AZVendor Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 And you can wait days or weeks for repairs from the bottler or you will just be handed parts and told to fix it yourself. You will also be held responsible for vandalism to the machine in many cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 I agree there cant be only upsides to a situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Bottler machines can be a headache or a blessing. I use a lot of them because it allows me to focus my cash on other items, like upgrading snack machines and adding card readers. But I still use my own drink machines when I can because it allows me to provide a better selling product mix in one unit. As far as repairs from bottlers, in my area Coke is getting harder to work with, mostly because of vendors abusing their service. They were calling for techs to clear bill and coin jams and do other simple tasks that any driver should be able to handle. Stocking product from outside sources or foreign product, also swapping bad validators/changers into bottler machines and calling for replacements, things like that. So yes, they tightened up on a lot of that. I have found that a good reputation with the techs and your account rep goes a long way towards being treated well by the bottlers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 Hey so going back to pricing. In my area, canteen has the community college I am attending currently. They have bottler equipment and nice 6 wide crane snack machines. I checked their pricing and they have the lss bags at $1.85! Even their single serving candy (normal size?) Is at $1.89, crazy. Lots of the students seem to buy the snack from the machines. Would $1.25 be reasonable to charge for lss bags snacks in this area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 55 minutes ago, tismael56 said: Hey so going back to pricing. In my area, canteen has the community college I am attending currently. They have bottler equipment and nice 6 wide crane snack machines. I checked their pricing and they have the lss bags at $1.85! Even their single serving candy (normal size?) Is at $1.89, crazy. Lots of the students seem to buy the snack from the machines. Would $1.25 be reasonable to charge for lss bags snacks in this area? It's hard to say. With that kind of pricing, it's pretty safe to assume that the college is getting a hefty commission from Canteen. $1.25 might be unprofitable. Even if it weren't, there's probably some significant contract involved there. Good luck to you if you try to get it but don't get your hopes up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 @AngryChris I think you might have misunderstood me. I meant in the area where the community college is. Currently I am not going for the community college location because Canteen has way better machines, has cc readers, and a professional Nationwide network. Do you think $1.25 for lss is good for other locations in the same city? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 5 minutes ago, tismael56 said: @AngryChris I think you might have misunderstood me. I meant in the area where the community college is. Currently I am not going for the community college location because Canteen has way better machines, has cc readers, and a professional Nationwide network. Do you think $1.25 for lss is good for other locations in the same city? I don't know. You really need to find out what other vendors are charging in your area and be "competitive" meaning your prices are about average. I am currently at 90 cents LSS, $1.10 candy, $1.10-1.25 pastry, 60-70 small chips, and $1.60 bottles. I'm trying to get to $1.00 LSS, $1.25 candy and pastry, .70 small chips, and $1.75 bottles. $1.25 LSS would be too high here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randymire Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I’d check around the area to see what other vendors are charging. This location is probably paying a commission so I wouldn’t only go by the prices there . I also like to see what the local convenience store is charging and that way when I’m talking to a contact person at a location I can mention that if it’s to my benefit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 @AngryChris yeah i guess it all about location. The prices in your area are pretty low for my area since I operate in the Northern Virginia area. Which area are you from? Also, I see there is a bigg difference from your snack prices to prices on Soda bottles. Have you thought about trying 16.9oz bottles? At $1.25 your price would be much closer to the price of your snacks and i bet the $0.50 cent decrease would increase sales for you. Further, I think there are better margins with 16.9. I know atleast here 20oz goes for around $0.90 from coke meanwhile 16.9oz you can find for $0.50 from sams or even at $0.33 on sale! @Randymire Yeah more than certainly whoever (moneys on canteen) providing the vending for my school is giving comission. Where should I go to check out the prices of the competition? It seems the machines accessible to the public always have higher prices due to commissions and whatnot. The c-stores in my area have bigger versions of the lss we get. They are like 3oz at $1.89 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 2 hours ago, tismael56 said: @AngryChris yeah i guess it all about location. The prices in your area are pretty low for my area since I operate in the Northern Virginia area. Which area are you from? Also, I see there is a bigg difference from your snack prices to prices on Soda bottles. Have you thought about trying 16.9oz bottles? At $1.25 your price would be much closer to the price of your snacks and i bet the $0.50 cent decrease would increase sales for you. Further, I think there are better margins with 16.9. I know atleast here 20oz goes for around $0.90 from coke meanwhile 16.9oz you can find for $0.50 from sams or even at $0.33 on sale! @Randymire Yeah more than certainly whoever (moneys on canteen) providing the vending for my school is giving comission. Where should I go to check out the prices of the competition? It seems the machines accessible to the public always have higher prices due to commissions and whatnot. The c-stores in my area have bigger versions of the lss we get. They are like 3oz at $1.89 I'd have to make so many trips to the grocery store to stock up on enough 16.9 oz bottles it just wouldn't be worth my time. I have done the math many times and, although the sales prices make it very tempting, I am going to just stick with what works for me. I can have 20 oz bottles delivered in the quantities that I need whereas I just can't do that with 16.9 oz bottles. Plus, I get 7up products from the bottler and it would just be weird to have 16.9 oz bottles with 20 oz bottles. As for my prices, yes they are lower than a lot of areas but I live in the Dayton, Ohio area and it's a notoriously low cost-of-living area. I'm working on bumping my prices where they need to be (I have been working on that for a couple years) but there are just too many guys around here that work under the table that have no problem low-balling prices to get accounts. Things are different recently because I can afford to go after better accounts now so I will probably start bumping up prices pretty significantly. I have a list of about 25 accounts I want to get rid of. That's a large chunk of my total number of locations but a relatively small chunk of my overall revenue, and much of these locations have low prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 I respect you for doing the most you can given the place where you live man. And if you are large enough for the lower margin on soda to give you good income man then well done. It seems you are getting pretty big. Around how large is your operation? Whats the furthest you have to travel to get to a location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 10 hours ago, tismael56 said: I respect you for doing the most you can given the place where you live man. And if you are large enough for the lower margin on soda to give you good income man then well done. It seems you are getting pretty big. Around how large is your operation? Whats the furthest you have to travel to get to a location? I have one solid route. 5 days/week. I have a cluster of 3 accounts that are 30 minutes west (I want to sell those), an account that's 30 minutes north, probably a dozen that are 30 minutes east, and my farthest account south will be 30 minutes once I get rid of am account that is almost 45 minutes from me. Total, I probably have 100 locations and most are 15-20 minutes away. My bulk of my route is dense enough that locations might average 5 minutes apart in a given day depending on which direction I'm going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 It's so hard to believe that anyone with an account 30 minutes away feels that is too far to travel to. It's not like you're walking there. Build your route up in that direction and in between. Here in the valley a good vendor can travel up to 50 minutes away for good accounts. Just one account can be turned into several in the area or on the way there. Heck, my routes went 45 minutes in each direction to the far corners of the valley and we still got in 20-25 machines a day on three routes - never less than 18 machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted February 25, 2020 Author Share Posted February 25, 2020 @AngryChrisOH wow that sounds like you're smack in the center of good business! What type of locations do you have that there are so many so close? Are you the only vendor in your area? Over here there are vendors everywhere and most places already have a vendor. It doesn't help that the bottlers create competition for us either😤 @AZVendorYou spoke in past tense. Are you retired now? Either way I want to work hard to get to the point where the biggest problem is keeping up with the machines😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 21 minutes ago, AZVendor said: It's so hard to believe that anyone with an account 30 minutes away feels that is too far to travel to. It's not like you're walking there. Build your route up in that direction and in between. Here in the valley a good vendor can travel up to 50 minutes away for good accounts. Just one account can be turned into several in the area or on the way there. Heck, my routes went 45 minutes in each direction to the far corners of the valley and we still got in 20-25 machines a day on three routes - never less than 18 machines. Trust me. You'd get rid of these accounts I'm referring to even if they were next door. Being 30 minutes away isn't the reason I'm cancelling but there's not much out in that county. There's about 5,000 people in that city and there's about 15 miles of rural country between them and west Dayton. Not worth it anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 12 minutes ago, tismael56 said: @AngryChrisOH wow that sounds like you're smack in the center of good business! What type of locations do you have that there are so many so close? Are you the only vendor in your area? Over here there are vendors everywhere and most places already have a vendor. It doesn't help that the bottlers create competition for us either😤 @AZVendorYou spoke in past tense. Are you retired now? Either way I want to work hard to get to the point where the biggest problem is keeping up with the machines😁 There are plenty big vendors around here but not as many small established companies anymore. A lot of companies can't get enough employees to stock the machines they have so I can pick off their "small" accounts. Most of my accounts are production/manufacturing of some nature. I don't have too many office locations. I like locations with 35+ employees in manufacturing. Once you get above 80 employees, the big companies start looking into them.. so I like to hit the sweet spot with maybe 40-70 employees because I can offer soda and snacks and not worry about the big guys offering food machines because I'm not giving them a food machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
putrevus Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 10 hours ago, AngryChris said: There are plenty big vendors around here but not as many small established companies anymore. A lot of companies can't get enough employees to stock the machines they have so I can pick off their "small" accounts. Most of my accounts are production/manufacturing of some nature. I don't have too many office locations. I like locations with 35+ employees in manufacturing. Once you get above 80 employees, the big companies start looking into them.. so I like to hit the sweet spot with maybe 40-70 employees because I can offer soda and snacks and not worry about the big guys offering food machines because I'm not giving them a food machine. What do you if you are sick and unable to service your locations.Second if you employ someone, how would it change the dynamics.How reliable will those employees will be is another question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apple Leisure Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 On 2/22/2020 at 9:22 PM, tismael56 said: Hey so going back to pricing. In my area, canteen has the community college I am attending currently. They have bottler equipment and nice 6 wide crane snack machines. I checked their pricing and they have the lss bags at $1.85! Even their single serving candy (normal size?) Is at $1.89, crazy. Lots of the students seem to buy the snack from the machines. Would $1.25 be reasonable to charge for lss bags snacks in this area? How are they selling candy at $1.89? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted February 25, 2020 Author Share Posted February 25, 2020 @Apple Leisure Yeah man i was shocked when I pressed the selection to see the price. It's the normal sized Snickers that i have trouble selling at $1.25 in some places. The other candy is the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apple Leisure Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 11 hours ago, tismael56 said: @Apple Leisure Yeah man i was shocked when I pressed the selection to see the price. It's the normal sized Snickers that i have trouble selling at $1.25 in some places. The other candy is the same. I just don't know of any machines that allow prices that are not in 5 cent increments. What kind of machine allows a price like $1.89? What kind of mech, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 USI machines can actually be priced in penny increments which you won't want to do if you take typical payments. If a machine is set up for cards only then you could do penny pricing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted March 5, 2020 Author Share Posted March 5, 2020 Hey again guys. What would be the best way to find out the prices products are going for in a city/place out of the area I normally operate? The area I need pricing for is near Washington D.C., here in Northern VA. Mostly just LSS bags, candy and pastries. I know could stop by laundromats but those prices always seem to be inflated. Please let me know how you all find out pricing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 since it's pretty difficult to see onsite machines on private property, I generally price compare to local convenience stores. My prices usually run just a little below theirs, but not much. Don't forget the sales tax difference... they add at the register vs our prices have to include the tax.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tismael56 Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 Thats a good point. I have a problem however. I am going to be taking over a large account (150+ employees) because they want to get rid of their current vendor. I dont know their pricing and the manager of the company is asking for my prices "so that they know the prices will not be increasing too much". What would you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 1 hour ago, tismael56 said: Thats a good point. I have a problem however. I am going to be taking over a large account (150+ employees) because they want to get rid of their current vendor. I dont know their pricing and the manager of the company is asking for my prices "so that they know the prices will not be increasing too much". What would you do? Ask them to see their machines so you can measure and get an idea of what kind of machines you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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