honor box theft

[srvending]

Hello , im fairly new to this as i have 10 bulk locations, 12 honor box locations and just recently put out 10 mint boxes,with mint boxes i didnt go with all mints is that bad or good??? i mixed it up with mini bars skittles starburst and mints plus some tootsie pops, selling for .50 or 3/1,  now i know there is always theft with honor boxes but was wondering is there a way to keep theft down any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

[AngryChris]

Well... there are ways to keep theft down but those ways can cause you to lose the account completely.  Leaving notes or reminders often cause people to feel offended.  They either get offended that their co-workers are being dishonest or they are offended that YOU would dare ACCUSE their co-workers of being dishonest.  Either way, a common go-to solution from the account's perspective is to ask you to remove the box.  Because, after all, if you remove the box, the "theft" problem goes away too, right?  It's sort of like.... out of sight; out of mind.  It's like the police asking you to get rid of your car because the criminals keep stealing it lol.

 

So while you COULD lose accounts while trying to reduce theft, there are still ways that you can try...  You can leaver an IOU sheet so people can hopefully (but probably not) remember to pay you back later.  You can leave non-offensive notes such as "Please remember to pay for your snacks so we can continue to provide this service!  Thanks!" or whatever else you come up with.  Just keep in mind that there are three types of "thieves" that you are dealing with.  There are people who simply don't have cash on them and honestly DO want to pay you back but simply never get around to it.  There are people who don't keep track of what they owe and/or make up their own prices and pay you whatever they feel like paying (ie.  customer eats 3 mints every day and puts $3 in the box because he feels like he deserves a discount or didn't think he actually ate $5 worth of mints).  And finally, there are people who simply take the mints without any intention of paying you.  I have seen some of these people even talk about how they OWE you nothing because you are ripping people off (they try to justify their theft by claiming your prices are too high).

 

So... just keep in mind that a lot of theft is mostly people who forget what they owe, don't have cash, or only pay what they want to pay.  Most people don't just steal without reason.  Your better strategy would be to decide what's acceptable to you.  When I first got into honor boxes, I would want to remove a box if it was short $2.00 out of what should have been $25.00.  As I got more into it, I realized that being short $2 in a box that sold 25 pieces (I do snacks for $1.00 each) is pretty good!!  If I had 100 honor boxes that did $46 per month with $4 shortage, I would be living easy!  So focus more on the quantity of sales as it relates to theft rather than the theft itself.

 

It's all about profit so do the math and figure things out.  For things like mints, I believe they cost less than 10 cents per unit, so selling 3 for $1 is a good profit.  Look at it this way, an account that sells 100 mints per month should bring in about $33.00-$50.00.  Let's assume that you should average about $40.00 per 100 mints.  Even if that location only brought in $25.00 in a month, it probably only cost you $10.00, so you made $15.00 on the turnover.  Considering it takes only a couple minutes to run in, swap out a box, collect your money, and run out, $15 is a good deal even with the large shortage.  On the other hand, selling 20 mints in a month and collecting $8.00 is near perfect as far as theft goes (or the lack thereof).  However, those 20 mints cost you $2.00 and you collected $8.00 for a profit of only $6.00.  While it's still worth it, it's just an important comparison about how some places can have high theft but also high sales and some places can have low theft and low sales.  Everything is relative.  So focus more on a couple of things -- focus on how much PROFIT you want to collect whenever you service an account and focus on doing the quick math to figure out your profit.  I can't give you advice on mint boxes because I haven't done them but some of these guys have ways to quickly audit the revenue vs. sales while swapping boxes out quickly.

 

I hope this helps.

[BradMillner46]

Hello , im fairly new to this as i have 10 bulk locations, 12 honor box locations and just recently put out 10 mint boxes,with mint boxes i didnt go with all mints is that bad or good??? i mixed it up with mini bars skittles starburst and mints plus some tootsie pops, selling for .50 or 3/1,  now i know there is always theft with honor boxes but was wondering is there a way to keep theft down any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

Hi srvending,

     I absolutely do not like the terminology "mint boxes" because if you're only selling mints out of these, you are cutting yourself way short. It's like having a 2017 Ferrari Testerossa and only keeping it in first gear. In my years of experience, charity vending is by far the most profitable type of vending you can be in, plus you're helping a good cause at the same time.

 

     So to answer your question regarding theft with charity vending honor boxes, it has everything to do with how the charity portrays itself to the general public, how you portray yourself to the general public and the appearance of your boxes. Because you as a vendor have no control over how the charity portrays itself, you can only control how you portray yourself. There are many things that go into this but the best advice I can give you is to simply be nice to everyone when you are out servicing your route. Try to get people to talk about themselves and develop real empathy for others. If someone tells you that they're having a hard time, make sure you listen to them in an empathetic way. Trust me, they will remember you for this and it will go a very, very long way towards them looking out for you in the future with your honor box. No one wants to steal from the person everyone likes and is kind to them all the time.

 

     If you want to get more of an in-depth understanding about theft and kick-outs with charity honor box vending and what the biggest factors are that go into this, I suggest you check out my post titled "Is the Pink Ribbon (Candy For A Cause) Program good or bad?"