Most people when they’re thinking about getting into vending do a lot of research and reading but some lessons have to be learned the hard way. Here are a few things I’ve picked up and learned while running my own vending business:
I can easily service 3-4 locations an hour, including driving time. The servicing itself only takes about 5 minutes for a basic servicing the rest of the time includes driving.
Only choose all metal machines. Not only do the plastic machines look cheap, but they are built cheap as well. The amazing thing is that they cost about the same as better quality machines.
The appearance of your machines does make a difference in your bottom line. I had a location that was a rundown convenience store and I had a rundown triple head in there that wasn’t performing very well. On a lark, I traded it out for a shiny new double header and my profits doubled. Honestly I didn’t expect this at all.
Double sided tape at the base of the head is a pretty good ant trap. Some people use petroleum jelly but I find this to be a messy solution. Spraying poison around food is never a good idea especially if you’re doing it on location, you could spray the base at home before putting it on location, but be careful to keep your candy safe. In two years I’ve only had one machine get infiltrated by ants but I live in the desert so other locations will have to fight harder to keep the ants out.
I think 6 weeks is about the perfect cycle for servicing. When I first started in the vending machine business, I was servicing every 30 days or so but I’ve recently started slacking off and letting some of my locations go for 60 days. If you’re just vending gumballs I think a long servicing cycle would work, but for me 45 days seems about perfect.
