photomikey Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Hi, I'm not currently in the vending business. I'd like to buy one used/refurbished machine to use at a school camp in the mountains. Potential customers are camp staff and visiting teachers (not students). Downside is that there are 3 meals a day served on-site at no charge. Upside is that it's all healthy (school) food and teachers/staff get cravings for chocolate/chips/soda. I do not expect this to be a high volume location, but I run a nonprofit foundation (that supports this camp) and we've been asked if we have interest in putting in a machine. We'd like to put a single combo machine in. Soda, snacks, etc. The crux of my question is this: We'd like to sell camp shirts/hats/etc to visiting teachers and staff. I'm assuming I can find a way to package these items to vend as snacks. Price range would be in the $10-$25 range. Are there problems with this scenario, and can someone recommend a machine for this purpose? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photomikey Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 Any thoughts on this? Anybody? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 1 hour ago, photomikey said: Any thoughts on this? Anybody? You'll find that decent Combo machines are quite pricey - unless this is a subsidized operation, I doubt you'll see much, if any ROI here. A simple soda machine might be a better choice for multiple reasons discussed here to death over the years, At the price levels you're looking at you'll also need a CC reader - even more money and the monthly fees associated to operate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapitalCityVendingLLC Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Yea, you are looking at a couple problems. As previously said, you aren't going to make much money doing this if any. It would take years to just break even. How many staff members/teachers are potentially going to be in front of this machine on a daily basis? You could probably find a way to package the t-shirts and hats to vend properly, but I'd hate to see what someone would do if a 10-25 dollar item got hung up. People go crazy sometimes over a .75 cent item so a high price item would present potential nightmares. Having a machine that is a surevend (guarantee's the product with a laser beam above where the product comes out. if product doesn't fall, there is still a credit and the user can select another item or get their money back) would definitely be a thing to do, but that comes a price further pushing back you break even day. As moondog said, combo machines aren't traditionally the best machines. There are some decent ones out there that people could suggest to you. I don't specifically deal with combo machines so I'm not your guy when it comes to recommending combo machines. I don't have a single one if that tells you something though. Do you have enough space to place 2 machines instead of one? If you could find a cheap Dixie Narco Drink machine for 200-500 dollars and then a decent used snack machine for similar price that'd probably be a better route. The snack machine would definitely need a bill validator that takes 1's, 5's, 10's & 20's. No chance someone is going to have $25 in 1's. A credit card reader would definitely help sales but as previously said, comes with fees and what not. Unless you have a decent to high volume of people (which you said you don't expect it to be), I don't see this working out too well. You objective is to make a little money for the camp, as well as provide a convenience for the staff/teachers. I think you can achieve the second one but I think it's going to take a while for you to break even and then start making money. Let us know how it ends up going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photomikey Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 The idea of break-even day being a long way way is not a huge problem. It would not kill me to see a year or two go by to get my investment back and start turning a profit. The idea of two machines is a good one. I don't really have the space, but I'll give it a look. Thank you for the responses so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapitalCityVendingLLC Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 You can easily figure out what/when your break even pt is. Figure out how many snacks/drinks/t-shirts you think will sell each week/mth. What will you seek it for and what it will cost you. Big thing is try and keep your initial machine costs as low as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 I have seen t-shirts vended in a USI snack machine with double spirals (in the French Quarter police station in New Orleans). The machine may have had a custom set-up, USI does a lot of that. The shirts were folded and packaged in large zip-lock bags. Each shelf held one color and design in 4 selections - S, M, L, XL. The machine had a credit card reader and did a pretty high volume. There were samples on display next to the machine. Also vended hats and some other souvenir items. There was a volunteer on hand to supervise, I think the machine was just used to make the money handling/ inventory issues easier. So yes, it can be done. Would it work for your market and be financially worthwhile? Only you can decide that. But a combo machine would not be the way to go. You have to at least offer size choices so even with only one design you need several slots to allow customer size choice.... also need to consider expected volume of sales and how much needs to be stocked vs how often you want to go out to restock the machine. Each selection might hold 10 items depending on the machine.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cblomqui Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Yeah it seems like you would need samples next to the machine so people knew what they looked like. Instead of physically putting one out, I would print and laminate a "menu" that showed selection numbers and their corresponding t-shirt designs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moondog Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 On 10/10/2016 at 5:38 PM, Southeast Treats said: I have seen t-shirts vended in a USI snack machine with double spirals (in the French Quarter police station in New Orleans). The machine may have had a custom set-up, USI does a lot of that. The shirts were folded and packaged in large zip-lock bags. Each shelf held one color and design in 4 selections - S, M, L, XL. The machine had a credit card reader and did a pretty high volume. There were samples on display next to the machine. Also vended hats and some other souvenir items. There was a volunteer on hand to supervise, I think the machine was just used to make the money handling/ inventory issues easier. So yes, it can be done. Would it work for your market and be financially worthwhile? Only you can decide that. But a combo machine would not be the way to go. You have to at least offer size choices so even with only one design you need several slots to allow customer size choice.... also need to consider expected volume of sales and how much needs to be stocked vs how often you want to go out to restock the machine. Each selection might hold 10 items depending on the machine.. Pardon me for asking, but exactly what were you doing in the French Quarter Police station? Sounds like you may be hanging around with the Cajun, who we all know is a bad influence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 8 hours ago, moondog said: Pardon me for asking, but exactly what were you doing in the French Quarter Police station? Sounds like you may be hanging around with the Cajun, who we all know is a bad influence ah...hmmm... I take the fifth? or maybe that is why I was there to begin with, it's all so very fuzzy.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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