Looking to start a vending business for wife

[atracy]

Hey everyone, excited to join these forums and learn from everyone about vending.  I work a 50-60hr/week W2 and have out of state rental properties that keep me super busy.  My wife has been a stay at home Mom and we're now looking for a business for her to work 4-5hrs a day while also still taking care of the kids in the morning and evenings and vending seems like a good choice.  Hoping to be able to pull in roughly $50k a year net (before income taxes) with maybe 10 high end brand new machines/locations.  Hopefully that's do-able.

[AZVendor]

In my best George Bush voice, "Ain't gonna happen."  Pie in the sky idea and new machines are the quickest way to fail.  I can already tell that you don't have the time to put into this and I'm sure she will not put the time into it so look for something else.  This is a labor intensive business to get into and to stay in.

[QuickVends]

On 8/23/2023 at 3:48 PM, AZVendor said:

In my best George Bush voice, "Ain't gonna happen."  Pie in the sky idea and new machines are the quickest way to fail.  I can already tell that you don't have the time to put into this and I'm sure she will not put the time into it so look for something else.  This is a labor intensive business to get into and to stay in.

Aside from time commitments.  What is your advice for the best 5 or 10 machines to have and deploy? 

You seem against Newer machines, I'm guessing because they are costly and unproven. 

 

Older machines are great as they are proven to work generally and are cheaper to aquire, however sometimes they require a bit of touch ups. 

Paint, decals, keys, locks, lights, racking, refrigeration, bill validators, card machines, etc. 

I've found many new machines that are $5K+ and don't even include the payment systems. 

Older ones tend to have mainly coins or sometimes bills, rarely cards. They cost $2K+ 

 

I'm just curious what your approach would be today if you were starting fresh. 

 

I feel you can't make anything in today's economy unless you charge minimum $2. 

I honestly don't beleive the $0.25 cent guys are surviving. Even $1 is difficult now. 

$2 is just barley profitable. 

Thank You 

[AZVendor]

New machines are just too costly.  Good used machines from AMS (Sensit 2 or 3), AP 7600, 113 or 123 snacks, Dixie Narco 501E, Vendo V21 will do you well.  That's if I was looking for what I know is good.  I can make any older machine work but there are limits to what I would buy age-wise.  The best thing is to post photos of what you're looking at so we can advise. 

[QuickVends]

Aside from avoiding newer due to cost, and aside from your recommended list. Is there anything you'd absolutely avoid? 

 

I've been looking at some cheap options and seen almost everyone is trying to get rid of their Pringles vending machines. 

They are manual and take $2 one toonie.

I think the margins are difficult as there aren't any cheaper suppliers than local wholesale clubs and they was $1/can after taxes etc it barely leaves 50cents profit. 

I was considering getting empty plastic cans (same size) and filling them with different things that have better margins. I haven't been able to find a good source for these containers though. 

 

In your opinion what would be a fair Canadian price for some of the machines you've mentioned? 

Thank You 

[AZVendor]

Pringles machines?  Geez, those were tried in the 90s here in the states.  Anything like that is a dumb machine so if you aren't finding real vending machines from the manufacturers I mentioned then you have nothing to buy there.  Stick with the manufacturers and models I mentioned even if you have to have them shipped to you.  Are you not in a major metro area?  

[QuickVends]

3 minutes ago, AZVendor said:

Pringles machines?  Geez, those were tried in the 90s here in the states.  Anything like that is a dumb machine so if you aren't finding real vending machines from the manufacturers I mentioned then you have nothing to buy there.  Stick with the manufacturers and models I mentioned even if you have to have them shipped to you.  Are you not in a major metro area?  

😄 🤣 as they say, whatever the U.S has today, Canada will have in 10+ Years. 

It seems Canada is just now on the way out with the Pringles machines. 

You can get them used for $50. 

6 for $300 seems easier than $300/One older electronic machine. 

I've also got some old turnstile snack and pop machines. All are set to $1 I'd likely need to replace all of their coin mechs to take at least $2+ for the cost it's likely easier to just pool the money and get a $2000+ machine (from your list) and grow from there.

It almost seems like vending as a whole is crumbling here, use to see machines everywhere and now it's like seeing a payphone. Very few are around today.

Mainly just at hospitals and airports. 

Malls if they have any are just a pop machine. 

Is vending still going well in the USA?

 

I'm unsure if we just have less operators or if sites refuse them or if they want way too much commission. 

Do you find it common to get sites that don't want commission? I noticed in another post you'd mentioned anything over 10% is just not feasible basically. 

 

Thank You 

[AZVendor]

You need to dump all of your mechanical machines as those are just ripoff machines sold at Bluesky business opportunity shows to steal money from folks.  You are finding the limitations of them.  Weed them out for real machines that use real coin mechanisms.  Otherwise you'll be stuck with a bunch of crappy accounts for the rest of your life.  

Vending here is going downhill but it's because of Micro Markets and the loss of too many midsize locations.  There is a glut of used machines on the market here because of that.

[QuickVends]

Like Amazon Go? 

Self Checkout Cafeterias? 

 

Are micro markets something vendors handle or is it typically handled by the location itself. 

Are you invested into any micro markets? 

Lately the big vending craze I've seen is Pro Active store sized vending machine. 

Pizza Vending Machines. 

 

Japan seems to have a lot of neat machines there. There isn't much you can't get from a machine there. 

 

I like your advice to avoid mechanical and ill ensure to do that moving forward. 

Thank You 

[AZVendor]

Micro markets are similar self check out cafeterias.  You invest in the display equipment and the checkout kiosk and pay all the fees to manage it all.  I never got into them but they are more profitable than vending because you have flexibility in pricing down to pennies.  Stay away from any fads, new or old.  You obviously don't have any experience in professional vending yet so you are still getting wide eyed about new-fangled ideas.  They never work so just ignore them.  Japan is a different market and we will never be like them.

[QuickVends]

Good advise. Stick to the true and reliable. People always need to eat and drink. I've actually seen vending machines with credit/debit that have a tip option. That made me laugh. 

Tipping has gotten insane here. Sub shops, pizza shops, almost everywhere that has a debit/credit terminal now asks for tips. Most start at 15% too. 

Don't get me wrong, I respect vending machines and the operator's, it's just never occurred to me that a tip should be given as it just seems odd. If I "wanted" tips I'd just factor it into the price of the product haha I find many do that and ask for tips on top of the factored in tips. 

 

I think the only benefit to mechanical machines is that they only can take cash and therefore it's "untraceable money" except you would likely make substantially less as most people don't carry change anymore. So you'd be better off just taking debit/credit.

Definitely not a vending machine professional. I've always loved machines though, there's just something about the magic of putting money in and being granted access to the goods inside. I find debit/credit loses the magic a bit. Seems too transactional and less fun.

 

Always nice hearing the bill machines or the change getting dropped and returned. 

 

I likely sound crazy, just always enjoyed the art of it. I'd hope you find enjoyment in them too some way, although with your decades of experience it might get more tedious and frustrating than joyful. I hope you've enjoyed your time with machines though and are able to reflect on the joyous moments more than the worrisome moments any business owner has.

 

Trends/fads aren't longterm strategies certainly, I've noticed on here a section for Honor Boxes and that's even worse than mechanical haha seems too grifty for me. No offense to the people who have found success with them, no magic in it for me though. 

 

Did you ever get into any trends/fads early on and if so, what were they? Do you absolutely regret it or was it somewhat fun until it ultimately failed? 

 

Thank You again for your insights. 

[AZVendor]

I started with 5 can soda machines and grew from there.  I was skeptical of all fads and I was way deep into real machines before the mechanical plastic crap came out, so I avoided them like the plague.  It came back to me though as people needed them repaired.  I stayed in touch with the industry through vending magazines and I still subscribe to Automatic Merchandiser.  I've never seen tips on card readers, just on retail counter debit card machines.