Raising prices

[matthew0582]

I have a handful stops selling 16.9 bottles of soda for $1. First of the year i need those places at $1.25. I wanna put a little post it note on all those machines. What should this note say?

[AngryChris]

Something along the lines of "due to rising costs of goods, we have to increase prices on the following items:"

[Randymire]

  Due to the rising cost of products and doing business in general, we will have to increase the price of 16.9 oz bottles to $1.25 . We appreciate your business and understanding. 

  You should also talk to management before then and explain to them that due to your cost of doing business going up that you’ll have to go up also , don’t blindside them just by putting a post it note on the machine. 
 

  Also remember that you might get boycotted for a short time but stick it out, if they do boycott you , they start buying again but if you let them bully you into lowering your prices, your screwed. 
 

   I try to have a slight increase every January or when setting a new location. 

 

[AngryChris]

I don't talk to management anymore because I have found they get a little defensive and, frankly, don't want to hear about it.  It's better for me to just post a paper.

[ABCVending]

Stopped announcing increases a few years back - we just make the changes and see how it goes.

The local stop n robs don't post notes in the candy aisle when they jack prices - neither does Walmart for that matter.

Have had some push back here and there - usually just offer a quick apology, blame the increase on corporate bean counters and give the complainer a bag of Famous Amos - most of the loudest whiners don't buy anything from the machines anyway.

Haven't lost an account yet over pricing,  but do pay attention to what competitors are charging and make sure we are not out of line.

 

[ABCVending]

Note:  Do have one large account that has a number of people assigned to manage vendors - they want to be involved in everything to do with the machines.

Try to bury these people with details - send them reports on usage, ask for feedback on equipment and product mix (complete with phony surveys pulled from the web) go into ridiculous detail whenever we change from one product to another (haha - tied up a couple of them for days with multiple emails about changing from Dasani to Aqua Fina - and never actually made any change) 

Then when a pricing change is made nothing but crickets from us about it - if they do contact us for explanation, claim there must have been some sort of communication failure/email mix up and start sending them Dasani/Aqua Fina emails again so they can focus on that instead of pricing.

In these big companies - vendor managers come and go at an alarming rate, almost never have one of them last more than a year - if one of them is a problem just try to wait it out until they move on to the next place.

[tblake05]

3 hours ago, ABCVending said:

........most of the loudest whiners don't buy anything from the machines anyway.....

 

OMG Yes.

1st of the year all our prices are going up also.  Plus everything is rounding up to the nearest quarter.

[AngryChris]

We've got relatively low pricing in my region but I have been getting my prices as close to even prices as I can without giving them price shock.  I can't get too crazy because there are some unknown local vendors with low-ball pricing that will swoop in but I am trying to maintain $1.10-$1.25 candy/pastry, $1.00 LSS, and $0.65-0.75 small chips (ideally push them out completely).  I haven't gotten much of a push back with my price increases this year but I hit the smaller accounts the hardest.  Basically, if you want me to provide my service, you gotta pay my price!!

[putrevus]

You just raise your prices and if anyone asks let them know your costs increased.

[Southeast Treats]

Since regular users don't look at the price labels every time, I will post a small label such as " 12 oz cans now .90" or "select candy items now 1.25" if I am changing the entire category, so that I don't get complaints about the machine not working for someone not putting in enough money.  I try to take those notes down after a couple weeks.  Unless there is a contractual reason to tell someone I don't worry about it, telling them is inviting them to argue.  If you go for years without raising prices you will get a lot more push back vs making adjustments once or twice a year as needed.  You can't make money if you keep absorbing every price increase you get, and I have never had a note from M&M Mars asking me if a price increase was OK with me.  How operators that still have .60 chips and 1.00 pastries are staying in business is beyond me.

[Anacapa Vending]

We have almost 120 locations. I only let 1 of them know before we raise prices (because I know how they are).

Other then that we raise them accordingly to maintain our margins. I always stagger the price increases. Do chips 1 quarter, then drinks later in the year, maybe candy the next year. 

You have to pass along price increases. It's one of the first things my Vistar rep told me when I got into the business. He said over the years he saw so many operator's fail because they were afraid to raise prices on their best accounts. 

[AngryChris]

23 minutes ago, Anacapa Vending said:

You have to pass along price increases. It's one of the first things my Vistar rep told me when I got into the business. He said over the years he saw so many operator's fail because they were afraid to raise prices on their best accounts. 

So true!!  I was a low-priced vendor in the past but I saw what it does to vending companies locally.  Now that the economy is doing what it's doing, you can't keep anyone for less than $15/hour, so a lot of companies can't afford to keep anyone and it's creating a massive demand for quality vending service.  I mean, you have to choose between your bigger accounts and your smaller accounts and we all know who get serviced first... and there aren't many local companies left around here so I can golpher up accounts doing less than 8k/year pretty easily I think.  I just refuse to offer cheap pricing.  You want the service, you gotta pay!!