Confused

[Buhlazen]

I've got a snack and drink machine in a 52 unit apartment complex. Is it normal to not get any buyers after 3 days? Do they think the machines are turned off? One is an AP 7000 that naturally doesn't show a display and the other is a Vendo 521 which is on but there is a little o next to the price (0.00). The prices are low.

[AngryChris]

Have you made purchases yourself to confirm everything is working as it should?  Apartment complexes can be hit or miss. A lot of vendors don't bother with any of them.  Higher income complexes have people with their own snacks at home.  Low income tend to buy more.  And yes, some people don't even know the machine is on if it's a 7600.  Plus, they might not be carrying cash.

[Buhlazen]

Everything works as it should. Each complex is around $900 a month in a neighborhood where average rent is $1150. Maybe it's cause it's labor day weekend and people are seeing their families.

[AngryChris]

In all honesty, time will tell.  It's an apartment. Maybe people just haven't given it much thought yet.  Vending is largely driven by habitual buyers.  If they haven't ever had vending or no service in a while, it will take time for them to get used to it again.  It also depends on how many people carry cash, especially $1 bills.

[tblake05]

Holy cow. Give it time! I have a few spots that started out pretty slow and turned out pretty ok. Patience is a virtue!

[Buhlazen]

@AngryChris @tblake05 Thank you, just kind of a shock for me.

[AngryChris]

You win some.  You lose some.  A lot of vendors (especially rookies) think they can just reinvent the wheel a d make a killing.  The reality is that it gets more and more challenging for the big boys to manage all of their drivers as they grow.  This causes them to suffer with service issues at times and smaller companies can gain locations because of that and the problem trickles down.  The bigger you get, the bigger locations you need to keep growing and continue to profit.  Vending has a huge problem with growing pains so mid size vending companies find it hard to justify expanding (need new truck, more warehouse space, maybe a dedicated repair guy or office worker, etc..).  This causes some opportunities for the really small vendors to get some locations too.  The goal of vending is to keep trying to sell as many items as you can for the most profitable price, which you can usually find out by finding out what the prices are in other locations if possible or checking convenient stores a bit too.

It can be frustrating to put so much effort into a location and expect a lot, only to find out it's a dud.  But it's your job as a for-profit business to pull the plug when you know it's not profitable and place your machines elsewhere.  I just installed two locations.  One might do anywhere from $60-$100/week from what I'm seeing.  The other is largely unknown but I expect it to do over $200/week.  These aren't anything to brag about but I cancelled a bunch of dud locations as I was placing these, and these two will make up for the 5 locations that I cancelled.  Now I can clean up some equipment and get them ready to go to other potential good locations.  That's just what you have to consider.  And yes, a lot of vendors walk away because they just don't think vending is profitable after some dudes, but it's really because they just aren't able or willing to do the necessary steps to make it work.

 

[Snickers]

An InOne board in that AP 7600 would help with the display. At the very least make sure the light bulb is good otherwise it appears as the machine is not on.