nam Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 How often does this happen in the bulk vending business. The owner sees you making too much money and decides to buy there own machine? Had this happen often in the ATM business but didn't expect it in bulk vending until today. This owner had a vendor that placed a Bounce a Roo on a 25% split and she made almost 100 bucks the first month so she kicked him out and bought her own machine. nam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Snacks Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Yes, this does happen in bulk as well! I had a Mexican place that did real well with a hoops machine. One day, I arrived to see my machine in the corner with a towel over it and a spiral gumball in it's place. The owner was not there, but the employees told me that he bought his own machine. I was pretty ticked off by the way he handled it and not even calling me. I felt like dumping the ruined gumballs in his parking lot, but I regained my composure and moved on. That is one negative to (honest) commission vending - the location knows what the machine makes and some will get that "bright idea". Seems like it happens more to the rack and crane vendors but not the smaller setups. Jax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Snacks Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 What is really stupid about this is that the location will actually make more money by letting a professional do the work. The location thinks that this is easy money. But they do not think about maintenance, replacement parts, dead inventory that no longer moves, keeping up with the latest best selling products, dealing with stale cracked gumballs from Sam (I had to get that shot in!), suppliers being out of stock, ants in the candy, vandalism, etc, etc. When they finally realize this is not easy money, they essentially neglect and abandon their own machine! They have tons of bad products and don't know how to get rid of it. I walked into a restaurant for lunch the other day and saw 3 racks where at least half the heads were empty and/or broken. I figured it was owned by the location and the waitress confirmed it. I said to her, "I can see he is making lots of money now". She just rolled her eyes and said, "that's just how our owner is"! Jax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkochan Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I had this happen to me twice. I have a 4-column sticker machine, a five-unit rack and a spiral sticker machine at this one location. I stopped by on Friday and the owner told me to pick up my red, 5 ft. spiral gumball machine because his friend who closed down his dollar store gave a yellow spiral gumball machine to him. I could not get angry with the guy because I still have my other machines there and, he is calling his friends to see if I can place spiral gumball machine at one of their stores. The other time I was told to remove a machine was when I went to service a double-head machine at a panaderia for the first time. The owner told me he is buying his own machine so, I picked up my machine and left without paying commission. I have been in the vending business for about a year. Since I started I have found a total of 92 locations. At this point I have 76 locations. Relocating and locating machines is just part vending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROGERS VENDING Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 dkochan, Thanks for giving us that break down. It's something we can put our fingers on. You've lost 17 percent of your locations in the first year. Now it would be interesting to know how many were lost in the first month? How many were lost to outside competition? How many were lost because not happy with service (whether it's your fault or not)? How many were lost because of the owner buying his own machines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nam Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share Posted February 15, 2009 When locating ATM machines the first thing I'd do was look to see if they had one. If they did then I'd walk over to it and check it out. Always look at the screen to see if it was working and if it was out of cash and if it was being kept clean, etc.. The amazing thing was how often the machines that were out of money were owned by the location and the owners simply weren't keeping enough money in it to stop from running out. They're so afraid of putting their money in and being robbed they load it with minimum amounts and run out all the time. Well, after awhile your customers will not check yours any more and just go where they always know the machines have money in them. I agree with you Jax, often the worse serviced machines are owned by the store owners. nam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nam Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share Posted February 15, 2009 Jesse, Everyone is going to lose a pretty good percentage of accounts every year no matter how good your service is. I had stores that I had placed and replaced equipment over and over because of businesses going out of business and new ones coming in. Often the new business would be so surprised when I'd tell them how many different businesses had been there and how many of them had done business with me. The failure rate on businesses is so high and now with the economy the way it is the numbers are just getting worse. I always hated losing an account but the hard part is when they don't tell you ahead of time and the next time you come by your machine is inside and you can't get to it. nam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkochan Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 dkochan, Thanks for giving us that break down. It's something we can put our fingers on. You've lost 17 percent of your locations in the first year. Now it would be interesting to know how many were lost in the first month? How many were lost to outside competition? How many were lost because not happy with service (whether it's your fault or not)? How many were lost because of the owner buying his own machines? Most of my locations were lost due to the locations going out of business. One was lost because the owner of the location wanted to buy his own machine(s). None were lost due to poor service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nepavend Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I have had it happen several times, just one of several BS excuses owners can come up with to kick you out. A few times I was told this and then 2 months later they would be out of business. Other times it was on the first service and they did the old I can make the money myself routine. It is part of the business and you just relocate and churn the same as I always do, although it does suck a little more when the owner is an A-- about it. I just stay positive and say "good luck, have a nice day" and get out, usually without paying commission that last time, but not always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now