How often do you service your Candy machines?

[BanderSnatch]

how often do they run out of candy? does the candy/nuts/gumballs ever go bad? how long does that take?

also is it cheaper to get it from sams club? Cause I live near 3 manufactures & distributors like A&A I can drive there & get it or go to sams club, wondering whats cheaper (imagine no shipping costs)

So how often do u service? how long does it take u to go through an entire globe of candy? & also- how well do they do if u don't mind?

like can u give me a little idea of what u make on your machines?

I wouldn't ask if we were locals & we knew each other real well. but since we are all pretty much anonymous & we all try & help each other out in the bulk vending world. & it would be awkward if we actually knew each other, but since we don't know each other its cool u know?

thanks dude.

[creativecandy]

i go once a month, i keep it simply my goal/avg. my avg is $10.00 per month per vend so double 20 triple $30.00...My goal is always to meet or exceed that number. even if is $10.25 thats ok with me

[BanderSnatch]

how long does it take u to service the machine? & do you always fill it up to the top before u go? like if u see the candy is 80 percent full, will u fill in that gap?

how long can u hold that candy for? i mean before it goes bad..

right now i only know how toys work. i do tomy gacha machiens w/ their 2" toy capsules. It takes me a long time to service my machines un-fortunately

plus they are all commission spots so far. & i have to count my money there,w/them.

thanks!

Bander.

[joebob051977]

I service my machines every 2 weeks at my busiest location. I try to make it to my other machines every month or 2. I will not go longer than 8 weeks.

I only fill my machines up as far as they need to be filled in order to last 3 months. I filled my first machine all the way up. It was a real mistake. Candy went to waste because the three head machines I have there doesn't get the volume required for a 3 head.

[dperry]

I only have about 35 stops or so and I split my routes into 2 of about 16 or so each.  I do my servicing once a month so I do one route one month and the other route the next.  So each route sits for 2 months (56 days) before being serviced.  This works out well because many of my stops don't need to be serviced before that as they may only do about $7-$10 a month.  That's not worth it to me to go any more often than that.  Those spots are mostly single gumball locations.

Also, never never never fill up your candy machines to the top.  They simply will not sell that much.  If you do fill it up, you run the risk of having the candy spoil or crack or something like that.  The flip-side is that you may run out of product before your next service cycle.  That's preferable to losing your product due to spoilage.

The average income for a single item per month is $7.00.  That's about 1 vend a day.  The average amount of candy vended is 1/2 oz.  So for 28-30 days, you would expect to have sold about 1lb (16 oz) of product.  A bag of M&M's from Sams is down to about about 44oz (it used to be up to 54oz a bag).  So you can expect to use less than one bag of candy every 2 months.  And you will notice that one bag of 44oz m&m's doesn't fill up your machine very far.

[dperry]

I guess this is a good time to mention that in my oppinion, candy vending is much harder to do technically than any other kind of bulk vending.  It's not just the cost per vend or the spoilage that I'm talking about.  I'm talking about the technical aspect of candy vending.

With toys or gumballs, you know that you are giving one unit (capsule, gumball, bouncyball, sticker) per vend.  There is usually no fluctuation between vends.

However, with candy vending, it's a different animal.  Look at the different kinds and sizes of candy that you have to vend.  You have little items like skittles or Reeses, and large Peanut M&M's and Mike & Ikes.  Swap the product without swapping the wheels and you will be alot more generous with the skittle and alot more stingy with the M&I's.  You have to 'experiment' with the wheel setting to get the optimum amount vended to keep the customer happy and without losing your shirt.

You even have to be careful where the wheel sits cuz you could end up giving out free vends if it's misaligned.  I had one location where I was changing out the head from gumballs to candy.  The owner was chatting with me the whole time and I got distracted.  I ended up putting the brush housing in backwards.  So when the holes lined up, the product just spilled out in gushes!  I didn't realize it until I went back in to service.  The head was empty and I could look down from into the chute from the inside of the head.  I lost a whole can of peanuts that way.

It's too bad that gumballs don't sell as well as some candy and that it's harder to get into a location with just gumballs.

[that1dude]

I go every 2 weeks or every 3 weeks just because my route (round trip) is less than 12 miles right now. When I get bigger, I might push it out to a month at a time.

[BluePlate]

I'm doing mine ever 8 to 10 weeks.  I do have a few that can't go that long.  I am trying to put another head in the locations that are busier.  I also have been creating a network of "spies"  it might be an employee, the store owner, or anyone in the area.  For example, I have 3 pizza shops that are 1 hour away.  I have a cousin that lives near them is a customer of one.  He keeps an eye on it.

One of my busiest locations is a JCPenney breakroom.  I have a lady (an employee) who sends me a text message if the machine is low.  She loves the PMM, and she gets free ones from me.  She is called the "Vending Sheriff" by her co workers.

I also will call locations "Any problems with the candy machine?"  For 20% it's the least they can do is answer my questions......

[candygirl]

I service every five weeks. Two of my machines (triples) only need candy every 2-3 months, one (a single) needs gumballs once a month, the other (single) needs gumballs about every two months.

It usually takes me about ten minutes to service each machine, and I only fill up a little above halfway. I test each mech with a quarter to make sure it's dispensing, and taste a portion of the candy to make sure it's not stale. The rest I give to whatever employee happens to be around.