Waverly's Vending World

[WillisNYC]

Yes I have a BJs and Sam's Club membership where I buy whatever I run short of during the week.  I used to buy all my chips and chocolate from them and a healthy amount of can soda.  Now I get most of my chips through VIstar but I still get a few chips and all my chocolate from Sam's.  I also still buy can soda from Sam's or local supermarkets because it is cheaper than ordering directly fom the bottlers.

[WillisNYC]

I got the go ahead for 6 more service station locations from my big station owner!  I had picked up two more from him in the past couple weeks and one of them is truly outstanding!  It did over $200 in both of its first two weeks!  I immediately ordered  another Snapple machine as soon as I got this location because I knew it was a great one.  It arrived this week and I managed to fill it on Thursday.  Today I am trying to chase down machines for the 6 new locations.  I have one machine I want to move and one in storage that I bought as part of the route purchase.  I may have to purchase 4 machines since Coke still has not approved me for locating new equipment.  I like Snapple machines for a 2nd machine on a location, but I am not crazy about putting them as the only machine!  These are all good problems to have.  That and my wife asking me if I will have enough time to service 6 MORE locations!  A year ago she  would have jumped up and down in excitement, now she asks if I can handle that many more!  If I get too busy (And it is gettng very close to that) then I can always sell some of my less desirable locations.  I am thinking about some that are furthest from my home base and or do low revenue numbers, although they do enough to be worth it to someone. 

[Beach Bum Vending]

yes  they are worth to someone.  That's how I started out.  Bought location with 2 machines.  snack and soda and made 3 low payments.  I about fainted when I pulled 120 first week for 10 minutes of work wow.  Love vending  dad was blown away.  My previous job that half my weeks wage.  I would sell as location.  and make it reasonable and people buy them.

[WillisNYC]

I am not seriously considering selling anything just yet!  Beginning to hit my stride as all the kinks in the route are getting worked out.  I am able to service the route in 2 12 hour days and 3 days that I work closer to 10 hours or less.  The times above include loading the van with product every night which adds at least an hour a day to the work time.  (2 hours after the heavy days.)  I have been able to respond to the service calls people place during my light days and no one has waited more than 24 hours to see my smiling (if weary) face.

As for the revenue, the new route is still coming in above forecast.  104% is well above the guarantee and if the economy ever picks up again, I expect to get that number to 125% or so.  That is the revenue number the route had back in 2007-8 before the recession hit.  Maybe if we get enough GOPers elected in November, business will gain enough confidence to spend and expand again.  If the Dems prevail, I hope the economy doesn't get any worse, but I won't hold my breath!    Either way I have enough margin to survive and thrive. 

The hot summer has made my outside service stations do great business and my original route is posting some great numbers in all these hot weeks.    My best service station owner got very greedy and demanded 35% commission or move my machines out.  He agreed to let me raise the prices to $1.75 and so far the revenue has only fallen to 75% pre price rise.    After doing the math, I make about the same amount per bottle as I did at the lower price, but I make less because of the volume drop.  However, this is far and away my best station and it consistently does $200-$250/ week from its two machines.  The owner also promised me another location to place outside soda machines as a 'sweetener' to take his poison pill commission rise.  I don't particularly like the situation, but I can accept it rather than the alternative.   

[WillisNYC]

During my many trips to various locales to buy vending supplies, I make it a point to talk to other guys who might be vendors to see what I might learn.  Early this spring, I saw a guy loading a box truck in the parking lot as Sam's Club and he had a Vending Name on the side of his truck.  I walked to the back of his truck and asked if I could see how he had it setup.  He was friendly and we struck up a conversation about vending.  He was in business about 6 years or so and had a route of 165 machines or so back then.

We stayed in touch, exchanging tips and we each made a major route purchase this year.  He got his from a friendship he developed with a large vendor in our area that only wants stops where his drivers can get $400 or more a week.  My friend found out that this large vendor wanted to unload 17 'small' stops that didn't fit his business model.  His asking price was so low that I nearly fell off my chair when he said he picked up the stops for $9000!!!  I was even more surprised when he asked me if I wanted a couple of them that were not in his service area.  I learned they were right next door to a couple of my stops and I said sure.  I agreed to pay my friend $100/week for 10 weeks for the two stops.

I went to the first stop today and it had a nearly new AP113 and a BevMax glass front in it.  The equipment alone at just this stop is worth $2k or more used!  The stop has 50 employees and had been neglected lately since nearly all the stock in the machines was dated.  Regardless, I am sure the stop is good for $50/ week if properly serviced and perhaps more!  Tomorrow I go to the other location which has two snack machines and two soda machines.  I just made my first really good 'steal' of a purchase!

My friend also gave me a lead to another location that is out of his area as well.  I called them yesterday and they called me back today.  This office location has 100 employees and wants a snack and soda machine.  I am meeting with them Thursday to see where to put the equipment and learn when I can get access, etc.    That will get a snack and soda unit out of my storage and into operation!  So despite making almost no effort at locating since I am VERY busy with the route, I still managed to pick up 3 locations with 8 machines this week for almost nothing!  I guess Uncles advice from his ebook about staying friendly with your competitors if you can is paying off for me now!

Now I just have to get Mr. Greedy to cough up the other service station location he owes me to round out the month in style and so I can move all the machines at once!  Two to the service station and two to the 100 man office.  If they are not open on the weekend, next week is gonna be jammed.....but gotta do it!

[NinnJinn]

Wow oh WOw!!!  Awesome job Willis!  Wish you all the best my friend!

[WillisNYC]

I made it to the 2nd location that I got super cheap this week and found out that it has FIVE machines, not four in a warehouse/office.  Two nearly new AP LCMs and three DN501s.  Two sell cans and one has 20oz.  This location also has about 75% dated food and soda which I threw out today.  Even with the dated food, the machines still had nearly $75 between them for the past week.  This number should easily improve as this location gets the attention it needs.  Regardless I have made out like a bandit here and thank my lucky stars for generous friends in this business.  Tomorrow I go see the office location that wants the snack and soda unit. 

Mr. Greedy may force me to pull my machines from his location.  He seems to have conveniently forgotten our deal that requires him to give me another location and NOT ask me to move my machines or raise the commission further.  He asked me to move my coke machine from the busy location and I had to restrain myself from reaching through the phone and stretching his testicles around his neck as he deserves!  If he continues to act this way, I may have to pull my machines from his location regardless.  I have a real problem with people who negotiate a tough deal and then forget its most important terms.  He is supposed to call me back by Friday and if he keeps this act up I may forget how much commission I am supposed to pay him.

[NinnJinn]

FIRST, Kick the testicles a time or two,  THEN, wrap them around the golpher's neck!!!

[mission vending]

How about putting it down on paper so that way it will be impossible to conveniently forget?

It seems like its needed in dealing with this character.

[WillisNYC]

The original agreement  was on paper and this guy has already reneged on that.  He basically said he wanted a higher percentage or else I could remove my machines.  We went back and forth for a little and settled on a higher percentage and he was going to get me the new location.  He got his higher percentage and when I called for the new location, he asked me to move my Coke machine.  I said no can do as it is the better money maker of the two by far.  Besides I steamed, (barely controlling my anger) you said we were done 'renegotiating'!  We were both quite clear about what was 'renegotiated' in our face to face meeting.  He just epitomizes the stereotypical 'Indian' service station owner, which is a shame since my big station owner is also Indian and acts quite professional.  This guy is just amazing in his shameless pushing for more, more, more every time I deal with him!

[mxer518]

I could go on for days about this, I operate tire inflation air machines at a few hundred gas stations and let me tell you the stereotype is just as you suspect. These people always want more money and newer equipment, the only advice I can give anybody is that you can not be scared to tell them NO and walk out the door. Most of the time with doing this they will come crying back when every other vendor in the area also tells them no and that they are out of their mind. I used to make mistakes like this and think it would be great to have a new location but at what cost is it worth their business...

[WillisNYC]

I was able to secure the location that was referred to me and I have a feeling that the original referrer 'messed up'.  The location I went to was one the local power companies 'offices' that has equipment for service and an office staff of about 75 people.  They also frequently host meetings there for training for the region, so the place averages about 150 people a day.  A put a 5 wide snack and big 12 column coke machine in their break room last Wednesday and I will be back for the first service next week.  I hope to be pleasantly surprised since this 'office' seems full of blue collar types that are there for the trainings and meetings.  The janitor told me that many years ago they had as many as 4 or 6 machines at this location.  However that dwindled to two and then none as the power company started providing free food for all the meetings.  With the cutbacks due to the economy, the food stopped sometime this year and the guys have been clamoring for machines ever since.  I think I may have stumbled onto a fairly good account. 

The other two new accounts are doing average business of about $50/week per machine.  So I am picking up a roughly $175 profit/week at these two locations and paying out $100/week for 10 weeks and then all the gravy is mine!    My buddy really did me right to give me these two accounts and the referral so cheap.    The original referrer (he referred the lead to my buddy who gave it to me) thought that the location only hosted meetings some weeks and had a minimal staff!  Now this may not be a $400/week location like he wants, but I am betting on somewhere in the vicinity of $200 with two machines and the possibility that I may want to add a couple more if they are getting hit any harder than $200/week.  The guy is stepping over lots of quarters to try to get the occasional dollar bill if you ask me!  Beats me why, but his loss is my gain.

The purchased route income is still coming in just a little over projection.  I have it at 4% over for the first 17 weeks of operation.    This week was the best collection week so far with the school coming back online and I think that the 4% number will now nudge up toward 7% over the next quarter or so.  If we throw out a whole lot of Democrats come November, maybe the economy will perk up and my numbers can go up toward 20% over projections like the previous owner told me they were in 2008!  GO TEA PARTY!

With the addition of the two new stops, my 'own' route or everything separate from the purchased route, also set a new record in collections this week.  Not by a lot, but high enough that I will be very pleased if we can hold at this level or close to it until the cold weather starts to kill the outside service station side of my business.  On average, the service station business was down a lot from its highs as those stations are tracking with the weather like a metronome!  When temps go up, so do my sales at these stations and unfortunately, they go down with the thermometer too.  However my 'indoor' locations were up a bit this past week and with the addition of 7 new machines, that pushed my collection to its new high.  With just a little good luck, the newest addition should allow me to get next weeks numbers to a new high again!    The previous high weeks were the 4th of July weekend for the outside service stations and the last week of school two weeks prior to that for the purchased route. 

Mr. Greedy has settled down for now and stopped asking for anything more.  Regardless, NO is my standard answer to anything he says going forward until he asks me if I want to place a couple more machines for him.  Until I hear that, I will be pulling out if he makes any more demands.  I would hate to lose this spot, but I can't give him anything more at this location!   

[WillisNYC]

Got a call from the new power company location on Monday saying that 'I think our soda machine is sold out?'  I managed to get by there late Tuesday and found that two selections in the machine had been sold out, not the whole machine!  Still a good problem to have since in the very first six day week, I collected $125 from the two machines.  I am pleased with this number and hope/think it will get better.  A blue collar type office facility should do better than this IMHO.  We shall see.

A different call on Monday was a little more disturbing.  One of my best accounts called and said I had a mother golpher mouse in my machine!  The little bastard was crawling around the cakes where everyone could see.  I got over there Monday to clean and put glue boards and poison in the bottom of the machine for the little bastard.  Of course I saw no beady little eyes anywhere in the machine, just a few droppings!  golpher.  Didn''t realize that this job involved pest control duties as well!  I golpher hate mice and hope the little bastard dies a miserable death pulling himself apart on my glue boards

[mission vending]

Its easier to keep em out of the machine in the first place. 10 bucks says he is climbing up the power cord. Got to get those holes sealed up or the little bugger is going to start bringing the wife and kids for the all you can eat buffet. LOL.

[NinnJinn]

all they have to do is find a hole big enough for their head, and the rest is gravy.

[WillisNYC]

Well I found Daddy mouse stuck on my glueboard today when I serviced the machine.  I tactfully removed him under the cover of a box that I had just emptied of sodas.  I also checked the machine for more mouse droppings and found none!  Hopefully it was just Dad and not the whole family.  Also, he must have been caught for a couple days cause he didn't even squeak when I moved him and I know they cry up a storm when first caught .  Maybe it was also due to his mouth being caught in the glue too!  Don't know, don't care, the little bastid got what he deserved and I am filling the hole around the power cord to keep his relatives out!

[coinvestor]

Make sure you plug the hole with something mouse proof. Stuffing steal wool in the hole does a good job.

JD

[WillisNYC]

Someone asked in another column why the full line vendors tend to stop posting in their revenue columns after some period of time.   Well, in my case, I am just very busy running the business and find little time left to peruse the forums here or to post here.  I will continue to periodically post here and update my numbers, just not as often as I was.   Today is my first weekday 'off' since I bought the 85 machine route back in May of 2010.  This past weekend marks the 26 week '1/2 year anniversary' of my purchase.

I must say that I am still very pleased with my purchase of the route.  First off, the revenue is running slightly ahead of the projection and well ahead of the 'guarantee'.   Revenue is at 104% of projection or last years recorded revenue as provided by the previous owner.  I have been very fortunate to find a good/honest previous owner who has been a pleasure to work with over the last six months.  They have been very cooperative in discussing problems and sharing tips about how they dealt with them in their 17 years in the business.  They sound happy with my purchase and have discussed selling addiitonal assets to me in the future.   The son who remains in the business expressed amazement at my ability to avoid many of the pitfalls that plague newcomers to this business.  I feel that much of that  luck at avoiding pitfalls was due to my early exposure to these forums and learning from the mistakes and helpful advice ot the many great members.  On this Thanksgiving day I am very grateful to them and wish to say 'THANK YOU' to all those who have helped me to build my business with their kind help and advice.    I doubt if I would be doing as well as I am without all the great advice and tips I have received here.

As for the route, the 'summer soda rush' is definitely over with soda revenue falling across the board as expected.    However school is back in session and the revenue there makes up for the 'lost' revenue from the lower soda sales keeping my route 'balanced' throughout the year.  This makes managing the cash flow from the business much easier.   My 'own' route that I keep records for separately from the purchase experiences just the opposite in revenue flows.   My summertime high is twice as high as my average take over the last month and I expect that trend to continue throughout the winter since my 'own' route has many outside service stations with big revenue swings due to the season.  

I continue to add additional service as I have received two recent calls from referrals from my current route.  I am providing a soda machine to the owner of a recording studio.  He saw my machine at the pest control office and called me from the information listed there.   The owner of a service station called me to place a snack machine at his busy outside service station where he has four soda coolers.  I met him while servicing an account that I have inside a local hotel.  (Small office rented in a big hotel.)  He asked me if I serviced the machines for the hotel.  I replied that I did not, but would be happy to if they were unhappy with their current service.  I also gave him my card of course.    Nearly a month later he called me about the service station.     Both additions are small but all these small accounts add up to a prosperous business!  

I continue to maintain frequent contact with a couple small vendors in my area.  The vendor who's route is twice as large as mine continues to work closely with me on some issues.   I order some products for him that he cannot get from his suppliers and gives me advice on how to fix problems with my machines.   This is the same fellow that sold the two locations cheap to me earlier this year.   He also gave me a can machine that he could not store and he helped me to move it into my storage shed!   I expect that we will continue to work closely together in the future.  The back and forth trade of equipment and advice is mutually beneficial, especially to myself at the moment.!    I was able to service one of his accounts that he could not get to in a timely fashion this week as well.   It turned out to be located within blocks of my home/office and showed a remarkable level of trust that he would give me the keys to the machines and the location information as well.  It is a small acount, so it does not show a great deal of trust, but it certainly shows a level of comfort that I do not have with anybody including this business pal.  

By servicing his acount I learned that he does not practice as well as he preaches!   He told me that this was a slow account that he only services every three weeks and was not due for service for another 10 days or so.  The soda machine had a bill stuck in the dba that the location called about.   I found the bill stuck in the dba and fixed the problem.   The snack machine had 5 out of 10 rows of chips with expired chips in them!   Two other rows were empty in the chip rows.  The cake row was wiped out except for two 'old' looking Big Texas buns with no dates.    The candy rows were full of candies rather than chocolate which is cheaper I think, but I doubt they sell much.    

I have a couple accounts that only get serviced every three weeks and I do not fill the chip rows in those accounts.  I stack them only 5 deep or so and rotate the product frequently so that I don't get stales.   My friend had filled the rows and he had 4 rows with half stale chips.  These 20 'stales' from this one account represented 4 times more stales than I have pulled from all my machines for the whole week!   It was obvious that this was a low volume account, but I would prefer to have a couple rows go empty than be pulling stales from such an account.  I think my friend is really just so busy that he does not have the time to waste worrying about such a low volume account and properly service it.  He says he has many low volume accounts but I suspect that my attention to detail on my own small accounts saves me a lot of money that he simply dismisses as 'wastage.'      I also take the time to date my cakes so that I know when to rotate those to faster moving accounts and rarely have much wastage among those items as well.  

My personality is not well suited to the attention to detail that managing small accounts requires, however I seem to be doing a better job of it than my competition is doing.  Thus I am heartened that my attention to detail is probably well placed and strengthening my bottom line.  I am going to tactfully question my friend about how many stales he pulls from his machines in a week to see if he has many more machines like the one he asked me to service.   Knowing how he runs his business in general, I doubt that he even knows or keeps track of how much wastage he experiences.   I just know that I would be very angry if I found even one machine on my route that forced me to pull out 20 stales in a  single service.  I am not happy if I am pulling 5 stales from a single machine and make it my goal to not be pulling any by watching dates and rotating product to faster selling locations whenever possible!   I still get stales, but mostly from cakes with short shelf lives, not from many of my chips!

PS- Mouse problem solved with steal wool and tape after examining the machines exterior for holes! (There were two and I filled both, one with the power cord and one that was 'just' a hole.)

[mission vending]

Sounds like things are going really well for you. Congratulations on your growth and success this past year, its been great watching from afar.

Sounds like you have a found a good buddy in the vending business, take good care of that relationship, you are already finding that it is worthwhile to make that effort. A word of advice, if/when you get approached by one of his locations to take over the vending you will need to be careful handling it to maintain your friendship. With my local buddies we have come to a verbal agreement on how to handle this type of situation. What we do is this, if I solicit or get a call from a location that I find belongs to a friend I will let him know that I have been asked for a proposal from XYZ. I will tell the folks from XYZ that buddy is a good friend and that he generally does a good job and ask if they have addressed their concerns with him? Usually its no they have not. I encourage them to do so and that I will be back in a couple of days with a proposal for their consideration. He gets a chance to save it and if he doesn't want to or can't then I get a shot at it. Its open and honest and nobody can make a legitimate claim that you are sneaking around trying to steal his accounts.

If he does save the location then, yes, I miss an opportunity to add a location but my friendships in this business are just as important to me as adding new locations.

[NinnJinn]

Thanks for the update!  Glad to hear that everything is still going well for you!

[VEND_MASTER]

Where do you buy coke machines from?

[WillisNYC]

Where do you buy coke machines from?

I started off buying soda machines from craigslist. Many of the local 'dealers' in used machines post there in my area. Many of them also move machines and/or referred me to others that do. Now, I usually start by calling the dealers I know or I peruse craigslist to see if I can find a better deal than what they are offering.

[WillisNYC]

Well this week marks the one year anniversary of my large route purchase. I hoped that I could improve on the revenue of the previous owner with better management, etc. but alas I was wrong. The revenue ended up within 1% of last years number. Not sure if the economy has much to do with it, NJ unemployment is still at 9.3%, not much different from when I bought the route. I also 'lost' my first location to a large national vendor when my local nursing home's national owner struck a deal with the national vendor. I was offered the chance to 'continue serving' the account, but would have to pay a hefty 15% fee to the 'national vendor'. Considering that the account was a very slow $25/week snack and soda stop I informed the national vendor that they could have this crappy stop. I also knew that I could move the equipment to upgrade my combo stop that continues to grow! So I called my mover and had the equipment out of the 'lousy' account in three days. Of course I was offended and pissed off, but I tried to make the best of the situation.

Two of my farthest from home base stops are also threatened. One of my car dealers was bought out and the new guy is threatening to 'bring in his own vendor'. If he does, I won't be heartbroken since I can save on travel, gas and stales in that lousy account. It brings in about $75 every two weeks from 2 soda and snack. For months I have contemplated moving two of the machines from that location. The next furthest location out has three machines and the company has cut back from 300 to about 75 people over the last year. Sales have plummeted here and I was told that when they move to a new, smaller facility in September that my services won't be needed. Understood and I am looking for a new home for these guys as well.

Now that my complaining is out of my system I can talk about my new purchase. I am buying a small route for an unbelievably low price. Nothing down, I only pay for product and coinage to start and then I pay the purchase off in one year with the revenue from the route. Can't beat that with a stick. Probably have to hire someone to 'ride along and hump sodas' at least for the summer rush and til the new route is incorporated. I must say that it pays to have friends in this business. My buddy who I swap product with introduced me to a large vendor who was interested in unloading 'smaller' stops. My buddy had purchased from him last year very cheap and had done very well with the purchase. My buddy and I now have breakfast every Saturday in between making purchases at Sam's and our local soda warehouse that opens later in the day. We trade tips and gossip to keep ourselves motivated for the week to come.

I picked up a new hotel snack account about a month ago. They are now talking about me taking over the sodas there as well. They own 5 other hotels and we are discussing a deal to do all the vending in them on top of the initial hotel. If I get this deal done, then I have new homes for all that equipment I have forecasted to come in and then some.

Physically I am damn near exhausted the last couple weeks from all the extra meetings in addition to just maintaining the route. The summer is gonna be killer just as soon as the heat starts. Next week it is forecasted to be above 80 degrees for the whole week for the first time this year in Jersey. With all the new accounts I have coming on board as well as the 'rider' to hump sodas for me, it will be a challenge to manage it all. However, I have no doubts about being able to scale things up. I have not seen anything but growth for Waverlys for the past two years and this year is just a continuation. Rider this year, next year I will have to get a truck and independent driver. If the economy ever comes back I will be sitting pretty on a ton of stops that will only generate more revenue as people get more jingle in their pockets.

I am sure I will have even less time to post in the next few months. Good luck to all here and don't listen to the doubters out there. There are great deals to be had, especially in this economy. Keep pounding the pavement and good things will happen. They are certainly are happening to me and could be happening to you too if you knock on enough doors and make enough calls. Peace out and vote Herman Cain in 2012!

[mission vending]

It`s good to hear you are doing well. Your story is so much like mine that`s its almost like living it all over again. I know its hard at this point but beware the burnout monster, be sure to pick at least part of a weekend and a couple of evenings for family and don`t do anything business related.... no matter what.

Sounds like you`ve got a good friend to help you there. If it hasn`t come up yet I suspect it will..... going into a partnership with your buddy, it just seems that it would naturally come up. That`s how I wound up with a partner and with disasterous results. If it does, I would hope that you would not go this route.

[WillisNYC]

It`s good to hear you are doing well. Your story is so much like mine that`s its almost like living it all over again. I know its hard at this point but beware the burnout monster, be sure to pick at least part of a weekend and a couple of evenings for family and don`t do anything business related.... no matter what.

Sounds like you`ve got a good friend to help you there. If it hasn`t come up yet I suspect it will..... going into a partnership with your buddy, it just seems that it would naturally come up. That`s how I wound up with a partner and with disasterous results. If it does, I would hope that you would not go this route.

Yes of course the partnership discussion has come up and been dismissed for now. We share product and services as we can but have put off any talk of partnership. Too many issues to work out before we take that step, if we take it.

As for burnout, definitely a problem. I have at least another year of hard work before I can slow down a bit and get some real 'downtime'. I still have time on the weekends to spend with my family and every evening with my daughter. We also took a couple day trips over the winter when things were slow. When I get big enough that my wife can 'quit' or cut down on her work, then everything will be easier. I think I will be there in a year.