Route Update (for those who care)

[VAVending]

Serviced 21, pulled 4, placed 7 (yes, again).

Gross: $181.03.

Shrinkage 7%. (Not counting the 4 I pulled, which were horrible. Still figuring out how to get a median shrinkage off my multiple spreadsheets, definitely a WIP; look for updated location binder spreadsheet downloads when I get this all sorted out.)

I’ve begun adding a second box to high intensity locations.

Had a tax office manager (who always pays to the penny) let me in on the secret that she starts teaching tax night school out of her office next week and will probably need another box just for her students. Due to my lack of faith in students in general, I’m somewhat skeptical. If the first two weeks show shrinkage, I may ask her to keep it in the breakroom. She herself voiced that “we’ll have to try it and see if they pay”. So she’s on board at least. Definitely one of the best managers I work with.

Placed a couple giant medical offices (try EVERYWHERE, if you convince yourself it’s too big you could be missing out). They were eager for the boxes and when they showed me to their break rooms I realized I was sharing the space with a water vendor, an OCS vendor and a Pepsi vendor. No snacks in sight. High hopes and looking forward to having 40 item boxes I can put into places like these.

That’s it for my weekly ramble. I’m sure I bore people a bit, but I’m an author on the side, so long expositions come naturally. (Even if the phone keyboard causes me to butcher spelling, grammar and punctuation.)

[VendingKingllc]

On 9/14/2018 at 4:04 PM, VAVending said:

Serviced 21, pulled 4, placed 7 (yes, again).

Gross: $181.03.

Shrinkage 7%. (Not counting the 4 I pulled, which were horrible. Still figuring out how to get a median shrinkage off my multiple spreadsheets, definitely a WIP; look for updated location binder spreadsheet downloads when I get this all sorted out.)

I’ve begun adding a second box to high intensity locations.

Had a tax office manager (who always pays to the penny) let me in on the secret that she starts teaching tax night school out of her office next week and will probably need another box just for her students. Due to my lack of faith in students in general, I’m somewhat skeptical. If the first two weeks show shrinkage, I may ask her to keep it in the breakroom. She herself voiced that “we’ll have to try it and see if they pay”. So she’s on board at least. Definitely one of the best managers I work with.

Placed a couple giant medical offices (try EVERYWHERE, if you convince yourself it’s too big you could be missing out). They were eager for the boxes and when they showed me to their break rooms I realized I was sharing the space with a water vendor, an OCS vendor and a Pepsi vendor. No snacks in sight. High hopes and looking forward to having 40 item boxes I can put into places like these.

That’s it for my weekly ramble. I’m sure I bore people a bit, but I’m an author on the side, so long expositions come naturally. (Even if the phone keyboard causes me to butcher spelling, grammar and punctuation.)

Nice score on the new location, cant wait to hear how it does for you!

[VAVending]

Just now, VendingKingllc said:

Nice score on the new location, cant wait to hear how it does for you!

Thanks! It’s doing okay, Box was half empty after 6 days and shrinkage was 4%, I believe. Decent for a new location. It will be interesting to see if either of those numbers increase as employee awareness of the box increases and I move it onto a two week cycle.

Haven't been posting updates due to illness and busyness. It’s harder to create a week-long summery when you’re service schedule is messed up.

This week I’m servicing all 36 boxes, about 25 of which are two weekers. Then they’ll all be on the same schedule and I’ll be able to refine my route a little before buying another 100 boxes. So look for an update this weekend.

[bhumphrey829]

Sounds like you are on the right track.  Keep up that great work!

[jerrybrooksvendall]

On 10/8/2018 at 3:49 PM, VAVending said:

Thanks! It’s doing okay, Box was half empty after 6 days and shrinkage was 4%, I believe. Decent for a new location. It will be interesting to see if either of those numbers increase as employee awareness of the box increases and I move it onto a two week cycle.

Haven't been posting updates due to illness and busyness. It’s harder to create a week-long summery when you’re service schedule is messed up.

This week I’m servicing all 36 boxes, about 25 of which are two weekers. Then they’ll all be on the same schedule and I’ll be able to refine my route a little before buying another 100 boxes. So look for an update this weekend.

Are you still updating us?

[VAVending]

7 hours ago, jerrybrooksvendall said:

Are you still updating us?

Yes, just late. Sorry.

[VAVending]

Serviced 34, pulled 4, placed 3.

Gross $338.75.

Shrinkage 30%.

Sales we’re low last week and shrinkage was high, even for my normally good locations. I wonder if the honest employees were off for Columbus Day or something.

Still, looking at my profit margins I’ve definitely crested the hump. My snacks are officially paying for themselves and then some.

Stales have been extremely low (thanks @Mehehe for the long-expiration snack list you gave me). At this point it’s been about one box worth of little Debbie oat bars and a half a box (about 32 packs) of Fritos. The Fritos were a mess up on my part, bought from Sams online and didn’t ship back when I saw the close expiration. Not doing that again. The debbies just have shorter expirations and I didn’t check the expiration in store one week. Again my bad. All in all very little for the almost 4 months I’ve been running.

This week was the bye week for my route, and I didn’t go out placing because I’m sitting at my maximum box limit and know that I have to put a second box in a couple locations next week.

I’m eager to get another set of boxes, but can’t decide which path to take at this point. Cameron is offering me 30 more boxes and 100 stacking sleeves for $330 and I’d love to take them up on it; they’ve been really good to me.

On the other hand I had planned to get a shipment of the wood grain boxes from Dennis, the price tag is just bothering me.

In the end I’m vasilating and delaying on the decision. If the money is there and I’ve paid back my outstanding debts (small, but present), then I could purchase the wood grain boxes without worry; they’ll pay for themselves.

On the other hand if I wait for my debts to be paid off and there to be $700 in the bank for boxes, it could take easily 2 months. That’s 2 months of missed placements and sales. I’d much prefer to keep growing at the rate I have: 4-9 locations a week.

To top it off I’m in the middle of switching banks so my finances aren’t as easy to pin down as usual. But that will be remedied by a thorough audit of my books.

So that what’s going on with me. Again rambling, but y’all are free to read the numbers and skip the rest.

[jerrybrooksvendall]

1 hour ago, VAVending said:

Serviced 34, pulled 4, placed 3.

Gross $338.75.

Shrinkage 30%.

Sales we’re low last week and shrinkage was high, even for my normally good locations. I wonder if the honest employees were off for Columbus Day or something.

Still, looking at my profit margins I’ve definitely crested the hump. My snacks are officially paying for themselves and then some.

Stales have been extremely low (thanks @Mehehe for the long-expiration snack list you gave me). At this point it’s been about one box worth of little Debbie oat bars and a half a box (about 32 packs) of Fritos. The Fritos were a mess up on my part, bought from Sams online and didn’t ship back when I saw the close expiration. Not doing that again. The debbies just have shorter expirations and I didn’t check the expiration in store one week. Again my bad. All in all very little for the almost 4 months I’ve been running.

This week was the bye week for my route, and I didn’t go out placing because I’m sitting at my maximum box limit and know that I have to put a second box in a couple locations next week.

I’m eager to get another set of boxes, but can’t decide which path to take at this point. Cameron is offering me 30 more boxes and 100 stacking sleeves for $330 and I’d love to take them up on it; they’ve been really good to me.

On the other hand I had planned to get a shipment of the wood grain boxes from Dennis, the price tag is just bothering me.

In the end I’m vasilating and delaying on the decision. If the money is there and I’ve paid back my outstanding debts (small, but present), then I could purchase the wood grain boxes without worry; they’ll pay for themselves.

On the other hand if I wait for my debts to be paid off and there to be $700 in the bank for boxes, it could take easily 2 months. That’s 2 months of missed placements and sales. I’d much prefer to keep growing at the rate I have: 4-9 locations a week.

To top it off I’m in the middle of switching banks so my finances aren’t as easy to pin down as usual. But that will be remedied by a thorough audit of my books.

So that what’s going on with me. Again rambling, but y’all are free to read the numbers and skip the rest.

Love hearing you ramble. Be careful on the second box. Mine was buying like mad too. They got confused after awhile and started stealing from the second box, thinking I wouldn't catch on. I had to stop that right away! So be careful.

[flintflash]

I would keep doing what you are doing.  Is the wood grain box that much more than the Cameron box?  If so, stick with the Cameron box.  If it is working for you, then go with it.  By the way, how many items are you packing in your boxes. One problem that some folks have is that they UNDER pack their boxes.  Be sure to utilize the whole box.  If the Cameron box is half the size as the Sheridan box, then you should be able to pack 30-40 items in that box.  A Sheridan box should easily hold 70-80 items.  

Right now, while building finances and changing banks, I would just keep the boxes the same for now.  No sense complicating things or putting extra financial burden on the business.  Once things settle down and financially you can handle the upgrade to the bigger box....GO FOR IT!  Remember, it's NOT just the extra cost of the box, but you also have the cost of the extra INVENTORY that you need to pack in the box.  You would be almost DOUBLING the inventory cost, just filling the new boxes.  Just something to consider.  That's my 2 cents!   

[VAVending]

2 hours ago, flintflash said:

I would keep doing what you are doing.  Is the wood grain box that much more than the Cameron box?  If so, stick with the Cameron box.  If it is working for you, then go with it.  By the way, how many items are you packing in your boxes. One problem that some folks have is that they UNDER pack their boxes.  Be sure to utilize the whole box.  If the Cameron box is half the size as the Sheridan box, then you should be able to pack 30-40 items in that box.  A Sheridan box should easily hold 70-80 items.  

Right now, while building finances and changing banks, I would just keep the boxes the same for now.  No sense complicating things or putting extra financial burden on the business.  Once things settle down and financially you can handle the upgrade to the bigger box....GO FOR IT!  Remember, it's NOT just the extra cost of the box, but you also have the cost of the extra INVENTORY that you need to pack in the box.  You would be almost DOUBLING the inventory cost, just filling the new boxes.  Just something to consider.  That's my 2 cents!   

With shipping the wood grain are about twice as expensive.

Inventory is the other factor I’ve been considering. It is a big deal and I’ve felt like I’m barely keeping stales from happening as it is. With that consideration I should probably hit 75-100 locations before I increase my offering.

I started out putting 20 items in each box, which was great to start due to capitol and potential stales, but quickly bumped up to 25. Since then I’ve added here and there and am at 30. At this point the boxes are absolutely stuffed, but still have the dividers in. If I took those out I could probably fit a few more, but sloppily. In addition I find a significant amount of change under the box divider, I’d hate to have that sitting there for customers to take; no need to present extra temptation.

[bhumphrey829]

If you have locations that do enough to have a big box., I would definitely get some wood grain boxes.  They are twice as high as Cameron, but they also bring in double the money because you are putting 40 items in there and it gives a lot more variety td choose from.  I always start off with a small box until I see how the account is going to do.  If, after 3 services the box has less the 10 items left, I always upgrade them to a wood grain box.  The difference in how I run mine and how most people run theirs is I am on a 3 week schedule,  It just works better for me, but even on a 10-14 day rotation, I would still upgrade to a wood grain  if possible.   The boxes will pay for themselves in no time, so I never worry about the price.  What I do is I have a bank bag I keep at the house, and after every route I run I put '$10.00 in there and buy boxes every time I save up $200.00.  I alternate buying the small boxes and the woodgrain every other time.  

[VAVending]

2 hours ago, bhumphrey829 said:

If you have locations that do enough to have a big box., I would definitely get some wood grain boxes.  They are twice as high as Cameron, but they also bring in double the money because you are putting 40 items in there and it gives a lot more variety td choose from.  I always start off with a small box until I see how the account is going to do.  If, after 3 services the box has less the 10 items left, I always upgrade them to a wood grain box.  The difference in how I run mine and how most people run theirs is I am on a 3 week schedule,  It just works better for me, but even on a 10-14 day rotation, I would still upgrade to a wood grain  if possible.   The boxes will pay for themselves in no time, so I never worry about the price.  What I do is I have a bank bag I keep at the house, and after every route I run I put '$10.00 in there and buy boxes every time I save up $200.00.  I alternate buying the small boxes and the woodgrain every other time.  

I appretiate the perspective, and I am very eager to get some wood grains out there. However, I don’t want to let my eagerness make me move too quickly. 35 locations is great, but I’m still small and I need to keep that in mind. When I hit woodgrain I want to be ready in every way. Inventory and snack variety are big factors.

Do you find that 40 items fills a woodgrain well? I’m at 30 for a Cameron and have just maxed mine out now. What’s your ratio of small items (e.g. planters) vs big (e.g. Doritos)?

[flintflash]

2 hours ago, VAVending said:

I appretiate the perspective, and I am very eager to get some wood grains out there. However, I don’t want to let my eagerness make me move too quickly. 35 locations is great, but I’m still small and I need to keep that in mind. When I hit woodgrain I want to be ready in every way. Inventory and snack variety are big factors.

Do you find that 40 items fills a woodgrain well? I’m at 30 for a Cameron and have just maxed mine out now. What’s your ratio of small items (e.g. planters) vs big (e.g. Doritos)?

I know you addressed your question to Bryan, but to give you some perspective:  my box is about the size of the woodgrain box without the wide back that holds the coin box.  I pack 70 items in my box, which includes LSS chips, 2 oz bag cookies, candy, granola bars, etc.  At this early stage in your business, the Cameron box is probably enough for now, and you can always double up the boxes on a larger account.  HOWEVER, as you approach that 100 account goal,  Bryan is absolutely correct: switch to the woodgrain boxes.  I, too, am on a roughly 3 week schedule.  The larger box is more suited for the longer service schedule and will produce more revenue.  The idea is that you want your delivery days to produce as much money as it can.  Let the boxes sit out a little longer, making the route much more profitable to run.  For example:  You can service accounts once a week and bring in $200, every two weeks and bring in $400, or every 3 and collect $600. (this is just HYPOTHETICAL).  The point is that it will cost YOU the same to run the route regardless.  So if it costs you 6 hours plus $40 in gas to run your route (again, HYPOTHETICAL), why not maximize the time and money.  The extra days can be used for selling and growing the business.  These are just a few things to consider as you continue to grow.  Again, just my 2 cents.   

[VAVending]

1 hour ago, flintflash said:

I know you addressed your question to Bryan, but to give you some perspective:  my box is about the size of the woodgrain box without the wide back that holds the coin box.  I pack 70 items in my box, which includes LSS chips, 2 oz bag cookies, candy, granola bars, etc.  At this early stage in your business, the Cameron box is probably enough for now, and you can always double up the boxes on a larger account.  HOWEVER, as you approach that 100 account goal,  Bryan is absolutely correct: switch to the woodgrain boxes.  I, too, am on a roughly 3 week schedule.  The larger box is more suited for the longer service schedule and will produce more revenue.  The idea is that you want your delivery days to produce as much money as it can.  Let the boxes sit out a little longer, making the route much more profitable to run.  For example:  You can service accounts once a week and bring in $200, every two weeks and bring in $400, or every 3 and collect $600. (this is just HYPOTHETICAL).  The point is that it will cost YOU the same to run the route regardless.  So if it costs you 6 hours plus $40 in gas to run your route (again, HYPOTHETICAL), why not maximize the time and money.  The extra days can be used for selling and growing the business.  These are just a few things to consider as you continue to grow.  Again, just my 2 cents.   

Do you find a longer cycle means more stales? Or do you keep new accounts on shorter cycles until you’re sure you’re keeping them?

[flintflash]

1 hour ago, VAVending said:

Do you find a longer cycle means more stales? Or do you keep new accounts on shorter cycles until you’re sure you’re keeping them?

I have "Fixed" routes, as does Bryan.  That means that the route covers a specific area and is on a regular schedule.  New accounts get placed on their particular route and are serviced on the regular schedule.  You will always have some outdates.  the idea is to maximize the shelf life on what you purchase.  I will not buy ANY item that has less than 10 weeks (allows me minimum 3 services).  Chips are ALWAYS going to have some outdates(stales), that's just a FACT in this business.  Definitely watch your chip dates, especially when purchasing from Sam's.  I still struggle with shelf-life, and I purchase from the distributors (like Vistar).  Candy should ABSOLUTELY have at least 6 months on it, and cookies 4-6 months (I like 6-8 months, but Sam's can make that difficult for any consistency).  So...to answer your question....YES, you are flirting with more stales/throw-outs with a longer service cycle (fewer times to try to sell an item).  But you also want your service days to produce, and hitting accounts weekly can limit that.  At the size that you are at, you certainly can set your service cycle as you see fit.  If you want some accounts serviced more frequently, you can do that.  But as you grow, you will want to settle into a set schedule and right now, I have found 12-13 business days to be the "sweet spot".  My route drivers will agree (at least their paychecks will).   

[bhumphrey829]

9 hours ago, VAVending said:

I appretiate the perspective, and I am very eager to get some wood grains out there. However, I don’t want to let my eagerness make me move too quickly. 35 locations is great, but I’m still small and I need to keep that in mind. When I hit woodgrain I want to be ready in every way. Inventory and snack variety are big factors.

Do you find that 40 items fills a woodgrain well? I’m at 30 for a Cameron and have just maxed mine out now. What’s your ratio of small items (e.g. planters) vs big (e.g. Doritos)?

I understand about being ready before you get into the wood grains.  I put 20 items in my Cameron boxes and 40 items in my wood grains.  My small boxes have 4 chips (LSS size), 1 cheez-it, 1 gardetto, and 1 bag of munchies chips, 1 bag of nuts, (I buy the 24 count boxes from sams), 1 sweet and sour Kar's nuts, 2 crackers (actually 4 I rubber band 2 of them together and call it one), 1 pastries, 4 cookies, and 4 candy bars.

 

My wood grain have 6 chips,  2 gardettos, 2 munchies, 2 chezits, 2 peanuts, 2 kar's 3 crackers, 3 pastries, 6 cookies, 10 candy bars and 2 granola bars

[jerrybrooksvendall]

4 hours ago, bhumphrey829 said:

I understand about being ready before you get into the wood grains.  I put 20 items in my Cameron boxes and 40 items in my wood grains.  My small boxes have 4 chips (LSS size), 1 cheez-it, 1 gardetto, and 1 bag of munchies chips, 1 bag of nuts, (I buy the 24 count boxes from sams), 1 sweet and sour Kar's nuts, 2 crackers (actually 4 I rubber band 2 of them together and call it one), 1 pastries, 4 cookies, and 4 candy bars.

 

My wood grain have 6 chips,  2 gardettos, 2 munchies, 2 chezits, 2 peanuts, 2 kar's 3 crackers, 3 pastries, 6 cookies, 10 candy bars and 2 granola bars

I'm taking notes Brian.. Thank-you

 

[jerrybrooksvendall]

11 hours ago, flintflash said:

I have "Fixed" routes, as does Bryan.  That means that the route covers a specific area and is on a regular schedule.  New accounts get placed on their particular route and are serviced on the regular schedule.  You will always have some outdates.  the idea is to maximize the shelf life on what you purchase.  I will not buy ANY item that has less than 10 weeks (allows me minimum 3 services).  Chips are ALWAYS going to have some outdates(stales), that's just a FACT in this business.  Definitely watch your chip dates, especially when purchasing from Sam's.  I still struggle with shelf-life, and I purchase from the distributors (like Vistar).  Candy should ABSOLUTELY have at least 6 months on it, and cookies 4-6 months (I like 6-8 months, but Sam's can make that difficult for any consistency).  So...to answer your question....YES, you are flirting with more stales/throw-outs with a longer service cycle (fewer times to try to sell an item).  But you also want your service days to produce, and hitting accounts weekly can limit that.  At the size that you are at, you certainly can set your service cycle as you see fit.  If you want some accounts serviced more frequently, you can do that.  But as you grow, you will want to settle into a set schedule and right now, I have found 12-13 business days to be the "sweet spot".  My route drivers will agree (at least their paychecks will).   

I bought a full line route in Ohio from a dog groomer. He had a few Banks. He handed me the keys, and a can of turpentine or something...I asked him "what's this for?" He said"so you can erase the dates off the bags of chips!" Lol lol

[bhumphrey829]

On ‎10‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 12:23 PM, flintflash said:

I have "Fixed" routes, as does Bryan.  That means that the route covers a specific area and is on a regular schedule.  New accounts get placed on their particular route and are serviced on the regular schedule.  You will always have some outdates.  the idea is to maximize the shelf life on what you purchase.  I will not buy ANY item that has less than 10 weeks (allows me minimum 3 services).  Chips are ALWAYS going to have some outdates(stales), that's just a FACT in this business.  Definitely watch your chip dates, especially when purchasing from Sam's.  I still struggle with shelf-life, and I purchase from the distributors (like Vistar).  Candy should ABSOLUTELY have at least 6 months on it, and cookies 4-6 months (I like 6-8 months, but Sam's can make that difficult for any consistency).  So...to answer your question....YES, you are flirting with more stales/throw-outs with a longer service cycle (fewer times to try to sell an item).  But you also want your service days to produce, and hitting accounts weekly can limit that.  At the size that you are at, you certainly can set your service cycle as you see fit.  If you want some accounts serviced more frequently, you can do that.  But as you grow, you will want to settle into a set schedule and right now, I have found 12-13 business days to be the "sweet spot".  My route drivers will agree (at least their paychecks will).   

I keep all accounts at 3 weeks.  I do have stales, but not enough to hurt my business.  Chips are really the only thing I have a real problem with stales because of the short  date.  I do click and pull at Sam's, but I do not let them pull my chips, I pull my own chips so I get the longer dates and that helps a lot.

[flintflash]

On 10/19/2018 at 5:09 PM, bhumphrey829 said:

I keep all accounts at 3 weeks.  I do have stales, but not enough to hurt my business.  Chips are really the only thing I have a real problem with stales because of the short  date.  I do click and pull at Sam's, but I do not let them pull my chips, I pull my own chips so I get the longer dates and that helps a lot.

Chips will always be the items that should make up the majority of your out-dates.  Bryan, pulling your own chips is VERY SMART!  I do the same thing, because Sam's is notorious for not rotating product properly.  If the dates are bad, I just don't buy it.  Never settle for a cruddy date, just because you want to menu it.  Well done, Bryan, wee done!