shepherdsflock Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Without having a scale to measure the weight of the prodcut being dispensed, what would be a good way to estimate the cost of goods per vend on Vendstar machine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotortech Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 I use a scale. I set the machine up and do 5 vends of the product, then weigh it out and divide by 5. This way I have a good idea of the cost and profit per vend. I am new and still learning but so far I like weighing the canisters before and after service so I know how many vends are on each candy. I bought the scale at a local store. It is a food scale that costs $29. Capacity is 11 lb and it reads to 0.1 oz accurately. A quarter weighs 0.2 oz so I also use it to count my money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Funny, as a metrologist by trade, my mind immediately starts wondering about the repeatability of the scale and all of the statistical trials you could perform on the scale. Funny how your day job can invade the very way you think about everything. $29 for the scale, huh? I wonder if I could pick one up used on craiglist or something fairly cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Without having a scale to measure the weight of the prodcut being dispensed, what would be a good way to estimate the cost of goods per vend on Vendstar machine? Are you asking about the cost of goods, or how many ounces you are vending per vend? Since you mentioned weighing the candy, I assume you want to know how many pieces to vend, and to calculate that cost of goods. One option is to buy small bags of the candy, like the kind they sell in the stores. M&M's and Skittles will be easy. Not so easy with runts though because I never see those in snack size bags. The label will tell you how many ounces there are in the bag, and then you can just count out the number of pieces per ounce. Typically, a 1/2 oz - 1/3 oz per vend is my standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Other than weighing how much is vended, I can't think of any other good way to calculate the cost. But, your idea about counting the pieces in a smaller package to calculate the pieces per ounce is a really good idea. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotortech Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Funny, as a metrologist by trade, my mind immediately starts wondering about the repeatability of the scale and all of the statistical trials you could perform on the scale. Funny how your day job can invade the very way you think about everything. $29 for the scale, huh? I wonder if I could pick one up used on craiglist or something fairly cheap. I almost bought a scale on eBay for about half that cost but I wasn't sure that it would do what I wanted. I know that there are nice counting scales for a little over $100 that will read out in dollars and cents when you weight quarters. I just have to do a little math once I get my weights recorded. I do all the math on a spreadsheet at home. I don't think my method will stand up to lab standards but it will count $27 in quarters accurately with them still inside the coin container from my Vendesign machine. The scale that I have is small, flat, and battery operated. Taylor Scale is the one that I use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 I use a battery-operated digital kitchen scale too. I use plastic cups to hold the quarters when I weigh. I first put an empty cup on the scale and zero it out. Then I put the identical cup with quarters in it, and weigh it in grams. Take the number of grams, divide by 5.67 then divide by 4 to get the dollar amount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minivend Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 If you had an accurate meter system on each of your heads..would you use it? I have a meter system for Beaver coin mechs that works great..developed by our company and allows us to collect quickly and efficiently. Provides us the ability to collect each location in one bag..you write the meter number down for each head on a collection sheet and put the coin into a bag. The bag comes back to the shop and the coin is run. The meter numbers are entered into a simple software program that generates cost of sales for each product, commission reports, sales tax reports, and revenue reports. You can also run product reports at the end of each month to see which products are selling the best. What would you guys pay for a meter system that works? $39.95 each? Battery life is 3-5 years on a 1.5 volt watch battery. Meter head is a small LCD 6 digit display..I'll be taking a trip to Newmarket, Ontario to meet with Beaver Machine in the next 60 days to give them a demonstation..Your opionions are very valuable.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Without having a scale to measure the weight of the prodcut being dispensed, what would be a good way to estimate the cost of goods per vend on Vendstar machine? You only have to calculate COGS per vend once, after you weigh your vended portion, using this formula: [bag price] ÷ [bag weight in ounces] x [vend portion in ounces] = COGS per vend. Please note that vend portions can vary. You can also calculate how many vends you will get out of a bag of candy using this formula: [bag weight in ounces] ÷ [vend weight in ounces] = VENDS per bag. This 1kg x 0.1g scale is 6 bucks and change out the door. It's been working great for me. I can't speak for its accuracy because I don't have calibrating weights to measure it up against, but it claims to be accurate to 0.1g, much better than my postal scale's 0.1oz accuracy. It has a tare feature, and measures in g / ozt / dwt / ct / oz / gn. Get one and put your COGS questions to rest. http://cgi.ebay.com/280424501784?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.com%3A80%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp5197.m570.l1313%26_nkw%3D280424501784%26_sacat%3DSee-All-Categories%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 You only have to calculate COGS per vend once, after you weigh your vended portion, using this formula: [bag price] ÷ [bag weight in ounces] x [vend portion in ounces] = COGS per vend. Please note that vend portions can vary. You can also calculate how many vends you will get out of a bag of candy using this formula: [bag weight in ounces] ÷ [vend weight in ounces] = VENDS per bag. This 1kg x 0.1g scale is 6 bucks and change out the door. It's been working great for me. I can't speak for its accuracy because I don't have calibrating weights to measure it up against, but it claims to be accurate to 0.1g, much better than my postal scale's 0.1oz accuracy. It has a tare feature, and measures in g / ozt / dwt / ct / oz / gn. Get one and put your COGS questions to rest. http://cgi.ebay.com/..._fvi%3D1&_rdc=1 That's a good price on a digital scale. It's only good for small amounts though. At a max of 1000 g, it will only read up to $44 in quarters. I went ahead and got one since it was such a cheap price. It will be good for some of my smaller locations, and I guess I can just do multiple weighs when I have larger locations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 That's a good price on a digital scale. It's only good for small amounts though. At a max of 1000 g, it will only read up to $44 in quarters. I went ahead and got one since it was such a cheap price. It will be good for some of my smaller locations, and I guess I can just do multiple weighs when I have larger locations. I guess I forgot to point out, this is a pocket-sized digital scale. The weighing platform measures 2.5" x 3", and the whole scale measures 3" x 4" and 1/2" thick. You can tare a small container like a beverage tumbler to catch your quarters, but it seems they'd be more likely to spill out on you. Nevertheless, I'm confident it could do the job of weighing small quantities of coins for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 I'm so glad I vend very little candy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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