account machine setup

[Kevin B]

Hey guys I'm pretty new and doing some option planning on a new account and trying to figure options for my machine setup.  The location has about 600 employees on a 4 story building construction site.  The staff runs in shifts 6 days a week.  They average about 200 staff taking part in lunches, snacks, and breaks.  They anticipate having staff looking for drinks, snacks, and sandwiches as well.  They are looking so setup 2 temporary break rooms on 2 floors and have a dedicated drink machine on the other floors.  The project should last 18-24 months.  After having a discussion with them on site, I was planning to try:

I.  Each Breakroom Floors 1st and 3rd -

1 Dixie Narco Drink Machine - 9 Options - Cans / Bottled Water

1 AMS Food-Snack Combo (1/2 Sandwiches / 1/2 Snacks)

II.  Floors 2 and 4 

1 Dixie Narco Drink Machine - 9 Options - Cans

So that's basically 6 machines to start the account.  And if demand dictates, I would add a Snack Machine to each break room and convert that AMS combo into an all sandwich machine.  That would potentially put me at 8 machines.

So my questions would be:  

1.  should i avoid doing all the drink machines as can machines just because it would be easiest to manage?  concerned about having to restock bottles so often for a busy account....

2.  would you do a glass front beverage machine like a royal vision in the break rooms to give more drink options and bottles instead of the dixie narco can machine planned?  don't want to miss out on sales from higher priced options....

Any feedback is welcome.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[AZVendor]

You should use glassfront drink machines for capacity and for selectivity.  Let the sales determine whether cans or bottles do better.  Then, when it comes time to make adjustments you will know how to proceed with additional drink equipment.  Otherwise the plan sounds good.  Just make sure you get the pricing you want from the beginning as you won't be able to go up as easily as you can go down in price.  I would also do card readers on all machines as this sounds like a high profile location with a captive audience.

[Southeast Treats]

You have a pretty sound plan.  A glass front would be nice but you may want to do that as an add on later unless you have one available or can get one from a bottler.   Glass fronts should be in a climate controlled area if possible, they don't seem to work well outdoors, especially in direct sunlight (too much condensation).  Young blue collar workers will probably buy a lot of energy drinks and Mt Dew.  Since this is a limited term account, I would be careful about my equipment buying.

[cblomqui]

Sounds like a prime micro market location to me.

[orsd]

Remember, these are blue collar folks you are dealing with.

So, micromarkets are out due to theft.

Even Glassfronts are kinda iffy due to vandalism.

Personally, I would do cans out of a 368 or 501T and bottles out of a 501E. Ditch the AMS for 2 Ap 7600's and vend frozen burgers and burritos and ice cream out of a Fastcorp. I would do a 368 with cans, a 501E with bottles, and a snack and a frozen on the first floor. 501T with cans and 16 oz water on the other floors. Buy a few cheap golpher WalMart microwaves, with the agreement that they will be replaced by location if destroyed.

Also keep in mind that you will have competition from roach coaches. Most guys will much prefer a hot meal from these to a golpher microwave burrito, so you food sales will be low.

[cblomqui]

Micro markets are never automatically out due to the location being blue collar. One of the biggest micro market setups in the industry is located in the Tesla Gigafactory - nothing but blue collar there. 

 

Just need to make sure people are held accountable for theft and that you have safeguards in place.

[Poplady1]

I think your orginal plan sounds good, using AZ's suggestion on how to read product sales.  Good luck and congratulations on such a good account.

[Corvus Corax]

Good score, I would do 501Es or Vendo's all set up with can shims.  Mix up cans and 16.9oz bottles, as the margins are better than 20oz.  I would do $1 cans and $1.50 bottles.  Throw in a monster column on at least 2 machines, maybe some gatorade as well. I would avoid glass fronts in a construction area.  AMS or Surevend APs for snacks, you don't want construction workers getting angry because their chips didn't drop. Ideally if you had 2 cold AMS combos with high capacity drink drawers you could fill them with some hot pockets which still keep over a week at 40 degrees. Good luck.