Locating Frustration

[Medford Jeff]

So I spent the entire afternoon today trying to locate some of my 1800 triples.  I visited about 12 businesses and did get two placed, but they are not as high profile as I have been hoping for.  When I go into the kind of franchise businesses that I think will have the most traffic for my machines, it seems like the store managers just give me the "corporate says NO" knee-jerk response before I can finish my third sentence.  I am talking about places like Lowes Home Improvement, Olive Garden, and Home Depot.  In fact, the manager at Lowes wouldn't even come downstairs to see me!  They told me to call the corporate headquarters, but they couldn't even find the phone number for me!  Somewhat demoralizing to say the least.

Has anyone here ever successfully placed a machine through "corporate headquarters", or am I just waisting my time?  I would prefer not to pay a locating service, but maybe it would be worth it if they can get me into these kind of locations.  Thoughts?

Jeff

[nam]

I think we all have been through this Jeff. I hate to sound like a quitter but I pretty much gave up on most franchise big businesses years ago. For the amount of time you'll spend going in and out of these businesses you could have actually located more machines calling on real business owners, Sounds to me like you had a great afternoon if you managed to locate 2 machines in half a day. Of course we would all like to be in Lowes, Walmart, etc. but you'll find the majority of time these managers can't make decisions for something like this. They may be the store manager but still only able to make decisions in a very limited controlled by the corp. office way. Even if you get a GM (Gerneral Manager) that says "yes" then some DM (District Manager) is gonna see your machine and tell them to get it out of there.

I have gone to only a few corp. headquarters and tried to land "the big one"! You will be sent from one person to another and still be likely that some board will have to make the decision and will let you know. I got one big score with a smaller corp. with 24 chain restuarants. They said yes after going through no less than meetings 3 times with different people. Finally they gave me an ok and I bought 24 electric machines (not bulk) and thought I made a big score. Well, when the time comes to go to the first location of which they had given me a letter with all the names,addresses, etc. for 24 locations this manager tells me NO! I call thinking there is some mistake. The wife of the CEO, who I'd never met and who never even spoke with me, shut me down as she didn't like the idea and found out later she was really the one with all the big bucks behind the deal and it didn't make any difference what anybody else had said. She was the one with all the real money and control. Well, needless to say, I've not been fond of corp. stores, headquarters and will be happy to leave that to anybody that wants the hassel. One last thought on the subject. Because these people think they are such big fish, they want to tell you when, where and how high to jump.

Give me a real owner any day to talk to and do business with. I'll make more money not wasting my time with the big corporations and I don't have to jump through all their hoops.

nam

[davidsurvz]

If you can get to the right person in the big stores they might be able to approve you putting a machine in the break room of the store. Even thought corp doesn't allow machines upfront sometimes you can get into a break room.

Yes some corp accounts can be very difficult to land but it can be done. Just ask Gary "West Coast Vend." My hats off to him. He is a true example of how it can be done.

David

[timberframe50]

I also tried at the local Lowes and got sent to the HR manager. Still haven't figured this one out. After many phone calls to coporate they told me to discuss it with there current provider. Well that was 4 hours of my life I will never get back. It seems Midwest does a good job with corporate locations. So I have read.

[nam]

I wonder if Midwest has already got the info on who to call in various corp. offices and doesn't call the local stores for these big stores?

nam

[Medford Jeff]

I know that my local Lowes does not have a candy machine in their break room because the woman I bought all of my machines from used to work there.  I asked her about it and she said "I never thought to ask them if I could put a machine up there.  That's a good idea!"  In the three years she owned the route, she went from 40 machines placed to 15.  She obviously wasn't really into this business.

Maybe it would be worth it to call Midwest on this one.  A break room with 150 employees would have to be profitable with the right candy/gum.  Will locators do just one or two locations?

Jeff

[pdavid]

Give Midwest a call. I'm so glad I did.

[lurtsman]

Midwest and kickstart have the most positive reviews. Midwest seems to be more focused on corporate locations, while kickstart does more smaller businesses. I had kickstart place a double and I liked the location. I won't be able to give a real review until I've done a pull from it though.

[nepavend]

Corporate locations are often talked about.  Here is the summary of the pros and cons:

Pros:

1.  Traffic, Traffic, Traffic!  - Will generate great revenue in the right spots in the location.

2.  Traffic = more money!

3.  If you get into one you can get into multiple, again more traffic and money.

4.  Break rooms can often be great spots for smaller vendors, so a lower cost of entry is possible here.

Cons:

1.  The time involved with networking, and securing contacts as well as the placement of these locations is high in many instances.

2.  If you get a spot you will need to put your best foot forward and make sure you always have premium equipment in there and as much of it as possible to maximize revenue.  This can be a very costly cost of entry into this segment of the vending business and prohibitive to some vendors.

3.  Expect your commission to be very high, anywhere from 30-50% of gross sales.

4.  One change in the chain of command, one merger, acquisition, stock transfer, corporate in-fight, and any one of many other reasons, you can get a random phone call or letter on a sunny day saying you need to get all of your machines out in all of their locations in 30 days or else!  Along with that will go a large number of your now mothballed equipment and the income they produced with it.  This could be a major blow to a business if a large percentage of your business and equipment was tied up with too many of these locations.  This could be less of an impact if you are well diversified in many types of locations.  That is a reason why so many NW racks are now on ebay for $600 each!

[Medford Jeff]

Given that I am having some marginal success locating machines in non-corporate locations, would a locating service like Midwest consider locating for me with the stipulation that I only want them to find me higher profile locations? Or, is it a "take what we get you" kind of a thing? Their website says that they can get into places like Lowes and Home Depot, so can I request that they get these for me?

Jeff

[Faith Vending]

Midwest is the best hands down; they have gotten me in places that amaze me. You can ask for these bigger places but be patient, I think they are swamped right now. They have a very tough job so some locations will not work, due your due diligence before you place. I just got booted from a Wal Mart they got me; the store mgr said yes the district comes in and says no. They have the best guarantee IMO.

Jim

[BluePlate]

I want to take a page out of Simon's book.  I really like his take on things.  Simon has not been around or has been quiet lately.  IF you haven't seen his stuff go to www.bestvending.com   

Anyways, this is the stuff corp locations like.   Blending in with their branding.  Branding is huge to these big locations.  I have a few ideas, not unique - but I'm working on a few simple things taken from Simon's book.