Noname Vending

[MrEen]

I only have 3 doubles out at this point, but here are the first pulls from the first 2 of them at roughly a five week service interval:

Produce supply company (break room with full line equipment there as well):

M&M Peanut - $19.00 (plus $0.55 free money)

Skittles - $9.75

Note1: I expected this account to BARELY meet the national average at best so was very excited to see these numbers!

Tire supply location (break room again with no snack machine here):

M&M Peanut - $7.00 (plus $0.05 free money)

Skittles - $4.50

Note2: I thought this location would rock as they've begged for a snack machine but still don't have one.

The last location will be collected later this week when I replace the Polarmint Tab Gum that they hate. I did notice when discussing the gum issue I'll need to bring another bag of M&M Peanuts when I do this, so I'm thinking they'll have the best single head collection (hard to tell for sure as the first location I made the newbie mistake of filling the heads too much to start, but with this account I used a single bag that didn't quite fill the head half way.)

I'll update at the end of the week. Wish me luck!

Scott

[nam]

Scott,

Nice first pull! Sounds like the people at the produce supply like buying a snack for a quarter rather than the full line machine. Think with the economy in it's current state we could steal alot of business from the full line vendors. Very decent money out of double head.

The tire supply still may pick up and hopefully suprise you with more volume after it's there for awhile. Funny how so often the locations you guess will be good aren't as good as the ones you thought wouldn't be as good. It happens to me all the time. Just no good guessing. Put the machines in there and wait and see, huh?

Good job buddy and hope you last location does well and needs two bags of PM&M's!

nam

[G-man422]

Nice pulls Scott.  If a certain product is not working, try swaping it out for another one.  I had a location where Skittles flopped so I swapped them with M&I.  Now the M&I are the best seller.

[MrEen]

Thank you both for the support. That produce place (my first bulk account) REALLY surprised me! My boss was friends with the original owner of the company and had ALL snacks (as well as can soda) at 50 cents for at least 10 years until they moved to their new location less than 2 months ago (also new ownership probably close to 2 years ago.) At their old location, even at 50 cents for ANYTHING, the snack machine probably never did $100 in any week for the past few years (it did do over $100/week 4+ years ago.) The last couple times I've serviced the account I've had the joy of watching someone drop their quarter into MY machine while I was stocking my bosses machines!

I have M&I "in stock" but may try to put the Polarmint tabs in place of the Skittles at the tire place (if only to try to get rid of it at this point; want to keep spoilage to a minimum.) It just blows my mind that these people begged for a snack machine and can barely support a 2 headed bulk! I told my boss these numbers and he really wasn't surprised. He had told them when they consistently sell 5 cases of drinks a week, he will bring in a snack machine (I bet he knew they they would never reach those figures.)

I'd love to place more bulks next to full-line but don't want to risk doing anything to upset my boss (it was HIS idea at the produce place. I think he just wanted to get MY machines out of HIS warehouse! I guess maybe I should have had my last eBay purchase sent to my home instead! )

At this point, I'll keep pretty much any account, as long as the machines aren't getting abused. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, I can get out and land a few new accounts so I'll always have a candidate ripe for a new product for these cases where I try something that ends up being hated. I might need to add at least one triple head so I could always add a product without having to sacrifice something I already know is selling well.

Scott

P.S. I just bought the "crappy" DB tab gum to replace the Polarmint tabs today. ONE of the THREE Sam's Clubs in the Richmond area carries it in store which saves about $15 in shipping charges. Gonna try to get to that account tomorrow if time permits.

[chris in md]

Nice pulls, Scott!  I'm still getting set up and hope to have my machines placed soon, so reading this is additional inspiration.

- chris

[MrEen]

Thank you Chris. Although those numbers aren't all that much to get worked up about all by themselves, my intention going in was to beat the national average by one full dollar per month per location and be happy with anything above that, so three of the four heads have at least met that target, and the average per head is decently above. That was always my goal and will remain so, as I have in the past had a tendency to dream too big to meet (my own) expectations.

There have been many posts on this forum that have helped inspire me, so I am very happy to read that I have helped someone that way.

Just one word of caution, don't spend SOOO much time on the forum that you neglect getting those machines out there making money for you! (It's easy to do, I know!)

Scott

[MrEen]

Time for an update:

Produce place second collection almost matched the first exactly (11 extra vends on the MMP is the only difference.) That was around 5 weeks again. One bonus for me this week, the snack machine has been having a lot of problems. It has been out of order as much as it has been in service. 2 days after collecting, the Skittles already had a very nice "whirlpool" effect on top! Totals were Skittles = $9.75 and MMP = $21.75.

Tire place picked up nicely. After the first collection, I decided to wait around 8 weeks to service again and had a nice surprise when I went in. I walked over to their break room, and my machine was gone! I head back over to the office area to ask about it, and find the machine in the customer service area and getting quite low on product! For 8 weeks, Skittles did $16.75, and MMP did $25.25 (was expecting around $9 and $15.) It ain't bringin' home the bacon, but I'll take those numbers any time!

That third place is a brick maker and has not done so well. At this point, still only have the first collection numbers of Gum = $2.75 and MMP = $10.25 (I obviously was misled regarding the MMP sales.) I've been there a couple times since the collection and am not seeing much movement. Eventually, this will be my first account to be pulled, but that'll be a few months away at a minimum.

Scott