jerrybrecko Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 I currently do soda and snack only. I'm looking to get into micro markets. Please only respond if you have micro market experience, I heard fresh and frozen food vending is completely different than fresh and frozen food micro markets. 1) Are fresh sandwiches and salads big sellers in blue collar manufacturing locations? The 7 day expiration makes me nervous of too much spoilage 2) Are vistars frozen cold and hot sandwhiches good in blue collar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 I currently do soda and snack only. I'm looking to get into micro markets. Please only respond if you have micro market experience, I heard fresh and frozen food vending is completely different than fresh and frozen food micro markets. 1) Are fresh sandwiches and salads big sellers in blue collar manufacturing locations? The 7 day expiration makes me nervous of too much spoilage 2) Are vistars frozen cold and hot sandwhiches good in blue collar? To be competitive in the micro markets you will need to offer a pretty large variety of cold food options. This will include a mix of fresh and frozen with a stronger presence of fresh foods to include salads, subs, BLT, deli style etc. With this it is no different than traditional vending because you will still need to monitor what sales and what doesn't and work through it. Just because someone on here might reply back that something sells in their locations does not mean it will sell in yours. It can give you some ideas but nothing is exacts. Even in snack some people might say Doritos are my best seller yet I might have an account I cant give them away. Just because a BLT is a great seller in my micro market does not mean it will be in yours. Also like traditional vending your money is still made on your drinks and snacks. Where a mico market can benefit the operator is you can now charge sales tax at the POS and offer a much larger variety to include large "garb bags" bagged candies, self serve coffee like Kurig, fountain drinks, etc. It is like a mini C-store. It also is usually much more economical to set the equipment compared to traditional vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrecko Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 to me the "stronger presence of fresh foods" sounds like a lot of food expiring and a lot of money in the garbage. thats probably what has prevented me from starting micro markets for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 If you do a micro market in the right type of location, one that's doing well with vending already, you will find that your cold food sales grow significantly as will most of your products because customers can hold, feel, check labels, etc. now and they will be more comfortable with purchasing that they would have been with a cold food machine. Check through the Automatic Merchandiser archives for result of a poll they did sometime within the last couple of years where they asked questions of vendors about micro markets they are running. The average sales lift is close to 20% and the shrinkage is generally less than 5%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 If you do a micro market in the right type of location, one that's doing well with vending already, you will find that your cold food sales grow significantly as will most of your products because customers can hold, feel, check labels, etc. now and they will be more comfortable with purchasing that they would have been with a cold food machine. Check through the Automatic Merchandiser archives for result of a poll they did sometime within the last couple of years where they asked questions of vendors about micro markets they are running. The average sales lift is close to 20% and the shrinkage is generally less than 5%. I agree with AZ again micro markets are no different than traditional vending in that you have to have it in the correct location. With traditional vending if you put a cold food in the wrong location it can be a disaster just like if you put a micro market in the wrong location. Like AZ said in the right location it can be a good thing and surpass what traditional vending would do in that location. It also can help you sell higher end items that is hard to do in vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 In a nut shell you have to be able to determine if the account would be a good fit for a micro market. Once you figure out which account works for the micro market you will then need to figure out what products to sell and at what price points. You will have to play with product selection, par levels, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrecko Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 Thanks for the input friends, much appreciated. Is there an economical delivery method for fresh and frozen foods, as apposed to a refer trucks, while im I the initial stages of testing whether or not i want to continue with fresh foods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 Thanks for the input friends, much appreciated. Is there an economical delivery method for fresh and frozen foods, as apposed to a refer trucks, while im I the initial stages of testing whether or not i want to continue with fresh foods. Obviously large coolers and ice packs would be the most economical in the beginning. However, I am not real sure how you are going to "test" whether you want to continue with cold food. Once you get the accounts that justify and you have committed to cold food their is not a good way to backup. Cold food is one of those things that works better the more accounts you have. "Trying it" at one or two accounts I can tell you will not really like it. In the end cold food itself is not really a money maker. However it is a necessary evil if you want the large accounts. Cold food and large accounts can have a fairly steep learning curve but obviously not impossible because many vending companies do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cblomqui Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 I wouldn't even focus that much on fresh "meals" like sandwiches that expire very quickly. Rather, I would try out items that are simply can't fit in a vending machine. That way you sell a broader variety of product but don't have to worry about spoilage. For example, easy mac, frapacinnos, hummus, large bags of chips, etc are products that are tough to vend but easy to sell in a micromarket, and you don't have to worry about spoilage. If you do want to focus on fresh options, yogurt can do well and doesn't expire as fast as sandwiches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 I wouldn't even focus that much on fresh "meals" like sandwiches that expire very quickly. Rather, I would try out items that are simply can't fit in a vending machine. That way you sell a broader variety of product but don't have to worry about spoilage. For example, easy mac, frapacinnos, hummus, large bags of chips, etc are products that are tough to vend but easy to sell in a micromarket, and you don't have to worry about spoilage. If you do want to focus on fresh options, yogurt can do well and doesn't expire as fast as sandwiches. Then you will NEVER be competitive in the accounts that justify fresh foods and or a micro market to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 I wouldn't even focus that much on fresh "meals" like sandwiches that expire very quickly. Rather, I would try out items that are simply can't fit in a vending machine. That way you sell a broader variety of product but don't have to worry about spoilage. For example, easy mac, frapacinnos, hummus, large bags of chips, etc are products that are tough to vend but easy to sell in a micromarket, and you don't have to worry about spoilage. If you do want to focus on fresh options, yogurt can do well and doesn't expire as fast as sandwiches. You will get this account taken from you very easy by your competition that does cold food and micro markets. With cold food and micro markets in general you either need to do it correctly or just stay a drink snack vending operator. While micro markets are designed to expand your offerings like some you mentioned you will still have to have a solid cold food program in order to not loose the account to your competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cblomqui Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 You will get this account taken from you very easy by your competition that does cold food and micro markets. With cold food and micro markets in general you either need to do it correctly or just stay a drink snack vending operator. While micro markets are designed to expand your offerings like some you mentioned you will still have to have a solid cold food program in order to not loose the account to your competition. I wasn't saying to abandon traditional fresh foods completely. Obviously those are micromarket staples that many accounts look for. I merely wanted to bring light to unorthodox products that could succeed next to the more traditional items. I thought it would be prudent especially considering his concern with spoilage. A diversified offering is key in any business venture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 I wasn't saying to abandon traditional fresh foods completely. Obviously those are micromarket staples that many accounts look for. I merely wanted to bring light to unorthodox products that could succeed next to the more traditional items. I thought it would be prudent especially considering his concern with spoilage. A diversified offering is key in any business venture. When you say "I wouldn't even focus that much on fresh "meals" like sandwiches that expire very quickly." That says to me you are telling him to not have a strong cold food offering and "worry more about easy mac, frapacinnos, hummus, large bags of chips". So my statement stands that this is NOT the correct approach to any micro market. Yes, you can expand your offering to include big bags, bag candies, fresh fruit, etc, etc but you will still need a solid cold food program. Do you currently do micro markets? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrybrecko Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 RJT can you give me a ballpark figure of how much the product will initially cost going into my first location? soda snack fresh and frozen....$1000+? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 RJT can you give me a ballpark figure of how much the product will initially cost going into my first location? soda snack fresh and frozen....$1000+? Thats going to depend on the size of account and what their particular needs are. Also going to depend on what they currently have and what makes sense to earn their business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Do you know how much this account grosses? That will help to determine the initial fill. Or at least provide the number of employees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 After 5 years of working with Micro-Markets through our vendors we have found that blue collar accounts are not "great" with micro-markets. Offices with 150 and up employees work well. You can install the market in the breakroom and set up there. High end hotels that are willing to work with you on a good place for installation does very well too. Many vendors are pulling the micro-markets from industrial accounts because of high theft problems. It seems people in offices care if they are captured on surveillance not paying for items whereas blue collar workers just laugh. Hope this helps. Also if you have a account that needs or requests a lot of equipment a micro-market can be much cheaper. Happy Vending! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 After 5 years of working with Micro-Markets through our vendors we have found that blue collar accounts are not "great" with micro-markets. Offices with 150 and up employees work well. You can install the market in the breakroom and set up there. High end hotels that are willing to work with you on a good place for installation does very well too. Many vendors are pulling the micro-markets from industrial accounts because of high theft problems. It seems people in offices care if they are captured on surveillance not paying for items whereas blue collar workers just laugh. Hope this helps. Also if you have a account that needs or requests a lot of equipment a micro-market can be much cheaper. Happy Vending! That would depend on each account more so that "blue collar" has higher theft than "white collar". No two accounts are alike when it comes to micro markets some will have higher shrinkage than others. Will also be determined by how you have your security setup. If people see holes in your security theft could be higher. Shrinkage is part of it no matter what business you are in but they are ways to help prevent it. You are correct that sometimes no matter what you do it just is a problem with some accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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