Has anybody done this?

[andyinchville]

HI All,

I am about to purchase a snack route. The route consists of 52 locations and the machines are old "Toms" Polyvends.....The owner is throwing in 10 additional machines (some work some for parts....he figured that 6 or 7 working machines could be made from them and the rest could be stripped for parts (In looking at them I could not figure out why all of them could not be brought back to life....they looked to be in good shape cosmetically). He said the machines are probably 10 to 15 or so years old....most all have dollar validators. The route has been in existance for over 15 years.

The owner claims $500  per week income and services the route in three half days worth of work....He said it could in theory be done in 1 and 1/2 solid days per week.

I will be getting all kinds of spare parts, coin bags, A "Toms" Chevy step van vending truck, A storage unit where the snacks are delivered by Lance etc....

Based on my readings here I think I am paying a little on the high side for the route BUT 20K after expenses for a day and a half worth of work was almost too good to turn down (I think there may be more behind the scenes stuff he is not mentuioning like shopping at Sams, counting $$ , putting the sticky "Tabs" on the snacks for the screw type machines etc...)....I think his 1 and 1/2 days vending is literally just driving and filling machines NOT the other support stuff too....

Anyways, The idea I had after extensive reading on the site is to place bulk machines near the snack machines.....I would think that that would increase income without hardly any additional effort since I would be servicing the snack machines often (some are weekly some evert 2 weeks) anyways.

PLUS being that I would be the snack guy anyways I would think the locations should even think twice about letting me put bulk machines in....

As a side benefit, the bulk machine can be chained to the snack machine for greater security.

What do you think?....Does anybody here already do that?....What were your results of this combo?

Thanks!

Andrew

[ageevending]

he had 52 snack locations doing 500 a week? So you have an average of $10 a machine weekly? Hmm... lets just assume the sales numbers are good. This is interesting because, I bet 10 of those machines are generating $40-60 a week in sales and the others are a waste of time. If you could get newer snack machines for those 10 locations, you might be able to double your sales, and you could probably place bulk too, possibly soda. The locations are gold mine... and those dinosaur machines are the problem... see if you can get the price down and start replacing those machines.

[andyinchville]

HI,

Thanks for the reply....The $500 roughly is what he says is his take home after expenses (cost of snacks, fuel, commissions (only on 2 places....10%) etc...

I am not sure how much each machine makes because he is an older fella and didn't break it down ,like that....He showed me bank statements for 3 years which showed deposits and checks written....

The bank deposits were for the gross amount and he said he marked product up about 85%

I think you are right about the locations being the important thing.....I would guess it may be difficult to place new machines where other machines are currently unless the location was dissatisfied with the vender...

Rather than buying newer machines, Do you feel a nice paint job would help?....Most of the Toms Machines are red in color and could probably use a little paint anyways...What has been your experience in terms of additional sales of with a newer machine VS an older machine given the same location and same products?

Thanks!

Andrew

[andyinchville]

Oh, as in interesting side note....He did say that a Hotel (Hilton) asked him to vend for them BUT they turned him down when they saw the red machines...They wanted something that blended in better....Black would have gotten that account but now they have somebody else..

Andrew

[G-Vending]

Hilton most likely wanted a new machine in the first place..

[ageevending]

If he is using Tom's machines... those are the bag drops right? those things are easily 30+ years old. You can't vend candy from them, and your limited in yours snack choices... I'm sure they are not MDB and probably dont' have bill validators... which limits your sales right there. If the thing is generating 500 profit a week... its worth 20k. Tell the locations your upgrading the machines.. and do it one at a time until they are all changed. Your sales will triple.

[andyinchville]

HI,

Most if not all the machines have bill validators....A few of them only accept change tho...They are all electric machines....(the oldest / smallest machines on the route are the old Toms H-22 machines ....only 3 on the route and mostly at small locations).

Actually I, have the chance to buy another good working H-22 for only $100.....I know a perfect small location for that machine already so I may get it and place it when I get the entire route (to make initially stocking the machine easy since I don;t have any supplies and would hate to buy in bulk for only 1 machine).

Only a few of them have the spiral screw mechanism that has to have a hole in the bag to allow it to be held on the "screw" (the current vender has little tags that stick to various items to provide a tab with a hole in it to allow use with the spiral screw machines .....These are the harder machines to fill....I like the ones with the trays that pull out and you simply lay the product in the tracks (spiral tracks that is).

The machines look pretty nice But personally they could look like new with a nice new paint job and making sure all the internal lights work (when I went on the route with the current owner most all he florescent bulbs inside the machine were out).

Just curious but I noticed most responses here said newer machines would vastly increase sales....why is that?...Is it it the candy issue?

If so I was hoping to put a few bulk machine nearby (that would seem to be cheaper than buying an entirely new / newer big snack machine).

Thanks for the continued input and help.

Andrew

PS - What is MDB?

[ageevending]

Well sounds like a decent investment.

MDB=Multi-drop bus, its a communication standard for a vending machine internal systems. So that coin mechs, bill validators, etc, can talk to each other and one MDB bill validator can talk to any MDB coin mech and vicea versa.

If the machines aren't screw drop and they have bill validators... you should be ok. I'd try to add a soda machine instead of a bulk candy, but hell do both.

I have bought routes with Anteres machines and older machines and have swapped them out for newer machines and have experienced a jump in sales, because of the expanded choices or novelty of a new machine. I'm not sure what the reason is but thats my experience

[sbishop]

I agree with ageevending. if you buy it find the good locations and replace the machines with newer ones. Try to sell of the old mahines and upgrade to newer machines.

Review the locations that are not worth your time and go from there