hello

[gundog]

New to the business. My ? is how hard is it to find locations for soda/snack/candy machines- I will mostly be traveling the area and "knocking on doors."

Logic would reason that the higher grossing locations are few and far between.

So, in your experience how hard to come by are $100/month gross (combination machines)locations? How about $200/month??

Also, what is the minimum sales to be worth your time to keep a combo machine at a location?

thanks

[mxer518]

Hey welcome to the forum and as a full line vendor we need a bunch more full line operators here. To answer your question it all depends on your business plan, I have some very low performing locations but since they are great people and truly appreciate me being in their business I do not pull the machines. This is the way that I run my business because I believe it is a service business and without great service there is no business to be had. Also some of the dog locations can turn out to be great sources for leads and even if they make you no money they can possible bring in some great accounts down the road. It is my no stretch to expect a combo machine to do 100.00 - 200.00 per month as you pointed out, that is about the average but by no means the top, since I operate some that are doing well over 450-500 per month.

[WillisNYC]

Welcome to the forums Gundog!  I am new as well and just started full line vending a little over a month ago.  I locate by knocking on doors and then doing follow up calls on average 3 days a week 3-5 hours a day.  I have averaged getting one location per week during that time.  2 out of my first 4 locations will exceed $200 gross in their first month of operation.  One is just a snack machine that will do about $150 and the other is a can machine that is only going to pull in $50 gross.  I am putting in my weekly collection numbers in the Revenue Reports section so get your minimum posts in and you can get more details in that section.  I have 2 more locations going in next week and both will be snack and soda machine locations. 

The new account I have starting on Monday was acquired by just being at the right place at the right time.  I walked in a location and told them I place vending machines.  The lady at the front desk said, 'Who called you?'  'Nobody, why?'  "Our snack machine is broken down all the time and we need a new machine!'  I got in to see the director immediately.  3 days later he called to award me the account.  No commission, just provide good service for 40-60 blue collar workers.  Should be a great account!

[sherlock]

The new account I have starting on Monday was acquired by just being at the right place at the right time.  I walked in a location and told them I place vending machines.  The lady at the front desk said, 'Who called you?'  'Nobody, why?'   "Our snack machine is broken down all the time and we need a new machine!'  I got in to see the director immediately.  3 days later he called to award me the account.  No commission, just provide good service for 40-60 blue collar workers.  Should be a great account!

That's a cool story.

Some people would call you "lucky" for getting that account.

I'm a firm believer that we "make our own luck".

You weren't lucky, you were out there creating the opportunity.

You wouldn't have gotten this location if you weren't out there pounding the pavement working.

As someone who is just looking into this biz your story is very inspiring to me.

Thanks for sharing.

And, Hello gundog.

Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread.

[gundog]

Thanks, looking forward to learning a bunch.  Looking forward to building a business and hopefully make a little extra money while I am at it.

[gundog]

Wow, I have been reading a bunch.  There is a lot of useful information on here.  Though the more I read, the more nervous I am getting about checking the $$ this coming week.

[mxer518]

Read as much as you can on here so that you can learn for all the mistakes that we have made in or days in the business. If I could start from scratch again tomorrow I would do almost everything different than I have done to this point. This business is all about the learning curve, but once you get good the rewards will follow. Please ask any questions that you don't see answered here on the boards and I am sure there will be a bunch of experienced people who will chime in.