How many machines for a location?

[Boazcat]

I've posted before about an opportunity to put machines in a 6 story White-collar office complex.  They were unhappy about their previous provider only giving them one snack machine (keeping it on the 3rd floor).  We've installed 4 electronic combos so far and they are very happy.  (I search Craigslist for the right machines.) 

Before my question, here are some facts about the location:  Approx. 400 employees work on primarily 5 floors.  The building has an atrium in the center and the offices are in a (sorta) circular pattern around them.  None of the floors are laid out the same and it is a maze trying to get around the building.  There are two break rooms on each floor and so far we have only put machines in one break room.  The doors and hallways are narrow and combo machines seem to work the best.

We service it every 5 days and machines average $15 per day per machine for sales.  Some floors do better than the others. 

So... how many more machines should we try to place to fully maximize its potential?  Should we look at another combo machine in the other breakroom of the profitable floors?  or would that just share the wealth, rather than add customers?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Michael

[ageevending]

Your doing pretty good about 75 per machine per week is good.  Unless you think you'll get more $$ from additional machines or the client requests them... I'd leave it at that.

[antoniocinisi]

why do you service the machines every week?

[canuck]

Boazcat:

We've got an atrium office building with 4 floors as well.  We are limited to the number of machines we can put in there and right now only have 5 machines.  The machines did not go in all at once as we bought them new and delivery from the manufacturer was staggered.  Anyway the 5th floor machine was our best performing machine..another one went on the same floor opposite end and and now they are both top performing machines.  The second machine actually took away a bit from the 4th floor as people were going down instead of across but even the 4th floor performs very well.

Depending on how easy it is for you to move machines and/or find another home I would push it to the max.  It's easier than finding another customer.  Try to maximize the total revenue that  you can from the customer you have now.  You will likely get diminishing returns with each machine but wait for a good deal and test it out.  Remember that snacks and pop are impuslive in nature.  If it's not in front of the customer they may not walk to find it...or perhaps a better way to say it is the more displays/opportunities you have the more you'll sell. That's why you'll see a coke product or machine everywhere.  That's why chips/pops pay huge dollars for display space in grocery stores.

I can't give a specific answer on how many without seeing the layout but right now you don't even have 1 machine on every floor.  Also not sure on the type of combo you have or how much you are paying for them.  But I would guess you could add 2 more machines and maybe try beyond that as a test.  If you are getting them cheap you can move out or service a little less frequently if other sales go down.  Just some thoughts...good luck.

[Boazcat]

why do you service the machines every week?

If we go any longer than 5 days, the bills get out of control and start to jam up.  .

This is obviously a good problem...

[antoniocinisi]

why do you service the machines every week?

If we go any longer than 5 days, the bills get out of control and start to jam up.  .

This is obviously a good problem...

I dont do full line but my juke box and megatouches hold more then that are the dbv differant?

[Boazcat]

The machines that are on the two busiest floors are Genesis Combos.  The Bill Validators slide the bills loosely into a tray.  After about 50 bills they start clogging up the coin mech.

Michael