First machine placed, two days in, so far so good.

[ECS Vending]

Hi All,

These forums have been a big help to me in the past few weeks and figured I should actually post something and introduce myself. I'm in a small-medium sized town in Nevada and just placed a snack machine in a local dance studio that sees a lot of traffic between the kids and the parents that come through. This location came pretty easy to me because my wife works there and they had no vending machines at all and there is no gas station or anything like it within walking distance. I know my next locations probably won't come so easy so I count myself lucky with this one. The first half of a day that I was up and running saw 10 sales and had 15 yesterday so I'm hoping it will be a pretty solid location. It will slow down in the summer because they have less classes but I think I can make up for it during the school year. 

I purchased a used Wittern 3508 5 wide snack machine. I know they aren't really considered a top tier machine from what I've read, but I know the history of the machine from when it was new, so I was comfortable buying it. It was owned by my former employer and was in a back room that hardly saw any traffic, so I would be surprised if it has had 500 snacks put through it. I put a Nayax VPOS Touch on it and it seems to be working well for it's basic purpose of running credit cards. It looks like there is a lot to learn on the backend Nayax core software. I know Inventory management software isn't a real necessity with a single machine, but I want to learn it for when I grow. I have a full time job but I get 2 weeks off every month and have a lot of flexibility even when I am working. If I can keep it streamlined, I'm hoping to eventually build it up to around 10 machines but still keep my fulltime job? Maybe some others with more experience can weigh in on my plan, do you think operating 10 machines is still doable with a full time job that is pretty flexible?  

Thanks to everybody on this forum who has taken the time to post, especially to help us newbies out, there is a wealth of knowledge on here!

[Gizmo Vending]

Anything is possible and you are the only one that can figure out if you can do a full time job, part time vending and family responsibilities.   What you did not mention is a drink machine.   And you’re in Nevada.  

[ECS Vending]

Yep that's a fair point, ultimately I will have to be the one to decide if it will work, just wanted to see if there was anybody else doing something similar or if I'm living in a fantasy world 😃 And yes a drink machine in the desert would make a lot of sense. The location was a little hesitant about a drink machine with the possibility a kid dumping a whole bottle of Coke onto an expensive trampoline or tumble track or even worse into the foam pit. Some stray snacks are not nearly as big of a problem, so we will see, maybe they will come around to the idea but hard to say?

[AZVendor]

Drinks are a necessity to make up for what you might lose on snacks only.  The studio should not be allowing any drinks into the performing area except water bottles so that should solve their fears, unless they don't have rules.  I ran up to 40 machines before I quit my full time job but that was as a retail manager and I worked a weekend day to get a workday off so I could service my 8-5 locations.  If you can't work that then you'll be limited to what you can service at night and on weekends and that would be a slower start to the business.

[ECS Vending]

I do think I will pursue a drink machine with them, and yes they don't allow food or drink in the gym/studio area. On the weekends they open it up to birthday parties etc. and I think that is when they are worried about a mess getting made by a stray kid when nobody is watching, but ultimately they will just have to decide. My drink machine would have to be outside, the lobby doesn't have room for an additional machine. I will have to get a drink machine with a heater, our winters can get pretty cold in the high desert. Any suggestions on what I should look for on the used market, it would be preferable to have the capability of vending the larger sports drink bottles like Gatorade and Body Armor etc. along with a few sodas? I'm not terribly worried about vandalism in the area it's at, but I know It just takes one schmuck with a crow bar and a drill to ruin your day. 

And wow, 40 machines while still working full time! You must have had a pretty streamlined operation, that's impressive and gives me hope that I could manage 10.

Thanks for your reply and advice.

 

[AZVendor]

I wouldn't put any machine outside unless it's a junker that you don't mind when it's damaged.

[ECS Vending]

So I get get the impression you are saying the Vandalism and or weather damage isn't an if, but more of a when? ☹️ Got it

[AZVendor]

Vandalism.  If you insist on putting one outside you'll need a couple of hockey puck locks on the side, maybe a T-handle lock on it as well.  Or get a Vendo V-Max with a Robodoor on it.  And then they can still reach in on some machines from the rear of the cabinet and steal the coin box - mostly on Vendos.  Then there is the chance that someone will squirt saltwater into the coin chute or the bill acceptor in an attempt to short out the electronics and get a free soda. On Dixie Narco machines with Magnum doors (push buttons down the door) they can punch in the top select button and reach in with a tool and press the plunger on the lock cylinder to pop the T-handle out.  

[ECS Vending]

You have convinced me that it wouldn't be worth the hassle, I appreciate the info. Maybe I would need to look into a large combo, but I'm afraid I would be restocking it constantly. Just the snack machine has been doing 30-50 sales a day the last few days. Some of that is surely just the novelty of a new machine but I expect it will stay pretty busy. Their lobby is ridiculously undersized for the amount of students they have, so adding a second machine just won't be an option. 

[AZVendor]

When I first got into vending myself I had a dance studio that I put a small Choice Vend 106 that I had to fill every three days or so.  You would do fine with a 4 or 5 wide can combo machine from National or AP.  That machine would probably not sell out of snacks as folks will spread their money around the machine.  You just wouldn't be able to do a card reader on it though it's possible with the AP which is an LCM but you would need an MDB harness and a later eprom.  An AP Studio combo would be MDB, if you can find one and if you do a National combo it would need to be a later one as well.

[ECS Vending]

That's good info, I appreciate it, I will take a look at those machines. CC reader is a must at this place, so far I would say 1/3 of my sales are CC. A lot of the older kids use their phone for tap to pay.