Confused on ADA Requirements

[Dave101]

Hey guys,

I'm new to the vending machine business, and just recently acquired an older AP113 machine. Bill validation was installed from previous owner, and it doesn't have a credit card reader yet. I'm thinking of installing the Nayax.

I'll be acquiring more initial machines, but currently setting everything up for the business in MA, but just got wind of this ADA requirement. Crap...

These are the locations I'm looking to get into using some of my connections already:

- Office building

- State office building

- YMCA and church

I'm of course, looking at other locations, but the above I may have a better chance first.

The ADA caught me off guard (a little annoyed I didn't read up), and I'm wondering if I'll have trouble with my AP113 due the locations above "or" bill validation replacement. Putting in a credit card reader makes sense given the locations.

If anyone can offer suggestions that would be good. 

I was going to do the older refurbished AP 7600s as well, but I'd imagine none of them would be compliant.

If anyone has an idea on what machines I'll need for ADA at the lowest cost, please let me know?

[AngryChris]

Are you referring to the height requirement?

Last I checked, which was a long time ago, the requirements only apply to vendors with at least 10 machines.

It may be possible to mount a reader near the coin mech on either machine but it would be far more difficult to do, if even possible.  Payrange will work pretty much anywhere the customer is because it uses Bluetooth via their phone.  If someone complained that you aren't Ada compliant, maybe that would satisfy the problem.

Neither the AP 7600 or 113 will connect to card readers without changing the board.  Alternatively, you can spend about $1,000 more than the cost of a new board and replace the whole door.  Then it will be ada compliant.

[Dave101]

4 hours ago, AngryChris said:

Are you referring to the height requirement?

Last I checked, which was a long time ago, the requirements only apply to vendors with at least 10 machines.

It may be possible to mount a reader near the coin mech on either machine but it would be far more difficult to do, if even possible.  Payrange will work pretty much anywhere the customer is because it uses Bluetooth via their phone.  If someone complained that you aren't Ada compliant, maybe that would satisfy the problem.

Neither the AP 7600 or 113 will connect to card readers without changing the board.  Alternatively, you can spend about $1,000 more than the cost of a new board and replace the whole door.  Then it will be ada compliant.

I'm referring to the height, 5lb force without arm twisting, default requirement for state gov. buildings, and the replacing of cash validator counting that'll automatically require ada upgrades. All this is quite confusing the more I read up tbh and a lot of hoops to jump over.

Where did you see the part about this applying to vendors with 10 machines?

That would be great as I'll have less, and the state building location is what I thought would be difficult.

Also what's the best way to acquire a used door for under $1k?

I may look into that but that'll add to the costs.

 I'd imagine I'll still need to replace the board to get the payrange device. The CC reader will still be needed since these would be white collar workers with likely no cash on hand.

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Dave101

[AngryChris]

Well first, let me tell you that office buildings only do well when they have well over 50 people at least.  White collar workers don't tend to buy nearly as much as blue collar.  And the worst part is that they complain the most even over the most petty issues.  You're more likely to have Karen complain that you aren't Ada compliant even if no one needs it to be Ada compliant.  Or Karen might complain that the lays chips are going to expire in 10 days from now.  Or that the machine is getting low because she can see that it's sold out of selection D5, even when there are 39 other selections available.  And worst of all, when you ask Karen which item she wants from D5, she says she never actually uses it, she just has nothing better to do than to complain about the vending service regardless of how petty the complaints are.  Of course, I'm ranting here, but my point is that white collar can often be a pain because they really have people that don't usually buy as much and have time to complain.  Blue collar quickly grab a snack during their shift to get them through until lunch or dinner.  They buy more and they just want the machines filled and working.

All of that aside, I have never had someone bring up Ada compliant issues since they came to be, maybe something like 8 years ago or whenever.  Not once.  And most people don't know anyway.

As for the door, I don't even think you can get a used door.  And to be clear, the door I'm referring to is a revision door from vendor's exchange.  These are retrofit doors that completely replace your stock door.  They have two openings for a bill acceptor and card reader.  They cost something like 1200-1400 new.  It comes with the board and drop sensor too.  If you only replace the board, it's about 350 but you'll still keep your same door. My concern is that you don't spend a lot of money on a small location that won't generate a return.  Churches can be hit or miss.  It depends on how busy it is.  A small local church that's only open for normal church functions will be a dud.  A big church with lots of activities and functions can do alright.  I don't do churches because the best ones I have ever seen just did okay, but not great.  A small factory with 40 people might be a good place to start.

[Dave101]

5 hours ago, AngryChris said:

Well first, let me tell you that office buildings only do well when they have well over 50 people at least.  White collar workers don't tend to buy nearly as much as blue collar.  And the worst part is that they complain the most even over the most petty issues.  You're more likely to have Karen complain that you aren't Ada compliant even if no one needs it to be Ada compliant.  Or Karen might complain that the lays chips are going to expire in 10 days from now.  Or that the machine is getting low because she can see that it's sold out of selection D5, even when there are 39 other selections available.  And worst of all, when you ask Karen which item she wants from D5, she says she never actually uses it, she just has nothing better to do than to complain about the vending service regardless of how petty the complaints are.  Of course, I'm ranting here, but my point is that white collar can often be a pain because they really have people that don't usually buy as much and have time to complain.  Blue collar quickly grab a snack during their shift to get them through until lunch or dinner.  They buy more and they just want the machines filled and working.

All of that aside, I have never had someone bring up Ada compliant issues since they came to be, maybe something like 8 years ago or whenever.  Not once.  And most people don't know anyway.

As for the door, I don't even think you can get a used door.  And to be clear, the door I'm referring to is a revision door from vendor's exchange.  These are retrofit doors that completely replace your stock door.  They have two openings for a bill acceptor and card reader.  They cost something like 1200-1400 new.  It comes with the board and drop sensor too.  If you only replace the board, it's about 350 but you'll still keep your same door. My concern is that you don't spend a lot of money on a small location that won't generate a return.  Churches can be hit or miss.  It depends on how busy it is.  A small local church that's only open for normal church functions will be a dud.  A big church with lots of activities and functions can do alright.  I don't do churches because the best ones I have ever seen just did okay, but not great.  A small factory with 40 people might be a good place to start.

Man don't even get me started on Karens lol.

 

I agree, I can see blue collar being much lower maintenance.

In any case, yeah the office buildings are just good warm lead for us in terms of locations. My fiancee works at a current gov place in downtown. I'd say roughly 600 people excluding pedestrians that cut through downstairs. There's a good amount of foot traffic, and a defunctional food court downstairs that's open to the public.

I figured we can get into that location based some connections there. Her family also worked at other government buildings around the area.

Her office is relocating to a non-state building and it currently has around 300 employees onsite. Thing is, her coworkers will have to commute, and the closest cafeteria is in another building.

Both her current building and also the one she's relocating to.

I'm more concerned on the ADA thing because it's a gov building (I recalled reading it's an issue by default) and that we're, well located in Massachusetts. Which is more or less very pro consumer and not good for businesses in general.

church and my other contacts would be public places by definition.

Which door do you recommend that works and is inexpensive?

If it comes with MDB and readers that actually pretty decent. We got a decent buy on the ap113, but the door would just delay the breakeven point.

If ADA is a non-issue that would be great.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Dave101

[AngryChris]

You're giving some conflicting issues for me.  If you truly think you can secure a location with hundreds of people, then one snack machine isn't going to cut it, especially an older model that's not cc capable.  You should either talk to a local distributor to see if you can get a newer refurbished or even new machine for such a location, then add a reader to it.  Machines generally aren't made with card readers and neither are the doors.  The locations with hundreds of people are generally where the big fish vendors swim, and you'll have a lot of hurdles to get over to secure such locations.  Either you need advice for big locations or for small locations.  You're asking where to get cheap things for big locations and that's a potentially big mistake.

[Dave101]

59 minutes ago, AngryChris said:

You're giving some conflicting issues for me.  If you truly think you can secure a location with hundreds of people, then one snack machine isn't going to cut it, especially an older model that's not cc capable.  You should either talk to a local distributor to see if you can get a newer refurbished or even new machine for such a location, then add a reader to it.  Machines generally aren't made with card readers and neither are the doors.  The locations with hundreds of people are generally where the big fish vendors swim, and you'll have a lot of hurdles to get over to secure such locations.  Either you need advice for big locations or for small locations.  You're asking where to get cheap things for big locations and that's a potentially big mistake.

Again, I'm completely new to vending.

Hmmm...I didn't know there's a cutoff for big vs small locations. I'd imagine there are competition but may be worth a shot getting in front of them directly.

I was orginally thinking of acquiring AP113 and AP7600, other older machines to keep costs down and upgrading to take CC. Again, not knowing if there are requirements of ADA.

Seems like that's a mistake?

Gameplan was to get 2 (one snack and one drink) to put in some of the lobby area, and ask to test. If it's good we can scale to 4.

The idea is that since my fiancee and others I know already work at these buildings, we can maintain around the clock.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Dave101

[Gizmo Vending]

What Chris is saying is that for larger locations you’ll need better equipment.   For a small church, for some place with 20-30 people or less nobody is going to be beating the door down trying to get those locations.   But for 300 or 600 people?   Everyone is going to be gunning for a place like that.   If I walked in and seen your AP 113 it’s game over for you—call the movers and tell em to get the truck warmed up.   Companies like Canteen and American Food & Vending are going to be all over that place assuming they are not already there with their brand new bevmax 6’s and Crane merchant media (go ahead and google those) and that’s if they don’t have micro marts.  Google that term as well.   They have people who’s sole job is to go after locations and nothing else and typically have marketing and sales experience.  A lot of us on this forum are the IT guy, the mechanic, the machine stocker, bookkeeper etc.  Those larger companies have departments dedicated to folks doing one or two things.   What about coffee, what about fresh foods and frozen foods, a place like your describing will want and need that as well.   More equipment to buy.  Vehicle for fresh/frozen food?  More stuff to obtain.   Start small and work your way up.  You can buy the 113 but you can’t put it in a place with hundreds of employees.  It’s like this:  You don’t put a $6,000 machine in a place that does $50 a week.   And you damn sure don’t put a $400 30 year old machine in a place that’s capable of doing hundreds a week.   The ADA stuff you can worry about that when you’re a larger company with a few vans and employees.   I know the tik tak and facetube videos said this vending stuff is easy and you’ll make a killing but believe me it is not.  

[tc vending]

An AP 113 for a big location is a mistake. If I walk up and see your AP 113 I am selling them on a new machine and your gone. However, put the Ap 113 in a warehouse or small manufacturing facility with 50 blue collar works your good to go.

[orsd]

Also: government buildings are subject to Randolph Shepard.

That means that blind vending operators have first dibs on government locations. If they aren’t interested, it typically goes out to bid.

I would be prepared to get the boot at any time if you pursue the government locations.

[Dave101]

15 hours ago, Gizmo Vending said:

What Chris is saying is that for larger locations you’ll need better equipment.   For a small church, for some place with 20-30 people or less nobody is going to be beating the door down trying to get those locations.   But for 300 or 600 people?   Everyone is going to be gunning for a place like that.   If I walked in and seen your AP 113 it’s game over for you—call the movers and tell em to get the truck warmed up.   Companies like Canteen and American Food & Vending are going to be all over that place assuming they are not already there with their brand new bevmax 6’s and Crane merchant media (go ahead and google those) and that’s if they don’t have micro marts.  Google that term as well.   They have people who’s sole job is to go after locations and nothing else and typically have marketing and sales experience.  A lot of us on this forum are the IT guy, the mechanic, the machine stocker, bookkeeper etc.  Those larger companies have departments dedicated to folks doing one or two things.   What about coffee, what about fresh foods and frozen foods, a place like your describing will want and need that as well.   More equipment to buy.  Vehicle for fresh/frozen food?  More stuff to obtain.   Start small and work your way up.  You can buy the 113 but you can’t put it in a place with hundreds of employees.  It’s like this:  You don’t put a $6,000 machine in a place that does $50 a week.   And you damn sure don’t put a $400 30 year old machine in a place that’s capable of doing hundreds a week.   The ADA stuff you can worry about that when you’re a larger company with a few vans and employees.   I know the tik tak and facetube videos said this vending stuff is easy and you’ll make a killing but believe me it is not.  

I see, and yes I believe you when you say that youtube and tok doesn't tell the whole story.

Regarding the location I get what you guys are saying. Don't place in an old machine. Otherwise, it's a sign of weakness even if we get in, we'll get eaten alive by other vendors.

In this case, what minimum cost refurbished machines do you recommend for bigger locations?

Quick google and I see newer Bevmax go for $7k. Not feasible for scaling up. Even older ones are around $4k range.

Say the cut off is 100 employees. In our case it's bigger. But point I assume is the same.

I can call up local distributors and be on the hunt for those machines at a good price if you have any suggestions?

I won't outright buy them yet until l get a yes from the location. Again, I think being on site, and potentially offering daily upkeep is a good advantage.

I was going to do the hustling myself. I'm confident I can get to a few decision makers. Maybe not close, but at least get my foot in the door.

Far from shy and zero issues pitching. However, if I need a professional salesperson, I can make a job post and get someone on commission to pitch the better leads.

Seems like I'll have better control over cold call locator services who may get me bad locations.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Dave101

[Dave101]

3 hours ago, tc vending said:

An AP 113 for a big location is a mistake. If I walk up and see your AP 113 I am selling them on a new machine and your gone. However, put the Ap 113 in a warehouse or small manufacturing facility with 50 blue collar works your good to go.

Point taken. Go big or go home.

I mean, I've already purchased the AP113 at a decent price.

I guess we'll just need to focus on low hanging fruits with those machines.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Dave101

[Dave101]

48 minutes ago, orsd said:

Also: government buildings are subject to Randolph Shepard.

That means that blind vending operators have first dibs on government locations. If they aren’t interested, it typically goes out to bid.

I would be prepared to get the boot at any time if you pursue the government locations.

So what you're saying is...

Source and partner up with someone legally blind. Then use my personal connections in state contracts, and government sites to get in. Win win. 

I'm joking but thanks for letting me know.

[AngryChris]

Please don't take my bluntness for rudeness.  I tend to be pretty black and white. I have 16 years in vending and many people on this forum have way more experience than me.  Your discussion is serious and I'm taking it seriously.  We all are and I'm glad you're taking it as such.  I can already tell you have confidence but I can also tell you are clueless but you made that clear from the get go.  So I'm trying to dance between talking technical and talking in layman's terms.

If you have th confidence to sell your services, then you've already given yourself quite the advantage.  I'm not trying to discourage you from going big, I just don't want you to shoot your wad and close the door on yourself early on.  Big accounts are used to new equipment, commissions, catered lunches, professional contracts, brochures, professional uniforms and service vehicles, etc.. it's just really hard to jump into that fresh out the gates unless you have a very big financial backing.  Practically NO big location is going to entertain you putting two machines in just to see how it goes.  They NEED several machines, they need them to be down as little as possible, and they want no reason to ever have to call you.  They don't want to deal with vending, that's why they want a professional service to do it and that's why they want a large company that can offer new or like-new machines and around the clock service.  If they have to constantly call on you for service, they KNOW there are other companies offering them that world to get in there.  And they can easily get you for breach of contract due to poor service.  Og course, if you had a big financial backing, it's doable. But the fact you keep asking about good used machines for a "good price" leads me to believe you don't have the finances to do that.  That's why I'm saying there's a bit of a contradiction, but I think you understand that now.  Vending is NOT what some videos show you where you waltz into a location and ask to place a machine and they say sure and you start making big profits.  That's misleading at best.  It can happen on a small scale.

Also, I'm not sure why you keep mentioning scaling.  You can scale up any business.  I think the problem I'm having is that I feel like you don't have an actual business model or it's possibly not a good one, so I have to ask.. what exactly is your model?  Do you just want to create a side hustle?  Do you want to jump in with both feet and grow a business into something full time?  What is your vision?  I think that info would help us to help you.  You seem legitimately interested in the business but you also seem legitimately blindsided by everything we say, which leads me to believe you've been mislead about the real vending world.

[tc vending]

3 hours ago, Dave101 said:

Point taken. Go big or go home.

I mean, I've already purchased the AP113 at a decent price.

I guess we'll just need to focus on low hanging fruits with 

My point is put the AP 113 in a 50 person type location and learn the business if you like it stay in if not get out. I am tired of answering questions constantly while working my machines from people who watched a tik tok video. These videos are almost always made by rookie vendors who are clueless. What I see is 90% of new vendors are failing right now because it is way harder than a tik tok video. Vending is hard and getting hard since Covid. Now inflation is a big problem. I advice people not to enter the vending business, but that my opinion with 17 years around this stuff.

[Southeast Treats]

 

[Dave101]

On 10/2/2022 at 1:33 PM, AngryChris said:

Please don't take my bluntness for rudeness.  I tend to be pretty black and white. I have 16 years in vending and many people on this forum have way more experience than me.  Your discussion is serious and I'm taking it seriously.  We all are and I'm glad you're taking it as such.  I can already tell you have confidence but I can also tell you are clueless but you made that clear from the get go.  So I'm trying to dance between talking technical and talking in layman's terms.

If you have th confidence to sell your services, then you've already given yourself quite the advantage.  I'm not trying to discourage you from going big, I just don't want you to shoot your wad and close the door on yourself early on.  Big accounts are used to new equipment, commissions, catered lunches, professional contracts, brochures, professional uniforms and service vehicles, etc.. it's just really hard to jump into that fresh out the gates unless you have a very big financial backing.  Practically NO big location is going to entertain you putting two machines in just to see how it goes.  They NEED several machines, they need them to be down as little as possible, and they want no reason to ever have to call you.  They don't want to deal with vending, that's why they want a professional service to do it and that's why they want a large company that can offer new or like-new machines and around the clock service.  If they have to constantly call on you for service, they KNOW there are other companies offering them that world to get in there.  And they can easily get you for breach of contract due to poor service.  Og course, if you had a big financial backing, it's doable. But the fact you keep asking about good used machines for a "good price" leads me to believe you don't have the finances to do that.  That's why I'm saying there's a bit of a contradiction, but I think you understand that now.  Vending is NOT what some videos show you where you waltz into a location and ask to place a machine and they say sure and you start making big profits.  That's misleading at best.  It can happen on a small scale.

Also, I'm not sure why you keep mentioning scaling.  You can scale up any business.  I think the problem I'm having is that I feel like you don't have an actual business model or it's possibly not a good one, so I have to ask.. what exactly is your model?  Do you just want to create a side hustle?  Do you want to jump in with both feet and grow a business into something full time?  What is your vision?  I think that info would help us to help you.  You seem legitimately interested in the business but you also seem legitimately blindsided by everything we say, which leads me to believe you've been mislead about the real vending world.

No offense taken. In fact, just the opposite. The more you challenge, the better I can understand this business. I'm pretty blunt myself and quite unapoletic so in real life.

Dialing back a bit, yes I'm new to vending and established this. I'm in the exploration phase currently, calling up and sourcing suppliers/techs in my area.

Learning as much as I can establishing contacts, and of course this forum. So the quality of questions I'll be asking should be in line with that expectation in mind.

That said, nuances like big accounts versus small accounts escape me, frankly. I'm sure youtubers and books out there don't tell the whole story, and I don't expect to learn anything outside of generalities. This is where I fill in the gaps via this forum and other vendors.

Regarding your statement about mentioning scale, I'm not sure where you're referencing. Regardless, I'm in the "exploration" phase. Buying older machines and pitching to get my feet wet isn't going to wreck my bank account. However, everywhere I've contacted is telling me to go older machines as opposed to new ones as their tidbit, and it makes sense practically. I'm also told I can get away with an older machine + newer door.

I'm not familiar with the general market expectations and what acceptable machines look like.

In terms of business model, no I don't have one yet. Again, I'm exploring the idea and learning as much about the business before I do full commitment, and doing this full time.

I can easily put together a business plan, deck, financial model, etc etc together (I have solid guys that write this for me for past businesses). For financing, I'd at least want to have a couple of profitable locations before asking for "other people's money" and know some inkling of what I'm doing before getting others involved to put money down.

If I really want to go big BIG and disrupt the vending business, I wouldn't even be doing vending machines per say. I'd find a novel product based on common pain points (say for example payment), and hit up some accredited buddies to build a company, etc. In fact, I have a friend who is in the payment industry and has a large amount of business accounts across the US. He's crossed over $1b in transactions. Only a few hundred employees. So he's no Square Payment but doing insanely well in his own right with his startup.

What I'm saying is this. I'm not aiming for the moon with vending machines. I'm not aiming to be where my buddy is either.

I'm treating it as it is. A realistic but practical small business. Put together a legit business after I jump in feet wet, fail a couple of times, and come up with a legit gameplan after I figure out the nuances.

So I will be asking newer questions here to figure things out, and hopefully shortcut the learning curve.

I get the feeling that you guys have some riff raff funneling in from "business opportunity" people on other channels.

Well, I'm not here to mess around. I'm quite aware that there are gaps. That's why I'm here, and that's why I'm testing the business and understand it first.

In short yes, I do intend to do this full time.

Edited October 4, 2022 by Dave101

[Dave101]

On 10/2/2022 at 4:00 PM, tc vending said:

My point is put the AP 113 in a 50 person type location and learn the business if you like it stay in if not get out. I am tired of answering questions constantly while working my machines from people who watched a tik tok video. These videos are almost always made by rookie vendors who are clueless. What I see is 90% of new vendors are failing right now because it is way harder than a tik tok video. Vending is hard and getting hard since Covid. Now inflation is a big problem. I advice people not to enter the vending business, but that my opinion with 17 years around this stuff.

Personally, I'm speaking from ignorance as someone without the baggage of operating in the vending industry. So I'm not burned out yet.

But I've heard that the vending business has grown even under Covid restrictions.

I actually don't see 90% of vendors failing as anything too big. Nothing outside of normal rate of business failures, albeit moreso with people who are new to the business without proper expectations set.

I guess this business is similar to real estate agents. No barrier to entry. So everyone including mom and pop can get one. But not everyone is going to do it full time, and treat it like a proper business. That's why you have 20% of successful agents and the 80% rest wash out.

[Dave101]

On 10/2/2022 at 8:08 PM, Southeast Treats said:

 

Thanks. This is helpful and answers directly my question on ADA. Although I assume this doesn't generally apply based on what everyone is saying.

[orsd]

The advice to start with good used machines like the AP 113 goes with the advice to start with smaller accounts.

AngryChris is mentioning new equipment because you mentioned large accounts.

But like he mentioned, going for a large account as a new vendor is a good way to fail. You want at least a couple smaller locations with older machines to learn the ropes and make sure the business is right for you before you jump in with both feet.

There’s a million little things that will not go right with your first account and first machine. Contacts will flake out, things won’t work as you think they will, things you haven’t even thought of. Better to learn and experience those things in a small mechanics location where the owners and employees are laid back and bullshitting with you as you work versus an A1 account where the Karen of a secretary is screaming at you and threatening to kick you.

[ABCVending]

The scourge of the Karens....they are everywhere.

Left a thumb print somehow on the inside of the glass on a snack at a tire shop (always clean the glass inside & out every service - no idea how I did that) - holy shnikeys....the alpha Karen at the account went ballistic - unplugged the machine, called her corporate office on what she should do - got 35 phone calls, texts, emails in the span of like 24 hrs - by the time we got back out there and windexed that print off the glass the whole place was in an uproar...sold that whole string of tire shops off...they aren't hardly worth the effort anyway.

Sweet spot for me has been accounts with 75-150 headcount or comparable number of foot traffic - anything bigger and Canteen gives you the boot anything smaller can usually find better options.

Did have one account for 10 yrs that had a 500 head count but they kept trying to do an onsite deli, then MM - left us alone while they experimented but that kept the big vendors away while we kept raking in the $$ because we undercut pricing on everything they were selling - finally sold that one off during the pandemic when the head count dropped from 500 to 50 (and it's never coming back - people like working from home).

 

 

 

[AngryChris]

12 minutes ago, ABCVending said:

The scourge of the Karens....they are everywhere.

Left a thumb print somehow on the inside of the glass on a snack at a tire shop (always clean the glass inside & out every service - no idea how I did that) - holy shnikeys....the alpha Karen at the account went ballistic - unplugged the machine, called her corporate office on what she should do - got 35 phone calls, texts, emails in the span of like 24 hrs - by the time we got back out there and windexed that print off the glass the whole place was in an uproar...sold that whole string of tire shops off...they aren't hardly worth the effort anyway.

Sweet spot for me has been accounts with 75-150 headcount or comparable number of foot traffic - anything bigger and Canteen gives you the boot anything smaller can usually find better options.

Did have one account for 10 yrs that had a 500 head count but they kept trying to do an onsite deli, then MM - left us alone while they experimented but that kept the big vendors away while we kept raking in the $$ because we undercut pricing on everything they were selling - finally sold that one off during the pandemic when the head count dropped from 500 to 50 (and it's never coming back - people like working from home).

 

 

 

Alpha Karen lol.

 

Let me guess, you put an AP 113 in that location with 500 people, right? Lol

[ABCVending]

5 minutes ago, AngryChris said:

Alpha Karen lol.

 

Let me guess, you put an AP 113 in that location with 500 people, right? Lol

Ha - we got away with 3 AP 6600 & 3 Vendo stackers for a couple of years - swapped out the snacks for AP Studio's with drop sensors and the Vendos eventually gave way to Bevmax's - but never did have to put in CC readers...strictly employees so PayRange worked for cashless in that account since there weren't randos hitting the machines.  Again, we got away with the old equipment for a while because they were focused on their repeated failures to get a deli going and the the micro market fiasco kept starting and stopping - they never could get a reliable vendor to run that (we weren't interested - we already knew that was too big a $$ risk with those guys, every 6 months a new manager would pop up that wanted to change everything)  Don't miss that account much.

 

[AngryChris]

Yeah new management is stressful.i had a location change management and he immediately kicked me out in favor of anither vendor.  Basically said I need to be out "by tomorrow" until I explained I can't possibly do that on such short notice.  Well I get a call only a couple years later asking for service and I promptly said no thanks.  Two vendors had given THEM the boot and they were demanding new equipment saying "well the other vendors said we don't do enough sales but that's because they won't give us new machines." We all know how that usually plays out.

[Southeast Treats]

11 hours ago, Dave101 said:

Thanks. This is helpful and answers directly my question on ADA. Although I assume this doesn't generally apply based on what everyone is saying.

ADA requirements are determined by the type of location.  A public facility for example.  And note that not all machines in a group might not need to be compliant, but at least one of each type (drink, snack, food) to provide access to covered individuals.  A private facility like a factory usually will not fall under the rules.  Also, note that it is the facility that has the responsibility of insuring compliance, but keeping your clients from having legal issues with your machines is good business.