joebob051977 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 I am sitting here wallowing in my sorrow. Here I am with 3 locatons that I've had for over a year. I've got 1 machine in my garage and a couple of Eagles in my basement. I've been trying to make money to grow on my $500 I had to invest in vending. I have 1 location that only grosses $12-$15/mo, and another which grosses $15-$17/mo. I also have I location which grosses $65/mo. I am wonding what I was thinking with keeping my machines at those 2 low performing locations for so long. There are so many good locations out there, and I feel I would grow much more efficiently if I tried to get better locations. I'm sure we've all been at this point at 1 time or another. I guess it is time to put on some comfortable shoes and go out locating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-man422 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Joe, don't get down. Just go out and relocate the low performers and you'll be glad you did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurtsman Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 12-15 doesn't seem too bad depending on how large the machine is... (if it was a single or double I'd leave it there, but I'd also consider pushing for a 6 or 8 week service cycle) I'm operating on the theory of expecting an 8 month payback period though. While several operators are showing higher RoI, I am new and know that I will make mistakes as I learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Are those singles or doubles or triple locations? If they are singles, then they are not bad at all. If they're triples, then yeah, they are low but not too awful. If you have some machines that are not yet placed, I would place those first, then see where your bad locations lay in your entire route. $12-$15 a month is just about double the national average if these are single product locations. If these are singles, you may want to try adding another head or another product. I had one location where I had a single gumball. It did awful at $6 over an 8-week cycle. I put my first rack in there (a triple with 2" Glow Crosses, and 1" sticky mix and 1" monkey'n around). After one week, it looks to me that it sold about $10 worth of product. I also have this one other location that had a single gumball machine as well. It did okay with about $16/mo. I added another head to the gumballs to make it a double with skittles, and the income shot up to about $25/mo. Adding doubles and product other than gumballs is new to me. I'm finding that my earlier convictions that vending multiple products was a waste, is now not true any more for me. I had based those convictions on only 2 locations that did awful. Plus with single gumballs, I found that I can have more locations with the same number of machines than I can with double. But as I get larger, I find that I can condense my really poor locations into doubles and squeeze a little bit more out of a location. Now I'm trying to decide if it is better to try and upgrade a poor performing location before upgrading a good performer. This is like trying to decide if it would be better to save money or pay down debt. I guess in the end, it's what ever works well for the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markvend Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Darryl, Good post - you've got my POTD vote. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markvend Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Joe Bob, I absolutely would not pull your 2 low producers BEFORE you get others placed. Also be encouraged and look at your numbers: You got an approximate gross of $1260/yr. A very conservative net would be $530/yr(50% of gross). You've already got a 100+% return on your investment WITH TWO MACHINES LEFT TO PLACE. Be encouraged and let the numbers be your motivation to get the others placed. What if you had 100 more like those? Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kai1836 Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Mark brings up a great point on ROI. Your investment being returned within 1 year is a great return! Most new businesses don't make money for several years. ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joebob051977 Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 The ROI is very good with vending and that is why I choose to do vending. Perhaps I just need to be more patient and get my other machines placed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoniocinisi Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I agree,place all your machines then tweak your route after you have no machines left collcting dust. after all a low performer is better then a no performer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer980 Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I would also say to wait until they are all placed before relocating. Right now you have a handle on how much they average per month. With a new location you could always get a worse performing then the one you pulled. Think of it a a trial for pulling the location. Find a place for that spare and see which one does better. If it does worse the relocate that one instead of the steady performer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joebob051977 Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 These machines are 3 head machines. My 3 month figures for them are $28.10, and $27.36. Yep 1 penny and 2 dimes in there too. Fortunately, the location which made $28.10 had $8.75 in gumball sales. The other location I pulled GB after only selling 3-5GB/mo there. I totally agree that it is better to leave them until, I get my other machines located. If these were 1 head machines it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm kind of wondering if I would be better off just dropping down to 2 head machines at those locations than completely removing machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROGERS VENDING Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 These machines are 3 head machines. My 3 month figures for them are $28.10, and $27.36. Yep 1 penny and 2 dimes in there too. Fortunately, the location which made $28.10 had $8.75 in gumball sales. The other location I pulled GB after only selling 3-5GB/mo there. I totally agree that it is better to leave them until, I get my other machines located. If these were 1 head machines it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm kind of wondering if I would be better off just dropping down to 2 head machines at those locations than completely removing machines. Joe, I'm new but it seems to me that I would leave the triple head and continue to change out any bad performing product (like you did with the GB in the one location). Going to a double headed machine would only decrease income. The object, in my humble opinion, is to get as much money out of a location on each visit. If you downsize to a double headed machine, the sales may not be worth the gas and time. At your current sales rate, you should be making close to $4 or more profit a month. That is profitable (on the low end). Just add more machines to the route. If the two locations are in an area where you don't thinik more machines can be added, then perhaps you need to move the machines. And like the above poster said, just service the machines less often. Go for once every 8 weeks. Cheers, Jesse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honda man Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Hi Jesse, welcome to the forum. Feel free to inroduce yourself in the new members area and tell us a little about yourself. Where are you located? Ernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROGERS VENDING Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Honda, I'm from Austin, Texas. I'm getting my DBA, etc next week and then machines at the end of next week. How is everything going for you? I see you're new to the business? JHR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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