Please help a complete amateur with his plan to buy a vending machine

[ColonelMig]

I'm a teenager (still in high school) and have had the idea for quite a while now to buy a vending machine and use that as passive income. Although I understand time and effort needs to be put into the venture with things such as stocking and maintenance, this can all be done one or twice a week and isn't something that I constantly have to work on. However, I virtually have no idea on how to start. The main questions I need answered may seem trivial but as it says in the title, I'm only new to this idea (keep in mind I live in Sydney, Australia so I'm using that currency and will have to abide by those legal parameters):

1. Where is the best place to acquire a machine? I have been in contact with quite a big company who quoted me around $7,000 AUD for a snack and drink machine with the option to add a card reader for extra money. Is this a good price, especially considering it does look quite modern and very technologically updated. (I've worked for quite a while so I have plenty of money to purchase the machines and snacks and still be quote comfortable)

2. Where is the best place to buy snacks and drinks in bulk? I know of a few bulk shops, including one or two small individual stores and then obviously Costco. The former has different stock each week, so you never know whats available, and they're all close to their expiry date. The latter seems like the better option but I wonder if theres a better store, perhaps even online.

3. Where should I place the machine? With this question, I have a pretty solid idea. As I mentioned, I still attend high school here in NSW and see a gap in the market for a machine at my own school, mainly due to the fact that our canteen (or tuck shop) is always over crowded and provides hot meals for lunch. They also provide snacks and drinks, but the lines are always long and because of the hot meals the lunch ladies go back and forth from the counter to the kitchen to prepare the meal. Totally inefficient, especially for the kids at the back who only want a packet of chips and instead wait 15 minutes. Would my school even entertain the idea of allowing a machine to be placed in their school by a student? 

4. How much can I expect to make from sales? Keeping in mind I have a school with a very open courtyard, and our classes are sectioned into buildings, not just one big building, so theres a large amount of foot traffic. Our school canteen does quite well, the lines are always huge even though the snacks aren't what the students would pick at the shops. If I purchase the right snacks and put it in the right place, would you be able to give me a ball park figure? We have around 500-600 students, and its not unusual at all to spend anywhere from $5-$20 AUD  at the canteen per day. Does anyone have a machine in a school that can clarify the amount of attention their machine receives?

5. How much should I expect the rent for the vending machine spot to be? Considering I wish to put it in the school?

6. How should I ensure security for my machine? As I've mentioned its quite an up to date machine and one of its features is it's very secure, but if you know anything about teenage boys its that they'll find any way they can to ruin such a thing. Of course my school has cameras but should I invest in cameras on the machine itself? Would i need to get insurance for the machine?

7. How often do malfunctions occur? Is it hard to learn to fix them?

8. My grand idea is, if my first machine succeeds, to invest in more machines and put them in the schools in my area, would I need to create a legitimate business with an business number and everything?

9. What have I missed? Have I totally got the wrong idea? A lot of these questions I have a very solid idea on, but I need someone with experience to help me out. 

 

I know I may seem out of my depth, and I know I could probably find all this information out on my own (and I will be researching extensively), but I don't want to invest my money without knowing what I'm getting into. Please, if you have experience and don't mind helping a guy out, respond. I'll take on any information I can. If you think I'm crazy and stupid and out of my depth, please just keep scrolling.

 

 

 

 

 

[moondog]

On 8/24/2021 at 8:42 AM, ColonelMig said:

I'm a teenager (still in high school) and have had the idea for quite a while now to buy a vending machine and use that as passive income. Although I understand time and effort needs to be put into the venture with things such as stocking and maintenance, this can all be done one or twice a week and isn't something that I constantly have to work on. However, I virtually have no idea on how to start. The main questions I need answered may seem trivial but as it says in the title, I'm only new to this idea (keep in mind I live in Sydney, Australia so I'm using that currency and will have to abide by those legal parameters):

1. Where is the best place to acquire a machine? I have been in contact with quite a big company who quoted me around $7,000 AUD for a snack and drink machine with the option to add a card reader for extra money. Is this a good price, especially considering it does look quite modern and very technologically updated. (I've worked for quite a while so I have plenty of money to purchase the machines and snacks and still be quote comfortable)

2. Where is the best place to buy snacks and drinks in bulk? I know of a few bulk shops, including one or two small individual stores and then obviously Costco. The former has different stock each week, so you never know whats available, and they're all close to their expiry date. The latter seems like the better option but I wonder if theres a better store, perhaps even online.

3. Where should I place the machine? With this question, I have a pretty solid idea. As I mentioned, I still attend high school here in NSW and see a gap in the market for a machine at my own school, mainly due to the fact that our canteen (or tuck shop) is always over crowded and provides hot meals for lunch. They also provide snacks and drinks, but the lines are always long and because of the hot meals the lunch ladies go back and forth from the counter to the kitchen to prepare the meal. Totally inefficient, especially for the kids at the back who only want a packet of chips and instead wait 15 minutes. Would my school even entertain the idea of allowing a machine to be placed in their school by a student? 

4. How much can I expect to make from sales? Keeping in mind I have a school with a very open courtyard, and our classes are sectioned into buildings, not just one big building, so theres a large amount of foot traffic. Our school canteen does quite well, the lines are always huge even though the snacks aren't what the students would pick at the shops. If I purchase the right snacks and put it in the right place, would you be able to give me a ball park figure? We have around 500-600 students, and its not unusual at all to spend anywhere from $5-$20 AUD  at the canteen per day. Does anyone have a machine in a school that can clarify the amount of attention their machine receives?

5. How much should I expect the rent for the vending machine spot to be? Considering I wish to put it in the school?

6. How should I ensure security for my machine? As I've mentioned its quite an up to date machine and one of its features is it's very secure, but if you know anything about teenage boys its that they'll find any way they can to ruin such a thing. Of course my school has cameras but should I invest in cameras on the machine itself? Would i need to get insurance for the machine?

7. How often do malfunctions occur? Is it hard to learn to fix them?

8. My grand idea is, if my first machine succeeds, to invest in more machines and put them in the schools in my area, would I need to create a legitimate business with an business number and everything?

9. What have I missed? Have I totally got the wrong idea? A lot of these questions I have a very solid idea on, but I need someone with experience to help me out. 

 

I know I may seem out of my depth, and I know I could probably find all this information out on my own (and I will be researching extensively), but I don't want to invest my money without knowing what I'm getting into. Please, if you have experience and don't mind helping a guy out, respond. I'll take on any information I can. If you think I'm crazy and stupid and out of my depth, please just keep scrolling.

 

Here, in the States, we find that drink machines do the best.  Unlike Aussieland, we rarely use combo machines as there's usually space for both the drink and snack machine, which doesn't seem to be the case in many of your locations.  We run on a different electrical voltage than you so you'll need an Aussie machine.  Many of these are US made and converted to y6ur power.  There are also quite a few Chinese machines down under - I'd avoid these like the plague (pun intended).  The school will probably dictate what you can sell which up here means healthy snacks which high schoolers won't buy.  If you could just run a soda machine, that would be your best starting point.  Sodas have a ten month shelf life and are readily available at Costco at a decent price.  Even healthy snacks are only good for about 4 months.  7,000 in that wombat whompum you guys call money is roughly equivalent to what we'd pay up here for a combo machine (except that we usually don't buy them as we need full size machines so they don't constantly run out of the popular items).  In terms of security, a full size soda will weigh too much for some wanker to shake but if you go the combo route, said wanker will get a testosterone burst from shaking the hell out of your machine until he/she gets the snack they're looking for.  This is bad, not only for the lost products, but also the damage they will do to your machine (which will cost a lot more to fix than a few bags of chips))  These machines need to be secured to something that won't move to avoid this.  You may want to consider a credit card reader which can really boost sales in the right location until their old man gets the bill (which won't be your problem)  In my day, a high schooler with a credit card was unheard of - hell, we rarely had any money at all.  But I'm sure it's different now.