Jazar Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Are there certain suppliers that you like to purchase your totes, crates, etc from? When looking at product such as candy, chips, soft drinks, sandwiches, etc, do you have a fave distributor/supplier? How many just go to Sam's or Costco? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anacapa Vending Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Uline for totes. Sams club for snacks and soda Vistar for snacks, sandwiches, coffee machine stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 I'd say I get 60% of my product from Sam's, 25% from Merchant's Mart, and the remaining "elsewhere." As for totes and miscellaneous parts, I Wal-Mart or Home Depot take care of most of that. I bought some totes from Wal-Mart that have halved lids with hinges on either side, so they fold closed. These are great because you can stack light things on top when closed and you never lose the lids. It's great for rain/snow as my product stays dry. I also got my 2-wheeler from Sam's Club. On a side note, despite prices being better at Sam's Club, I have been trying to organize myself better so that I can get more stuff from Merchant's Mart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuikVend Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 I use merchant mart for all my bottled drinks, sams club for snacks and usually look for sales on canned drinks. Walmart, home depot and most dollar stores are good for totes etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieMac Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 I get the clear totes with lids from Wal*Mart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57thTom Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Are all of those decisions based on price? Does sell by date figure into your planning? Besides cost to service and time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuikVend Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Price is my main factor. The merchant mart I use is less than two miles from the Sams club I use and they're both less than 5 miles from home, so they're pretty conveniently located. I usually just look for the product that had the longest life left when I pick something up, no matter which store in shipping at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57thTom Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 I use milk crates because I only have to fill machines on the first and second floors from a storeroom in the basement. My boss orders all goods from Sam's Club and refuses to use any other supplier. He tries to plan one trip every 6 weeks and can't figure out why products are short dated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazar Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 Is Merchant's mart the same as Vistar?? I did a google search and they seem to be linked. I tried to find a Merchant's mart in my area, but the closest seems to be in Ohio. Thanks for all of your help!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuikVend Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Merchant mart is part of vistar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 I don't have a Merchant Mart close either, but Vistar does deliver to my area with a 25 case minimum. I try to order every other week from them, and I have a Sam's close by that I visit 1 - 2 times a week. Since I have bottler machines from multiple bottlers, I get almost all of my drinks delivered. It's hard to beat Sams on price on anything they carry; but like us they try to avoid slow moving products. Some of what they consider slow at my local store are good sellers for me, and I also like having a wider variety of snacks to place in the machines, which is where Vistar comes in handy. I'm always looking for new suppliers but they are hard to find these days. When I was growing up we had a country store, and it seemed like there were distributors everywhere. Now Sams has run most of the smaller local operations out of business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazar Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 We have "Douglas Distributing INC," in our area, but they are a little higher than Sam's. I hear that they go to Sam's for their product. I'm going to check into that Freedolay(sp) option. I've rented storage and the only problem with Vistar is that they want to deliver to storage at 3:00 in the morning. My storage area is central to my route, but not so close to my house. (smile) I was hoping that others had some great ideas about where to find distributors. I've even tried the restaurant depot places and concession places, but they aren't any lower than Sam's. ... ... guess that is what I'm going with. Thanks for all of your help!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuikVend Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Sounds like you're a few hours west of me, I've seen the Douglas dist ads on Craigslist. I think you've covered all the bases as far as finding didtributors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 From past memory, Douglas is about on par with Vistar on most things, give or take 2 cents or so. Sam's Club generally has the BEST prices on almost everything (except when cans go on sale at grocery stores) so trying to find something cheaper than Sam's is generally a waste of an effort. I care about cost, fuel, time, and date on my products. If it saves money, that's the #1 priority. If it saves enough time and fuel to make up for that cost, then that can outweigh the increased cost. If the dates are really good compared to Sam's, then that can often sway me too. I have gotten stuff from Douglas before. I never had a problem and they have a very good variety of things, but I never had an order delivered to my place. Sam's is on the way at least 3 times each week, so stopping there doesn't add much in the way of fuel cost, but it does take time. Believe me, I will start loading product at night before I have orders delivered to me if I don't have enough time during my regular hours, but I would enjoy having EXACTLY what I want/need delivered to me so I can load at my leisure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 As far as delivery times, you can put a combo lock on a storage unit and give the code to the company. All of my distributors are familiar with doing "key drop" deliveries and I have yet to have a problem with any of the drivers while doing this. Since I moved up from a storage unit I have a code operated door opener on my current warehouse, same thing except the inner rooms off the main bay are locked to prevent "browsing" (they can access the restroom, I am not that mean!). If it is a COD delivery I leave a check on a clipboard for the driver to pick up. So you don't have to be waiting up at 3 AM if that's when they can get to you, or waiting all day for whenever they want to show up.... just have to have faith that the driver's job is more important to them than anything they could find to steal from you.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazar Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 I just checked douglas pricelist and some of the prices aren't too bad: esp on chips. And, yes, I am in Indy, so, could pick them up, instead of needing an order of $800 for free delivery. HMMMMM. Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions!!!! jazar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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