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The Mage

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Welcome to the forum, Terry.  You have no idea how fortunate you are to have found this forum.  It is the most active vending forum in the world and in my 30 years of vending I didn't stumble onto it until 2013.  Welcome aboard.

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Hello,

I am looking to get into vending, and while researching I found this forum. I look forward to the information that is available, and connecting with the people here. I am considering bulk vending to start. I am in middle Tennessee, east of Nashville.

Thanks,

Terry

Welcome to the forum Terry!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey,

 

Thanks for the post on this subject matter. I have been looking at doing vending for a little bit now and have done the ride alongs with two of the full line guys already one has 9 locations with 16 machines on site and the other had 14 locations with 26 machines on site. One is for he says best offer for 20k and the other is for about 40k. My issue so far is the cheaper one is a older man in his 70's who wants to retire and just play golf more often the issue is the books and even trying to see how long for an ROI on his. The other is for 40k and had 80k in sales all machines are placed at businesses with at least 100 employees. His best location has over 300 employees and that location did 18k in sales last year. Still the issue I am trying to figure out is the average cost to fill the routes and the profit per week. I am meeting with the guy with the 40k route to look at his financial books since he's the only one who kept good books. He claims he just doesn't want to show them to anyone and wants to keep the tire kickers away. The one for 20k he just claims you will make your money back but to me thats not good enough. Any thoughts?

 

 

Thanks'

John

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Hey,

 

Thanks for the post on this subject matter. I have been looking at doing vending for a little bit now and have done the ride alongs with two of the full line guys already one has 9 locations with 16 machines on site and the other had 14 locations with 26 machines on site. One is for he says best offer for 20k and the other is for about 40k. My issue so far is the cheaper one is a older man in his 70's who wants to retire and just play golf more often the issue is the books and even trying to see how long for an ROI on his. The other is for 40k and had 80k in sales all machines are placed at businesses with at least 100 employees. His best location has over 300 employees and that location did 18k in sales last year. Still the issue I am trying to figure out is the average cost to fill the routes and the profit per week. I am meeting with the guy with the 40k route to look at his financial books since he's the only one who kept good books. He claims he just doesn't want to show them to anyone and wants to keep the tire kickers away. The one for 20k he just claims you will make your money back but to me thats not good enough. Any thoughts?

 

 

Thanks'

John

You should let someone else take the risk with the accounts being sold by the 70 year old as he doesn't realize that providing useful and accurate information to a buyer can be helpful in selling his business.  I realize that he's 70 but that doesn't mean you should throw caution to the wind and take him at his word.  Many old time vendors still have prices from the old days and don't care to rile their customers by raising prices to realistic levels.  They often have old machines that need a lot of maintenance.  At least the other seller sounds willing to let you see his books.  What you should do is take notes of total numbers in sales by month and year, preferably by location - without names and addresses, of course.  You need to know what the selling prices by product category are, what commission amounts he pays and what his product costs are.  With that information and the models of machines he's selling you can make a more informed decision.  Post the results of your visit with him in the Food and Beverage forum and the members there can help you dissect that info.

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Hey,

 

Thanks for the post on this subject matter. I have been looking at doing vending for a little bit now and have done the ride alongs with two of the full line guys already one has 9 locations with 16 machines on site and the other had 14 locations with 26 machines on site. One is for he says best offer for 20k and the other is for about 40k. My issue so far is the cheaper one is a older man in his 70's who wants to retire and just play golf more often the issue is the books and even trying to see how long for an ROI on his. The other is for 40k and had 80k in sales all machines are placed at businesses with at least 100 employees. His best location has over 300 employees and that location did 18k in sales last year. Still the issue I am trying to figure out is the average cost to fill the routes and the profit per week. I am meeting with the guy with the 40k route to look at his financial books since he's the only one who kept good books. He claims he just doesn't want to show them to anyone and wants to keep the tire kickers away. The one for 20k he just claims you will make your money back but to me thats not good enough. Any thoughts?

 

 

Thanks'

John

 

I'm surprised you would still be considering any investment, let alone one at $20k, from a seller that won't let you see the books. 

 

I would ask for a redacted version of the books, and depending on what he still wants to hide, make a decision to move on or not. You can also verify claimed income by reviewing his tax returns, which should spell out how much money was earned every year and from what sources the income came from. The IRS Principal Business Activity Code you're looking for is "454210 - Vending Machine Operators."

 

I would think he just doesn't want you to see the addresses of his current locations, fearing you might poach them, but you've already done a ride along--so you should already have an idea of where his locations are. This sounds kind of fishy. 

 

You can also offer to sign a non-disclosure agreement (DO NOT sign a non-compete agreement) if that makes him more comfortable.

 

But overall, you can only believe or trust the income that the seller is able to prove and verify to you. Otherwise, it probably doesn't really exist.  

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Hi everyone, my name is Vanessa and I'm new to the vending business.  I'm so glad to have found this forum because I've found so much useful information already.  Thank you to everyone for your great insight and advice!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm new to this business and I need a form to help with my calculations, cost, etc, but I received a error that says I can not download any forms. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Way kind of form are you looking for? Cost of goods or a tracking form?

If you need a candy cost of goods, send me a pm with your email and I'll send you one I'm working on.

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I'm new to this business and I need a form to help with my calculations, cost, etc, but I received a error that says I can not download any forms. Any help is greatly appreciated.

You should be able to download what you need now.
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Hello everyone,  From the moment I found the site it has been a wealth of knowledge.  I thank you for this.    My name is Keith & i'm from Tx.  I havent purchase my machiine yet, i'm still lookinf to that.  I know that I want something called a combo machiine.  The location I have brings in 150+ kids a day. I know it a money maker. I dont know wher to start.

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Welcome to the forum, Keith.

 

Combo machines aren't recommended as they don't produce enough income before you have to fill them again.  If the location is a worthwhile one then you want to use dedicated snack and soda machines.  There is a dearth of crappy imported combo machines and you want to avoid them if that's the direction you go.  The ones to use will be from National/Crane, Automatic Products/AP, AMS or USI.  Try to stick with cans only until you decide you like the vending as they are easiest to buy and have the longest shelf life.  You will have trouble avoiding stale products with only one snack machine due to the quantities of snacks you'll have to buy for just the one machine.  We always recommend that new vendors do soda only for a while then venture into snacks.

 

Check out the Beverage and Food sub-forum and read, read, read.

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Hello everyone,  From the moment I found the site it has been a wealth of knowledge.  I thank you for this.    My name is Keith & i'm from Tx.  I havent purchase my machiine yet, i'm still lookinf to that.  I know that I want something called a combo machiine.  The location I have brings in 150+ kids a day. I know it a money maker. I dont know wher to start.

Start with canned soda and a good snack machine - as AZ stated combo machines are not where you want to be with any potentially good account,  I will only use them as satellite machines in lower volume management offices where I have other machines onsite.  For the price of a decent combo machine (or even a crappy one) you should be able to purchase a good soda machine and separate snack machine.  150 kids with pocket change could clean out almost any combo machine in a matter of hours.

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I am new to this forum and am especially interested in comments pertaining to the Saeco SG200 barista machines. I purchased 4 of these machines in May of 2012 from Canmax. All 4 machines have been placed for most of the past 2 years and are doing well. I pulled one machine which had about 22,000 vends on it to do some major repairs. That machine is now ready to be placed again. I am considering buying another machine. New from Saega, they are about $3,350 including shipping but no payment system (coin or dollar bill acceptor). I am now shopping around to see if I can get a cheaper deal on a new (or slightly used) machine. I'd like to have 1 machine on hand for parts since getting parts quickly is a chore. I live in Minnesota.

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