shepherdsflock Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I'm thinking about expanding into soda machines, and searched through the equipment review forum and everything seemed to be either bulk vending machines or snack machines. What is a good, reputable soda machine? I don't know much about them and want to know what machines to look for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I'm thinking about expanding into soda machines, and searched through the equipment review forum and everything seemed to be either bulk vending machines or snack machines. What is a good, reputable soda machine? I don't know much about them and want to know what machines to look for. dixie narco or vendo stack vendor many diff models mainly the size is going to depend on what kind of locations it is, i wouldnt buy anything smaller than a 368 capacity if you plan on doing bottles, make sure ur getting a multi-price machine capable of 20oz bottles. otherwise a can machine (single price) will vend 12oz cans or some brands of 16oz water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thanks, dogcow. That gives me somewhere to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielirubin Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 When I get out of combo machines im going for a dixie marco bevmax 3 ... or maybe 4 when they come out or if mission vending says there is a better one out at the time ill go for that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 for the more experienced guys ...curious your thoughts on glass front vendors. personally they seem like a hassle and less profitable. i can see where they have their place (high visibility ..car dealers...malls..) but do you all generally try to avoid placing these units? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 for the more experienced guys ...curious your thoughts on glass front vendors. personally they seem like a hassle and less profitable. i can see where they have their place (high visibility ..car dealers...malls..) but do you all generally try to avoid placing these units? Every time I have upgraded to glass fronts at a location I have seen sales go up by about 20%. IMO some of it it due to the increased variety and some to the higher price points. (ex. Monster 2.50, Minute Maid Juice 1.65 instead of soda at 1.50) Admittedly they are more of a hassle to deal with to carry so many SKU's but to me the results have been worth it. If I think I can get 600-700 a month on the low end out of a location with a glassfront vendor I will offer to put it in instead of a stacker machine. The Bevmax is the only glassfront I am willing to buy now. Tried the USI one (a drop machine), the Vendo and the DN5000 that is a Coke lease design and they all pale in comparason. The aggregate sales on my Bevmax machines is right at 100K and I have NEVER had a service call for jammed product causing machine to go out of service like I have with all the others. I still have a number of the others that I'm not going to throw away but I'm not going to buy any more of them either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 I'm thinking about expanding into soda machines, and searched through the equipment review forum and everything seemed to be either bulk vending machines or snack machines. What is a good, reputable soda machine? I don't know much about them and want to know what machines to look for. For a soda machine I would look for several things: 1. Multi price. 2. Can or bottle capable 3. MDB mech and DBV as well as DEX capable 4. Stick with the major brands, DN, Royal, USI and Vendo You will may more for a machine that meets this criteria but you can also do much more with it. The reason I say this is that as your business grows and you get better locations you might want to move equipment around for efficiency reasons or you are short on cash and need to dump a location to use the equipment at a better location. In some instances a sigle price machine may not work due to the needs and demands of the customer and you will be forced to go buy another machine instead. IMO the vending industry is moving away from the single price machine, that's one reason why you can find them as low as 100-200 bucks at times, the bigger vendors don't want them. I'm not saying they are obsolete, just limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poplady1 Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 Every time I have upgraded to glass fronts at a location I have seen sales go up by about 20%. IMO some of it it due to the increased variety and some to the higher price points. (ex. Monster 2.50, Minute Maid Juice 1.65 instead of soda at 1.50) Admittedly they are more of a hassle to deal with to carry so many SKU's but to me the results have been worth it. If I think I can get 600-700 a month on the low end out of a location with a glassfront vendor I will offer to put it in instead of a stacker machine. The Bevmax is the only glassfront I am willing to buy now. Tried the USI one (a drop machine), the Vendo and the DN5000 that is a Coke lease design and they all pale in comparason. The aggregate sales on my Bevmax machines is right at 100K and I have NEVER had a service call for jammed product causing machine to go out of service like I have with all the others. I still have a number of the others that I'm not going to throw away but I'm not going to buy any more of them either. In California the top machine being used in large accounts is the BevMax. The bottlers carry them and most of the independents get them from Coke or Pepsi. Also Rainbow Vending in San Diego (now owned by Canteen) gives independent vendors lease machines, plus Rainbow gives them another place to purchase product. They also still provide Ice Cream vendors and food vendors to independents. Stay on the lookout for a franchise called SuperGym in your area. They love those BevMax machines. These places are big, lots of people, large staff and the vending is good. They do want 25% commission but the allow you to set the pricing. Watch your areas new business listing and grab one if you see it coming. When you are setting it up don't just think drinks, go snacks, coffee, ice cream and video games. Back to machines I agree if buying used equipment try to spend a little extra on multi-price units, stay away from 79 inch machines unless you have an outside tool yard or equipment yard. These machines are too tall to stand in most rental trucks too. We used our 79 inch machines as our money vault. Remove all of the insides, build some shelves and shut the door. We always left it in the warehouse alongside all of the other machines. No one ever bothered it. And 79 inche machines have other good uses. Need a place to put all of your extra coin mech and validators. Take everything out, build some shelves and you have the perfect tool locker. But as far as vending...not so much. Poplady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherdsflock Posted August 20, 2011 Author Share Posted August 20, 2011 What are your people's thoughts on adding a credit card reader to a drink machine? I don't know how many times I've wanted to buy a soda but didn't have any cash on me. Do you think the extra cost of buying the reader and the service fees would be offset by increased sales? Also, do know if you can set up a machine to accept both credit cards and cash? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 What are your people's thoughts on adding a credit card reader to a drink machine? I don't know how many times I've wanted to buy a soda but didn't have any cash on me. Do you think the extra cost of buying the reader and the service fees would be offset by increased sales? Also, do know if you can set up a machine to accept both credit cards and cash? depends on the location 99% of the time prob a waste, plus your product price has to go up because your paying an extra cut to the CC company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 With CC readers you have the initial cost, the monthly cost and then transaction cost. Machines that have them require all MDB electronics. I have about a dozen of them now, only two are on snack machines. The rest are all on glassffonts. The reason is that IMO you need to keep your avg vend price over $1 to make thrm worthwhile. You also get a little break on transaction cost as you avg vend price goes up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reel Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Interesting posts here, i do agree with you Mission Vending glassfront machines are the way to go, sure they can cost more but with the visibility factor the sales turnover sure does increase at least 20%, my preferred glass front drink machine is the Royal Vision Vendor, when it comes to reliability i beleive theres none better. The DN 4 is a good machine also and has less moving parts and would be my second choice for drink vending. Here in Australia Coke Vending uses Royal exclusively now, they used to use DN but dumped them due to their unreliability, the DN 2 had a lot of issues here when it was released and gave the machines a bad name for a while, what does Coke use in the USA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Interesting posts here, i do agree with you Mission Vending glassfront machines are the way to go, sure they can cost more but with the visibility factor the sales turnover sure does increase at least 20%, my preferred glass front drink machine is the Royal Vision Vendor, when it comes to reliability i beleive theres none better. The DN 4 is a good machine also and has less moving parts and would be my second choice for drink vending. Here in Australia Coke Vending uses Royal exclusively now, they used to use DN but dumped them due to their unreliability, the DN 2 had a lot of issues here when it was released and gave the machines a bad name for a while, what does Coke use in the USA? Coke used to use Royal here, but that was a long time ago. They then went to Vendo and had an absolutely disastrous experience with the Vue glassfronts. Here locally they are back with DN with a 5000 series glassfront made exclusively for them. The DN bevmax 2 also has some problems here. DN has a program where will take in a 2 and refurb and upgrade it to a 3 series at a pretty decent price. I have not worked a Royal glassfront so I can't compare, but at this point I am very happy with the Bevmax 3's and have no interest in any other glassfront. Like I said earlier, nearly 100K in sales on 5 different Bevmax units and not a single jam. I just received two of the factory upgrade machines this week, they look identical to the ones I bought new and I guess we will have to see how they hold up over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reel Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Thats just sensational turnover on those Bevmax machines and no coin jam quite amazing really, i can well understand with such an impressive turnover and hassle free why would you change. May i ask do you have coin slides fitted into on the coin slots, which i find are great and sure does eliminate jams. What coin mechanisms are you using in your Bevmax machines?. I have 4 Bevmax Entray Combos when i bought them last year the distributor installed currenza coin mechs into the machines and i had non stop problems with them at each service we had complaints that staff had placed money into the machine and it didnt register on the screen and other complaints that machine had just eaten their money etc etc, this went on for months i had the distributor visit the machine and they kept telling me nothing was wrong with it. Short version is i found out the problem was that the software in the Bevmax Combo was not compatable with the currenza, i had them changed to a mars 690 and havent had a problem since...............intersting because both the machine and mech are made by crane, although the mech is made in germany. What are your preferred mechs and what do you use in your Bevmax drink machines?. What are your thoughts and experience with currenza coin mechs, i find the live display one a lot better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Thats just sensational turnover on those Bevmax machines and no coin jam quite amazing really, i can well understand with such an impressive turnover and hassle free why would you change. May i ask do you have coin slides fitted into on the coin slots, which i find are great and sure does eliminate jams. What are your preferred mechs and what do you use in your Bevmax drink machines?. What are your thoughts and experience with currenza coin mechs, i find the live display one a lot better? Just to clarify, I meant no misvend or bottle jams that shut the machine down as happens pretty regularly with the Vendo Vue and with the DN 5000 series made for Coke. I can add that I have not had any coin jams either. Its a factory standard setup for the coin slides with Mars MEI under it to catch the coins. I have MEI mechs in all of my glassfronts. DBV's are either Mars or Currenza. I did get Currenza mechs with the Bevmax but being unfamiliar with them I switched them out into other machines and put in the MEI. I have not had any problems with them in the machines that they were installed into, I just did not want to learn on the fly with a high profile, high volume account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reel Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Thanks very much for your response, with such a large business a value your opinions.........the mechs that you use are tried and proven performers thats for sure. I like the currenza for its extra coin holding capacity, the new coinco ones in our new royals are extremely impressive i must say and are a big improvement on the older versions that we have in some of our closed front merlin 4s. Do you own any vendo vues, if so whats your experience with these machines and how do you rate them ?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 Thanks very much for your response, with such a large business a value your opinions.........the mechs that you use are tried and proven performers thats for sure. I like the currenza for its extra coin holding capacity, the new coinco ones in our new royals are extremely impressive i must say and are a big improvement on the older versions that we have in some of our closed front merlin 4s. Do you own any vendo vues, if so whats your experience with these machines and how do you rate them ?. I don't OWN any Vue's I do have some on a third party arrangement with Coke. Went from from 0 to 12 or so in 30 days as I jumped into using glassfront vendors about 4 years ago. Most of them were Vendo's. It was an absolute nightmare dealing with these things but after several months as I learned their quirks and the Coke Techs started doing the upgrades to the hands and software as well as replacing the bad harness wiring that controlled the elevator and hand. Since getting all of the design issues fixed or upgraded they have been decent, not great, machines for me. I am slowly phasing them out (down to 5)as I purchase the Bevmax machines for a couple of reasons. 1. I am working to get Coke totally out of my business in terms of third party equipment. 2. IMO the Bevmax machines are a step up from the Vendo. I certainly would not buy one new, but if one came along at an absolutely fantastic price I'd take a good hard look at it. Hope this answers your question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reel Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Yes it does thankyou very much. I dont understand the third party vending with Coke as it doesnt happen here at all, they are just a direct competitor on drinks, however, late last year that all changed when they purchased one of the largest privately owned vending companys here so now they are into snacks as well. As a general rule we love Coke because they are reasonably easy to sell against because of there poor service record and sometimes old equipment and poor drink selection. Although sometimes on large sites they sell so low that we just cannot compete................in other wordss we all hate Coke, but unfortunately they are the market leaders. We buy Coke 375ml cans for approx $18.80 per ctn of 24 when Pepsi sells for around $11.00, so what we do now is reduce the amount of Coke in a machine to try and force consumers onto the higher margin product, not easy but we have no choice. I am currently considering importing Coke if i can find it cheap enough. i wish i could buy it for what you pay for it in the us its sooo cheap!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Yes it does thankyou very much. I dont understand the third party vending with Coke as it doesnt happen here at all, they are just a direct competitor on drinks, however, late last year that all changed when they purchased one of the largest privately owned vending companys here so now they are into snacks as well. As a general rule we love Coke because they are reasonably easy to sell against because of there poor service record and sometimes old equipment and poor drink selection. Although sometimes on large sites they sell so low that we just cannot compete................in other wordss we all hate Coke, but unfortunately they are the market leaders. We buy Coke 375ml cans for approx $18.80 per ctn of 24 when Pepsi sells for around $11.00, so what we do now is reduce the amount of Coke in a machine to try and force consumers onto the higher margin product, not easy but we have no choice. I am currently considering importing Coke if i can find it cheap enough. i wish i could buy it for what you pay for it in the us its sooo cheap!. if you are importing coca-cola from the US you may be in for a surprise the US formulation is different and taste different from foreign formulations, because it is made with corn syrup not sugar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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