mission vending Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 I am looking to purchase over the next few months 6-10 new glassfront drink machines. I have looked at the Royal, DN and USI machines. Does anyone have any direct experience with any of this equipment that you would care to share? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxer518 Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 My direct experience with these are to get leased stuff, they are crazy expensive and they seem to be the only ones I ever ever have any major issues with that require major repair. PM me and I will fill you in on so more specifics of where I get mine from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted September 14, 2009 Author Share Posted September 14, 2009 I know they are crazy expensive, but I've done the lease thing, had around 25 at one point and still have 4 of them and am working on ending that. While using the lease idea for short term growth is a good idea, I feel that my business will do better over the long haul by owning my equipment (more control, more equity). One of my main buttons in a presentation is my independence from the bottlers and it's kind of hard to meet a request for Pepsi when you have a Coke lease unit and honor your agreements. Also, here locally at least, my Coke rep on an ongoing basis tries to tell me how to run my business because I have lease equipment with them and frankly I'd like to get them out of my life. I am also investigating using debit/credit readers with this equipment and the bottlers won't supply that to me and will not allow me to add it myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technivend Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Seeing that you are out of Texas you should also look at the Vendo VUE 40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pbuckler Posted September 15, 2009 Share Posted September 15, 2009 I currently use Dixie 5591 units. I have had great success with them, especially after installing cashless systems. I installed one in a location that originally had a can machine and my sales have almost doubled. Not to mention the cash systems usually drive sales up by 30% for the most part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Mission I could not agree with you more on owning your own equipment. We certainly used bottlers equipment in our business but like you they tend to try to guide your business. We never used bottler equipment in our larger accounts because we wanted full control. We also wanted to use debit/credit card readers so we could snag those bigger accounts. Now if we were bidding on a hotel with 12 floors, then of course we went with our bottlers. We always found our sales increased with a glass front drink machine. I don't think you will waste your money by adding them to your line. Blue Moose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxer518 Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 I am surprised that the bottlers in your area will not allow credit card readers to be installed, I just got an account that required credit card readers and the bottlers said it would be no issue to have them installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted September 17, 2009 Author Share Posted September 17, 2009 Locally Coke at least has "lost" a lot of equipment over the last few years in third party situations, to the point that if you are not a well established vendor you likely will not get lease equipment from them. So I'm sure this type of stuff plays a role in their decision making processes regarding how lease equipment can be utilized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviholt Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Ok dixie narco is by far the best but only the bev max 3 or 4 do not buy a 2 Royal great machine just is two small for me and it takes some time to get the bugs worked out If you buy a royal or dixie call them up and they may send a tech out to train you on them. Do not buy a vendo. I do not own one but the machine is to slow it's like a 22 sec vend. if you have 20 guys going on break at the same time thats 10 mins just for all of them to get a drink and thats being nice. OWNING your drink machines is the way to go hands down. Has n/e one that has coke and pepsi machine ever had coke or pepsi come in. just to go up on prices. every one has but who can tell coke or pepsi to kiss there butt because you can put coke or pepsi in whatever you want. thats the vendor that owns his machines. I saw the coke guy walk out mad as heck. two weeks latter we had better prices then b4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviholt Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 I have 58 glassfronts and its the best way to sell drinks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted September 18, 2009 Author Share Posted September 18, 2009 Thanks for the info. Do you have any equipped with cashless payment systems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviholt Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Yes we do microtronics. I think that is how it is spelled. We use it in about 6 stops it will bump sales for you it does at every stop we have it in. We do not have credit card readers on ne of are machines its just to much cost for us to do it. Not the readers but all the fees involved in it at this time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted September 19, 2009 Author Share Posted September 19, 2009 The vendor I'm looking at for the debit/credit readers charges $9.95 monthly which includes airtime for the modem. MC/Visa are a 5% hit on top of that. Money is deposited weekly into my account with e-mail statement showing by machine transaction data, they also have a 1-800 number that appears on customer statement for disputed transactions which they will handle for me, also includes in the monthly service fee. I figure that it's a good reason to up on pricing and take a better margin on the cash purchases to cover the hit on MC/Visa. The cost seems reasonable, $199 for the swipe only unit or $399 for the swipe or pass unit. They are telling me that the industry is working to get RFID chips installed on phones then you can go online and tie it to your credit card so your phone will become your payment system. Thoughts anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviholt Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 There is never a good reason to go up on price. You know that when coke or pepsi goes up on you . No one likes it. Will you have a bill val on them. The big thing is that the cost of doing that never goes away. Then what if the fees go up. So much that you can't do it anymore. Then you can't take it away. What kind of place r u wanting to put these machine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted September 19, 2009 Author Share Posted September 19, 2009 2 High volume locations, full service, drinks, snacks, food, ice cream, hot beverage vendors. 20-30 employees and lots of traffic. The locations are not related but are competitors, average sales 3-4K per month each with 50-55% of revenue from drinks. I have had both for over 10 years and it's time to upgrade the equipment for them sometime in the next 3-6 months. They have the big vending companies knocking on their door on a regular basis so I need to be sure I offer the best most up to date stuff. They will also have a bill val set to take 1 and 5 bills as well as the electronic stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviholt Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 If I was you I would upgrade the machines. I would not put credit cards readers on them I would keep that on the back burner for now. The reason is if big vending company comes in and see that they will say o know one likes that but we can put machines in with lower prices. And its over. We took a stop from five star vending because of 5 cent on a 20 oz drink. I would put 1 5 10 20 acceptance on the machines and give back the golden dollar back that's what we do and we do not a bill changer anywhere are customers love that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 We have just installed 7 machines in a 3 story offic building with about 200 staff,plus a ton of visitors. The breakdown of the machines are: 1st floor lobby - DN 5591 1st floor lobby - Rowe 5900 1st floor conference - DN 5591 2nd floor Cafeteria - Royal RVV 500 Glass front soda (with creditcard) 2nd floor Cafeteria - GPL 173 snack (with creditcard) 2nd floor Cafeteria - National 431 cold food (with creditcard) 2nd floor Cafeteria - AP 320 frozen (with creditcard) We are avg about $1000 a week between the 7 machines with about $125 being creditcards. Personal opinion, I am glad that we put the creditcard readers in and would recommend it if you have the customer base to support it. USATech is a pretty good company to deal with and their fees are not that much. Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillisNYC Posted September 25, 2009 Share Posted September 25, 2009 Mission, I am racking my brain to figure out what type of business you have your machines in. 20-30 employees with lots of foot traffic that is doing 3-4k/mos in business! That sounds great and I need to be knocking on the doors of those type of businesses. Are they repair/service centers for an auto dealer? That is my best guess as to what type of business could generate that kind of revenue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbishop Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 Mission, I am racking my brain to figure out what type of business you have your machines in. 20-30 employees with lots of foot traffic that is doing 3-4k/mos in business! That sounds great and I need to be knocking on the doors of those type of businesses. Are they repair/service centers for an auto dealer? That is my best guess as to what type of business could generate that kind of revenue! I guess he did not want to tell us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spdydre Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 Thanks for the info. Do you have any equipped with cashless payment systems? I have a noob question how does the cashless payment differ from credit card/debit payments? Do the customers just have a swip card or card to scan that has a balance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 cashless = creit/debit Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vendnoob Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 Ok dixie narco is by far the best but only the bev max 3 or 4 do not buy a 2 Royal great machine just is two small for me and it takes some time to get the bugs worked out If you buy a royal or dixie call them up and they may send a tech out to train you on them. Do not buy a vendo. I do not own one but the machine is to slow it's like a 22 sec vend. if you have 20 guys going on break at the same time thats 10 mins just for all of them to get a drink and thats being nice. OWNING your drink machines is the way to go hands down. Has n/e one that has coke and pepsi machine ever had coke or pepsi come in. just to go up on prices. every one has but who can tell coke or pepsi to kiss there butt because you can put coke or pepsi in whatever you want. thats the vendor that owns his machines. I saw the coke guy walk out mad as heck. two weeks latter we had better prices then b4 What is wrong with the Dixie Narco 2? Please explain a little? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVEND11 Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 I will tell you about the two. The two does not have a shield so if a bottle falls the machine is down. The port sensor is in a bad place now it can be upgraded to the three. The port door switch is a nightmare it also can be upgraded to the 3. The cup on the 3 has a sensor in it that makes it work better. The 2 was the first bevmax that was not a bottle drop. The 2 had a ton of problems the 3 was the 2 fixed. Every 2 we have I upgraded. And they work great now you can upgrade every thing on the 2 to be just like the 3 but the shield is the only thing that can't be upgraded because the 3 has a better layout for the compressor so it could have the room for the shield. Now the 4 is out now and I will have 5 in June Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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