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A well maintained machine will be used
more often than a neglected one.
Service your machine often and it will yield
a bigger return. Keep records.
Change slow moving products to alternatives.
Spread out your route, it will bring up your
sales average. Service your machine
yourself and when you're comfortable with it
you may want to hire someone to help
you. Check their work regularly. The
more selections of products you put in a
location, the more profit that
location will bring in.
A colorful machine will bring in more
revenue.
Check with other vendors to compare notes.
Try not to go the same
time to, collect your money like every
Monday, on the 1st. You never no who is
watching you. Try and go different times of
the week
or month. Its good security
I think I
have a great idea how to avoid paying a % of
your profits. Say you have one machine at
Miller Auto and you want to put one at Ace
Hardware but he wants a %, tell him you will
put some kind of advertising of his on your
machine at Miller Auto. If it's a franchise
it just might work
always look below the
machine people always drop money under i
looked and found 5 dollars in one week once
When approaching a new
location, take a "gift basket" filled with a
good variety of top selling items to
distribute to employees. Be sure to include
several business cards so that the employees
are familiar with your business name.
When filling
your bulk vendors for the first time in a
new location, only fill each selection about
2/3rds full. Then, check it frequently
until you learn how that location will
do. This will avoid having too much
candy sit in a machine going bad rather than
being vended in your busiest
locations. The exception is if this
location is out of town & not serviced
for long periods.
On bulk candy
vendors, do not stick candy labels or
charity labels on your machines with their
adhesive on the backs. It can be
difficult to remove & if you use the
wrong remover, it can discolor your machine
or fade your canisters.
To help
prevent Mike & Ikes or Hot Tamales from
sticking together, spray them with
Non-flavored PAM.
To prevent
critters from climbing your stand &
getting into your machine, many vendors coat
the top of the stand with Vaseline.
Don't assume
just because a location already has a
machine, you won't be able to locate yours.
Especially notice if the current machine has
been "out of order" or near empty
longer than a month. The business owner may
readily accept yours alongside the other.
Peanut
M&Ms sell better than regular M&Ms
most of the time.
I HAVE 40 3 HEAD MACHINES @
BY PUTTING SMALL DIXIE CUPS UPSIDE DOWN ON
TOP OF MACHINES SALE WENT UP 20%
Keep your bulk vending
machines out of direct sunlight. Place the
machine where sunlight will never hit it.
Sunlight will cause candy to melt and/or
loose it's freshness very quickly. This may
cause you to loose money and loose your
location.
Chocolate almonds are a
GOLD MINE!!!!...(note machine will have to
have plate cut larger for almonds....)
When seeking a location
for a bulk vending machine do not
immediately seek the expensive glamorous.
First brainstorm; friends, associates
relatives anybody who will not charge you as
much or at all to locate your machine there.
Even if their shop is small, I find often
that i get still a large amount of profit
and i don't have to shell out to those nasty
store owners.
On snack &
soda accounts, if the location wants a
commission, you generally mark your sale
price up to cover the commission. So,
rather than 50 cents for a coke, to cover a
10% commission, you would sell them for 55
cents. Sometimes when you tell the
location this, they will say never mind,
just keep the prices low for our employees.
Did you know
that 24 oz bottles generally cost you MUCH
less than the 20 oz bottles?
If at all possible try to
vend your sodas for 50 cents and your chips
for the same. The customers will be able
(and will usually) to spend the whole dollar
in your machine. As opposed to chips for 55
cents and soda for 60 which means they'll
need to spend 2 dollars and are less likely
to do so.
Mountain Dew is a
money-making "sleeper".... kids
like that poison! LOL
Make sure to upgrade your
DBA with the new chip that reads the new $5.
I finally did and now the thing has lots of
$5 bills. Now, recouping the $129 chip will
take a few weeks to get back. Oh well.
Ginger ale doesn't sell
well. I ended up having to drink 30 cans,
and found out Mountain Dew should have been
there.
Most coffee machines use
water valves with a rubber type valve and if
the machine does not get a lot of use these
valves tend to stick from water scale that
builds up over time. It is best that every
time you service your coffee machine you do
all the bowl rinses. Where you make your
route drivers go into programming and actuate
the program, all the water valves open and
close and all the whipper motors turn and if
it is a bean grinder or fresh brewer then
also do a brewer rinse.
Use a toy suction cup arrow
to pull can drinks out of Antares lanes
faster.
Using quarters only in your
changer will more likely get the whole
dollar fed back into your machine than not.
The $.60 candy bars will require a dime but
your quarters only change will buy a soda
and a chip, cookie, or cracker snack if both
are priced right and typically there are
more snacks at $.50 than $.60 in my
machines.
This vendor submitted tip
could be considered gambling - check with
your state "Rubber band a $1.00 bill to
a can soda and put it in the machine. When
it is purchased, it won't take long before
the entire office hears about it and
everyone tries to get a drink with a dollar
attached. Do it once per month."
I usually load up a
credit so the first person gets a freebie,
but I make sure to tell somebody....the
first time I did it they called to tell me
my machine was broke because it kept
spitting their money back....Nobody thought
to hit a button....
If a machine can't be
moved from a hot spot, get Reflextic
insulation from Lowe's or Home Depot, and
trim to fit from cash door up to top, and
half of sides. Use water based glue. It
solves 90% of the problem.
After working on or
loading pop or candy machine before you
leave always take a quarter dime & nickel
and put in machine and then push coin
return. How many times have you seen someone
change flavor ids or something else and get
called back after leaving. A distraction can
lead to not finishing the job.
Jukebox owners---keep the
remote away from old, crusty, grumpy
employees. They will almost always lower the
volume and sometimes turn the unit
completely off during their shift. They are
poison, don't help the owners or the music
operators, as I have had a few of them on my
route.
When filling your jukebox
with new titles, don't go by what the TOP 40
says. Ask the bartender or owner what kind
of music the patrons like to listen to.
Also, buy from a jukebox CD supplier,
homemade labels look tacky.
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tips here... (If your category doesn't
exist, just recommend that we add one for it!)
