Hello, I want to get started with a soda machine where I work

[Wheaton wash]

I'm trying to figure out how to convince my wife that we need to drop a couple grand on a vending machine, and make sure that I don't buy into a bad idea.

I have looked at the numbers and there are about 250 people that work at this site, and based on the shift rotations there are over 900 shifts worked every week.

Does anybody have any statistics on how what percent of employees put 5 bucks into a vending machine?

I want to make write up a business plan type document that I can use to convince my wife and also get the company to sign off on me putting in a machine then expanding to the rest of the locations on the site.

[Gizmo Vending]

Every location is different and difficult to determine who and how many/much.   Demographics will play a huge role but with 250 people per shift you will see a fast ROI.  The problem that I see is with that many people every vending company in town should already be beating on that company’s doors.  With those numbers I would go in with 1 or 2 Bevmax’s, a stacker or 2 and a couple of snack machines, and you just wanna do 1 beverage machine.   So your company says you can put a machine in there but what happens if an established vending operation gets to put in a micro mart?   Now you gotta move this couple grand investment and you’ll be on offer up and Craigslist trying to sale it on site for a few hundred dollars obo.   
Not saying you have a bad idea, but if you go down this road, you gotta take care of a place like this to keep it, which means snacks as well.   1 snack machine means sams club goodies with no ability for variety.    Any half decent salesman walks in there with your stand alone beverage machine can easily take that location from you.  As someone who works there, why do they not already have vending machines/micro marts already there?

[Wheaton wash]

Thank you for the reply.

I think that the main barrier keeping others out is the location, not only is it 45 miles from the nearest city limit, it's also a site that requires safety training to enter. I don't think that it would be profitable with the lower capacity machines that sell both drinks and snacks, and it would take a very large gamble to have shot at it being profitable. This is why I would try to create cash flow, then expand into all of the places throughout the site that can would make money. I fully intend to add snacks, very soon.  

The point of getting ran out by an established vendor is very valid, I have no intentions of exposing myself to a risk like that without at least some protection. I will have to see if I can get a contract, or at the minimum a memorandum from management that would give me the exclusive rights for a minimum amount of time.

[Ben100]

Try it before someone else does, and just see how it goes, plenty of decent re- furbed machines at a great price to save costs. Best of luck