What is your highest grossing location/machine?

[Cokedealer]

I heard of someone doing 700 in profit a week on a combo machine. I find this hard to believe. 

I think it would be helpful to everyone if we discussed what it means for a machine to be doing "well" vs poorly in order to optimize locations and priority.

Also maybe include if any expenses you pay such as rent or fees.

[Fermo Vending]

My best location grossed 2k last month. Four machines on location- two snack two drink, no commission paid. The rest of my locations gross 500-700 each a month, two machines per location. 20% commission paid at one. A friend that taught me about the biz before I got in told me locations should gross $100 a week to be considered decent. Not sure if others on here will agree, but curious to see. 

Convenience of service is also a big factor to me because I still have a 9-5. So even though I pay 20% commission on net at the one location, it's a 7 min drive from where I live. 

[Cokedealer]

Interesting, thanks for the insight 

[AngryChris]

I have an apartment building that does $500+/week.  A factory that does more than that.  One of my favorites is actually a commission location.  They actually have another vendor in their facility and we only do the can machines but pay them 10%.  It does at least $200/week from 2 machines.  We go every other week and it takes maybe 30 minutes due to the walking distance but it's actually really easy money.

I have maybe 6 locations that do 20% of company revenue collectively.  Our average location does about $150 per week which is actually lower than I would like but it all adds up.

[AZVendor]

For soda machines, 5 cases per week is a good location.  For snacks I always based it on how many milk crates of snacks I needed to take in to refill.  Three milk crates was good.  This rule of thumb can be applied to however often you wish to service a location.  The better the location, the more likely you will need a fold down Gemini cart to haul it all in, or a standard two wheel hand truck to make two trips in.  A good goal is to sell through 60% of your product with only 1 sold out soda or 3 sold out snacks each time you service. Double up good sellers to lengthen the service intervals.  That's why Coke machines have two columns tied to the first selection button, and have for the last 40 years.

[Cokedealer]

Fascinating thank you!

[CapitalCityVendingLLC]

As you said, it's different for everyone.  $100 revenue per week is definitely a good rule of thumb for a "good account".  Really, $100/week/machine imo.  If you have 3 machines in an account, it needs to have revenue of $300/week to be a "good account".  Anything under that mark doesn't deserve a commission, with some rare exceptions.  If a machine does $50/week, that is more than ok in my opinion.  We have plenty of accounts in that range.  It all depends though.  Is it a snack or drink machine?  How much did the machine cost you?  Is this a $5,000 new machine that you still owe $ on, or did you buy it 10 years ago for $500?  

Our best location does about $600/week, with 4 snack machines on location.  Service it about every 12-15 days.  It fluctuates, as it is kind of seasonal.  Our worst account/machine is in the $500-$750 range.  We have a handful of accounts like that.  Mostly school teacher lounges, where we just have the snack machine.  We barely fill them in the summer as it's a ghost town mostly.

A machine is doing poor if it's under $100/month imo.  But depending on your situation, you shouldn't just go rush to pick up a slow machine.  Except drink machines.  Go pick up a slow drink machine tomorrow.

A lot of factors need to be accounted for as others have discussed.  We have machines that do about $50-$75 a month.  Teacher lounges mostly.  We set them up so we only have to service them every 1.5-2.5 months.  Are they game changers?  No.  But we kind of treat them as free storage haha.  As we joke, it's doing more in there than it would sitting in my garage.  You don't need to have these accounts be the basis of your company, but they aren't the worst in the world.  The machines aren't fancy, and they were paid for 15+ years ago.  We still profit $50+ on each visit (before expenses I guess) so it's worth our while in our view.  None of them are too far from our regular route.  If we decide to downsize or need a machine for a better account, we can go pick a slow machine up at any time.  And again, this only works with snack machines, as the upkeep over time is far far lower than a drink machine.

If you are swamped and don't have time to work slow or poor accounts, then it might be different for you.  But having a handful of slower accounts around town actually work well for us.  Even helps when we are scheduling our day.  If we need to fill an hour of the day for timing purposes, I can dip into one of my slow accounts that I haven't been to in weeks and collect some $$.

Also, what AZVendor said is I think the most important thing.  The perfect vendor is the most efficient vendor.  If you can go to a machine that looks full, but is close to being empty, that's perfect.  Double or triple up on best sellers.  Make sure your augers are optimal so you are putting as much product in the machine as you can. 

Other than COGS and other expenses, the most important stat we keep track is $/machine/visit.  How much do we collect each time we service a machine.  There might be some people out there not looking at that stat at all.  The higher you can crank that number, the better off you'll be.  I first started tracking that stat in 2011 and it was $92.  This year we are at $173.  So I'm collecting $173 each time I visit/work a machine.  If you are going to an account too often, you are wasting gas, having to fix your vehicle too often, making less $/hour, etc.

Long winded, but I hope all this helps.