ussb1 Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 Hi is there other web sites out there that are more active for bulk and amusements? Feel like I’m stuck on MySpace! thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 This is the most active site you're likely to find. Miles ahead of anything I've seen elsewhere. This isn't Facecrap or Twithead so don't expect useless postings. There are thousands of posts to search through and tons of active members to answer your questions. If you're a Millineal (I don't know why I can't spell that) or from the ME generation you might be bored by the serious adults here and the lack of constantly new stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumball guy Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 6 hours ago, ussb1 said: Hi is there other web sites out there that are more active for bulk and amusements? Feel like I’m stuck on MySpace! thanks The banter on the site may not be as consistent as it once was but as AZ pointed out there is now so much accumulated information archived here that people don't need to ask as many questions as they once did. Answers to most vending questions can be found using the search function and If you are interested in vending there is no other site that gives such a comprehensive sampling of the industry. It is truly a great resource and I encourage all of you to throw a few bucks to the website to keep it up and running for years to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSVEND Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 Surely not like there used to be. Yahoo used to have a few vending groups. Those died when the business started to die! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetstop Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 is the business dying? ive got more machines out than ever! Its changing for sure but wouldn't say dying 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSVEND Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 IMO it's dying a slow death. More and more corporate locations means less and less mom and pop locations. Even mom and pops are going for the more upscale look and bulk just doesn't fit their look they want. Just look at the manufacturers...A&A got out of the business of making equipment. Oak is gone...Northwestern is gone....Eagle is hanging on by thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMD Snacks Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 Is oak gone? I haven't heard from them in a while actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petersvending Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 My belief is, as long as their are quarters and dollar coins being or going to be minted, we will have a business. the day it all goes 100% cashless, is the day we will be out of business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumball guy Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 12 hours ago, SSVEND said: IMO it's dying a slow death. More and more corporate locations means less and less mom and pop locations. Even mom and pops are going for the more upscale look and bulk just doesn't fit their look they want. Just look at the manufacturers...A&A got out of the business of making equipment. Oak is gone...Northwestern is gone....Eagle is hanging on by thread. Charity bulk is still chugging along fine. Like Sweetstop said the business is changing. The money is still out there but you always need to be locating and willing to think outside the box at times when assessing possible locations. If you are going to be successful you need to be willing and able to try all demographics and push out geographically when necessary. Cash isn't going away anytime soon so I really don't see that as a business killer in the short term. Sure alot more people use credit cards today than ever before but there is still a huge section of society that uses cash. As far as Northwestern, Oak and A & A go the high quality of their products hurt them in the long run. Those machines last for decades and there seems to be a limitless supply of used ones still available everywhere so that doesn't help new machine sales. Add in all of the Chinese junk that has flooded the market in recent years and it spelled trouble for the aforementioned manufacturers. As of right now I don't know what the status of Oak Manufacturing is. Obviously they have been scaled back for years and basically only selling refurbs (another testament to the high quality of their original equipment) but when I talked to Jim several months ago and he said they had suffered significant losses in the California fires last year. He had no idea when or if they would be back up an running normally anytime soon. I am not sure who told you Eagle is barely hanging on but they are a subsidiary of a much larger manufacturing company so they apparently have deeper pockets now. I talked to them about 6 months ago and they told me they were back ordered because of demand. Maybe things have changed since then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCB434 Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 Last time I emailed Oak there was a waiting list for the refurbished machines. As of April 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Eagle has expanded their market like beaver does. Eagle has a contract with costco in Mexico. The reason most of the companies failed is because they only sold or advertised heavy in the US. Our country is so against change that we haven't been able to follow other countries and move to ther bigger coins. If we don't, then we have about 10 years at the latest and 2" product will be to expensive to sell and make anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumball guy Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 Odds are the United States will never move to a new coin. The cost would probably be prohibitive plus banks/retailers in this country have no interest in handling coin anymore than they already have to. I imagine that the United States has designs on going completely cashless sometime in the next 25 to 50 years though I don't know if they will be able to do it. I believe gumball vending and candy vending still has a viable long term future as long as cash is still around. The cost of gumballs is low and will be for some time barring some unforeseen event. Bulk candy vending is an alternative for locations that cannot support full line vending and still does well in most traditional locations. Down the road certain candies like peanut M & Ms will need to push up to 50 cent vends but that is not the end of the world. Even though it still makes money today I agree bulk toy vending is headed for rough seas. It's tight profit margin will continue (as Rodney said) to get even tighter. Competition with multi state operators, floor space concerns, retailers wanting higher commissions, difficulty placing equipment, limited customer base and dealing with ever changing, fickle retail management personnel who can make your life miserable with a split second decision also creates concern. I don't think the sector is on the way out but it will take close cost monitoring, reasonable commissions, and a strong locating program to keep it making money down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titandist Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 This doesn’t have anything to do with selling to Mexico or any other country or just advertising in USA The bulk vending business was a strong business at one time; there were 3 major manufacturers of equipment, Northwestern, Oak, and Victor. Everyone bought their machines new from distributors of these companies. I was a Victor distributor in the 1980’s with several states that I had. You didn’t have the route masters, vendstars uturns or any other machines like these, a person wanting to get into this business would buy from the 3 leading manufactures. Then A & A decided to get into the machine business which began to hurt these manufactures, plus all the other companies trying to compete with these manufactures with their knock off equipment. All the machines that I ever purchased besides the ones that I got with route purchases were new from the 3 leading manufactures, and I have continued to support them so far. I never bought any of the plastic machines that some of you have on your routes because they add no value to a route if you go and try and sell it. How many of you supported these manufacturers when they were in business? Almost everything I have read on this forum is about trying to find parts for vendstars etc etc. etc. or trying to find the cheapest machines you can find to either start a vending route or add to it. As far as increasing your price point on vending machines in the future, how are you going to do that if you can’t get parts to do it? There’s always going to be change in any business that you’re in, the bulk vending business is no different. I went from vending ball gum from 1 cent to 25 cent but I had the parts to do it. Stop blaming Mexico, China and the lack of these companies from expanding into other markets; blame yourself for not supporting these companies when they were in full production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumball guy Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 I have always bought Oak & Northwestern equipment but acquired lots of other equipment over the years buying out competitors. If the equipment worked and did not detract from sales I always kept it in place until I had to switch it out with an Oak, Northwestern or Eagle. I have been able to buy used Oak equipment for years cheaper than it was to buy it new so I'm not going to apologize for making a prudent business move there. As I stated earlier, the outstanding quality of these machines did not help them when it came to new equipment sales because when a machine lasts for decades you just won't need to buy new ones. Furthermore I think Oak & Northwestern are culpable in their own demise based on exactly what T & T stated above...."There’s always going to be change in any business that you’re in, the bulk vending business is no different.". Well as the industry started to change Oak & Northwestern didn't respond by putting out lower cost products to compete with the imports. They could have still sold the great machines at the higher price but also offered cheaper equipment for much less. Just think if Oak or Northwestern would have manufactured a version of the Vendstar or LYPC machine???? They would probably still be in business today. They had the engineering and know how to do it but I don't think they ever took the import threat seriously until it was too late. As for parts there are still tons out on the market that fit Oak & Northwestern. If no other manufacturer steps up to provide new 50 cent mechs for Oak Vistas/300s and NW Super 60s then it will be time to start transitioning to a manufacturer like Beaver. Time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 For Oak vista, get .50 mechs from eagle until jim is back up and running if he does. NEN is selling .50 mechs through suppliers now for NW machines, but that doesn't help the 1.00 cap on 2". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bravo Duck Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 13 hours ago, rodney69 said: For Oak vista, get .50 mechs from eagle until jim is back up and running if he does. NEN is selling .50 mechs through suppliers now for NW machines, but that doesn't help the 1.00 cap on 2". What suppliers ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petersvending Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 4 minutes ago, Bravo Duck said: What suppliers ? NEN as far as I know is the only company selling parts for the NW's. I personally bought some .25to.50 conversion kits from them last year. I was told they were going to be selling machines again and I hear there have been some orders to some big suppliers but I can't confirm that. Id like to buy a pallet or two soon. I will be forced to buy from Eagle if they can not fulfill that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BorderJerry Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 SSM was planning on carrying the NW mechs and some parts, and A&A is going to carry almost all of the parts for NW machines. http://ssmvending.com/northwestern/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodney69 Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 Ssm, aa, and I believe cardinal. NEN got tired of messing with it and just I heard don't take orders any more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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