make any decent money. Because you would have so many machines out to service in order to make a decent living. I could have a few accounts doing $50 per machine but my overall average is $150 per machine in gross revenue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SchligVend Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I am all about per stop minimum, I look to pull 80 plus per stop, so the accounts that do 50 a week I wait 3 weeks to service them... by doing this I am able to have a bunch of machines out in the field and still have plenty of time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 I am all about per stop minimum, I look to pull 80 plus per stop, so the accounts that do 50 a week I wait 3 weeks to service them... by doing this I am able to have a bunch of machines out in the field and still have plenty of time! You obviously space service times based on sales volume that is a given. You wouldn't go to an account two times a week that only justifies once a week. The problem with spreading service time out to far is stales. With drinks it is not so bad because of the extended dates. Lets say you have a snack machine with some product with two week left on them when you service the machine. Do you pull them or hope they sell out before they go out of date? This also applies to drinks because they do have dates and could be in a similar situation. If you leave them now you are faced with having out of date products in the machine which puts you at risk with the customer being mad. Adjusting products to what sales helps this but is not always the easy fix. If you pull the product (which is more labor added) then you have to have a decent account to put them in to make sure they sell before going out of date because now you are essentially putting short dated product in an account. I have even had complaints before because of "short dated" products being put in. Two weeks is a stretch but every three weeks to a month is very hard to work and make the stales not get you in the end. Just managing those accounts are tough because of having to constantly watch dates, pull product to move somewhere else, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SchligVend Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I agree 3 weeks is difficult to pull for a snack machine, we try to stick with mostly longer life items such as cookies, cheez-its in these types of accounts but if there is only 2 weeks left or sometimes even 1 week left in the machine I will keep them in the machine and hope they gets sold before expiration. I also do agree that my 150 plus a week accounts are a lot easier to manage since you pretty much know nothing will expire so just throw product in and it will be gone in the next 2 weeks at most! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHX1 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Is that a Canteen franchise or corporate owned? Canteen usually always pays a commission type pay plan. If the PHX canteen didn't rely on getting its accounts from best vendors or compass group they would be eaten alive here locally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrooksvendall Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 You obviously space service times based on sales volume that is a given. You wouldn't go to an account two times a week that only justifies once a week. The problem with spreading service time out to far is stales. With drinks it is not so bad because of the extended dates. Lets say you have a snack machine with some product with two week left on them when you service the machine. Do you pull them or hope they sell out before they go out of date? This also applies to drinks because they do have dates and could be in a similar situation. If you leave them now you are faced with having out of date products in the machine which puts you at risk with the customer being mad. Adjusting products to what sales helps this but is not always the easy fix. If you pull the product (which is more labor added) then you have to have a decent account to put them in to make sure they sell before going out of date because now you are essentially putting short dated product in an account. I have even had complaints before because of "short dated" products being put in. Two weeks is a stretch but every three weeks to a month is very hard to work and make the stales not get you in the end. Just managing those accounts are tough because of having to constantly watch dates, pull product to move somewhere else, etc. I have to end up eating and drinking my stales,but they're delicious! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wegroup Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 I read these postings and am very thankful for those who share their knowledge and wisdom. I take what applies and let all the other fly. Thank-you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I agree 3 weeks is difficult to pull for a snack machine, we try to stick with mostly longer life items such as cookies, cheez-its in these types of accounts but if there is only 2 weeks left or sometimes even 1 week left in the machine I will keep them in the machine and hope they gets sold before expiration. I also do agree that my 150 plus a week accounts are a lot easier to manage since you pretty much know nothing will expire so just throw product in and it will be gone in the next 2 weeks at most! I think it's not just about product literally going stale, it's also about the customers seeing the same stuff for weeks at a time. In their head they start to think 'old snacks' or at least they get very bored with the same selection. Not only that but if you only show up at an account once in three weeks they can't help wondering if you really much know that they exist. If a snack machine can go three weeks without running out of significant selections IMO it's not much of an account anyhow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickers Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 RJT, I feel what you have posted to be very true. We all have different demographic areas,different accounts,different operating costs etc. but I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 RJT, I feel what you have posted to be very true. We all have different demographic areas,different accounts,different operating costs etc. but I agree. Thanks!! It is all dependent on all those things. Just like any professional business such as McDonalds, Walmart, Starbucks, etc. They strategically open (and close) locations based on all those factors. That is why you dont see a McDonalds in some small rural town but might see a mom and pop diner. The mom and pop diner may have a very brisk business but McDonalds could not operate there. Why do you think Starbucks and others close locations? Because they are poor performing and just dont justify being open. Sometimes even the best companies (such as Walmart, Starbucks, etc) miss the mark and open stores that need closing later. Even with that it could be a case of it worked when they opened but something caused it to be a poor performing location. Just like vending that could be poor management, change of demographics, change of buying habits, poor economy, etc. The main thing people miss many times in vending is making the correct decisions or the vision to see where they need to make adjustments to their business at the necessary times. That is why I tell people all things are relevant no matter what business it is including vending. Sometimes I have seen where even starting a vending business in certain parts of the country would not worth be opening but a different type business may be very well suited for that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amigo Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Take your close dated product and donate it to Charity. We have several homeless shelters that just love getting our chips soda and sandwiches. They put the chips and sandwiches in the freezer and bring it out as needed. All 100% tax deductible. Sodas shouldn't be a problem if you watch the dates. Rotate your product from a slow moving location to a fast moving one and sell them. a friend of mine had several outside machines he would fill with close dated sodas for 25cents and hardly ever had any stales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amigo Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 I think it's not just about product literally going stale, it's also about the customers seeing the same stuff for weeks at a time. In their head they start to think 'old snacks' or at least they get very bored with the same selection. Not only that but if you only show up at an account once in three weeks they can't help wondering if you really much know that they exist. If a snack machine can go three weeks without running out of significant selections IMO it's not much of an account anyhow. Do like the stores do, move things around. Plan O Grams are not the best for making money. Why do you think stores constantly move things? So you see other things they sell. Merchandising is a must if you want top dollars. Plus don't be afraid to try an off brand product as it just might surprise you right in your pocket. Just don't go crazy buying too much at a time. I have made some awesome money by putting in off brands. Also, Do Not let your personal tastes influence what you put in your machines. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it won't sell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Do like the stores do, move things around. Plan O Grams are not the best for making money. Why do you think stores constantly move things? So you see other things they sell. Merchandising is a must if you want top dollars. Plus don't be afraid to try an off brand product as it just might surprise you right in your pocket. Just don't go crazy buying too much at a time. I have made some awesome money by putting in off brands. Also, Do Not let your personal tastes influence what you put in your machines. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it won't sell. All very good points. Of course the customers want to see different stuff - if something isn't selling well, yank it and put something different in. One of the worst 'merchandising' jobs was done by my own brother in his vending business. To 'save money' (i.e. not invest it in product) he would put maybe four items in a ten column snack machine. Two rows of peanuts, two rows of CPB's, a few rows of Lorna Doones and a few rows of Clark bars. Only four selections to choose from - that's how to make money. I covered for him while he went to national guard one summer and he flipped out when he saw that I'd bought enough items to have different snacks in each column, and I had filled his pop (canned soda if you will) machines full, which normally ran mostly empty before he put a case in each column. It was no wonder that finally his largest account - with two locations of 9 or 10 machines each, furniture warehouse / showrooms with a lot of big young hungry guys working there - asked him to kindly remove his equipment. That came on the day his first child was born BTW - and they were nice enough to agree to let him leave the equipment, which was good, and sell the account to another vendor. My brother is a really nice guy but in his younger years not so hot at running a business with coaching I'm sure from his young non-business wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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