Good afternoon folks. I hope this message finds you well. Now that you have read a few articles in my blog about locating I want to address and issue just as important as locating. Now if you have been in the business for a long time you may already have a way of handling this problem without even thinking about a thought.
So now you have all those vending machines out of your garage and out on location you are going to run into a few that may not want your vending machine anymore. This can be for any reasons like taking up to much space, or frustrated with you because the machine sits there and doesn’t put cash in their pockets when they would like.
Over the next few weeks I am going to be sharing with you strategies for keeping locations. After all it can take week after week of follow up to land a location. You don’t just want to sit back and let people give you the boot now would you?
After all it can cost you lots of time, fuel, and energy to land a location. That is just the reality of the work we are in. “People” and they are very hard to deal with sometimes.
So the next time your phone rings and it is one of your vending machine locations answer the phone or call them back.
When you speak to them find out is going on with the machine. Usually when I get a call from a vending machine location the machine is either empty or broken.
What comes next is very very important for you to remember so take some notes. Tell them that you were actually planning to visit their location to check on things and thank them for the message.
Next you give them a day that you plan on showing up there and be sure to make it to the location. If you tell them you will be there tomorrow to make them happy and you don’t show up for several days after they are for sure going to be pissed and hard to deal with.
Remember that you are dealing with business people that are savvy at being pushy to get what they want. I have actually been locked inside a store and threatened if I didn’t give them 50% percent. Long story short they nearly went to jail. But none the less they will try everything under the Sun so it is very important you have the means of dealing with them in a positive effective way.
Stick with me over the next couple weeks and I will share with you real tricks of saving locations. Just remember, keeping a location is just as important as being able to land a location.
I don’t know about you guys but since I have started in the vending machine business I have accumulated tons and tons of keys. I buy a used piece of equipment and I get keys. I purchase 15 new machines I get different keys and the list goes on.
Really there is nothing like going into a vending machine location and wasting time trying to find the right key. The keys for the gumball machines are different than the sticker machine keys and the sticker machine keys are different than the 2” capsule machines.
If you operate only bulk vending equipment for example stickers, 1” items, and 2”items then you will only have three keys and three keys really isn’t that bad.
My current set of keys is in the picture here in the video. However, my goal is to shrink my key ring down to 5 keys. I know for a fact that goal is going to be hard to meet because some machines are not compatible with certain locks. For example my padlocks can be keyed all of the same but the key for the crane machines has to be different than all of the padlock keys.
I plan on updating my bulk vending racks to all have the same barrel locks. What is awesome about that is the gumball barrel locks are only a half turn. You don’thave to sit there and spin the fat wad of keys around and around until the lock comes off. Beaver Vending Machine Manufacturer I have found to have the best solution for this.
If you know any other place to get the same bulk vending locks please let me know by posting a response in the comments below.
Padlocks that are all keyed the same are easy to come by. Feel free to use google or click the following link. Have a great day and as always, “Successful Vending.”
Tool Vending Machines
I would have to say that what you are about to see may very well blow your socks right of your gumball vending machine feet. As you can likely tell by now I am completely stoked on all types of vending machines. Coin Op type stuff from your basic mechanical working vending machine to your more sophisticated type vending machines like the setup I am about to share with you. But before I do I want to share with you a little bit about a book that may change your life.
The book is written by Harvard graduates. Shocking I know right? The authors are W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne and the book they have written is called, “Blue Ocean Strategy”. By intentionally not competing with direct competitors and being innovated you are able to find a profitable niche that will have years of substantial growth, essentially teaching you to focus on untapped market segments for huge returns on your ventures.
You guys have to order this book now.
The “Big Blue Ocean Strategy” really rocks and it will change your prospective from the old head-to-head competition way of doing business to sustained profitable growth type business routinely. Enough of the tangent, tool vending machines are amazing and a niche perhaps that few if any gumball machine owners have delved into.
Crib Master is that very company that specializes in tool management and tool vending machines. Just think of how many federal and state penitentiaries within a 300 hundred mile radius of your home. Talk about a gravy train of a contract. I think one of the hardest things to tackle would be to setting the agreement in such a way that it will be more beneficial for the State or Federal government to rent the equipment from you rather than purchase the equipment themselves. Please post your comments.
I for see lots of untapped potential for this type of vending machines don’t you? Here is a link to the site. Crib Master
Here is a show and tell video clip and it is actually filmed really well. I didn’t find it cheese at all like some promotional videos. It was uploaded to youtube just 2 weeks ago so this info is really hot off the press.
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If you happened to grow up in the 1980’s when the arcade machine business was really booming. At some point or another you probably tried to hack a vending machine. Now that I run several vending machines and see what kids do to try and get free product or money I must show a little sympathy.
The funny thing is kids think the vending operator won’t find out. Or really funny thing is the fact that they think the hack will work. We would spend hours as kids running around new home construction sites looking for the round metal pieces punched out of the electrical boxes to use as slugs.
We would have pockets full of these slugs and after all that time searching for them we were ready to ride our bikes to the 7-Eleven to play Street Fighter. Low and behold we would pump a slug in the machine and it would just fall out of the return slot.
We wasted our whole day. It really served as right. We didn’t stop there. We heard from a friend’s older brother that we could tie a string onto a quarter. With all the time spent trying to pull one over on this vending machine we could have made plenty of money mowing lawns or something.
We went home and got a real quarter. Then we drilled a small hole in the side of the quarter and then tied a thread onto it.
We went back to the Street Fighter game at the 7-Eleven and dropped the quarter in the coin slot and pulled the string thinking we could pull it back out. We ended up breaking the string trying to pull the quarter back up.
This was a horrible failure. As the case with other people that try to get something for nothing out of our vending machines.
Beer or Wine? What is your preference? With a winery opening up just about every day in California I cannot help but wonder if there will ever be a time when a vending machine setup to distribute wine shows up I will not be surprised.
After all there are several vending machines setup in California to distribute Marijuana. So is it that far of a stretch to expect a vending machine to sell beer in the future? If you lived in Japan the story would be very different.
Not only can beer be sold out of a vending machine. The beer can be sold out of a vending machine on the street corner. Can you believe that? There is no way of checking for identification. Anyone looking to get buzzed can just insert the money.
Hot girl uses Beer vending machine
While in Washington D.C as a High School student I found cigarette vending machines but not beer vending machines.
That would have been the greatest day of the trip. I mean just think of all the locations that you can land with that equipment.
The most obvious locations to place one of those machines would have to be a college dorm or Fraternity. I really don’t know what would be stopping a college student from loading the Frats soda machine with beer as at least one of the product selections.
After all they are college students. Getting that higher education isn’t as important as using it right?
So the next place I think a beer vending machine would work is a baseball stadium. Not just the professional sports but the minor leagues as well. You know that beer would be over priced but hey at least you will not have to feel bad for not tipping the beer vendor guy that delivers your beer.
Do you think the beer vending machines should be legal in the United States?
Some of the most popular Franchises in The United States are really blue chip companies. Mc Donalds is one of the most well know franchises around the world. Do you have a guess on how much a Mc Donalds franchise will cost?
Well not to mention the fact that you have to pay for your building and property expenses. You have to pay the franchise $45, 000 dollars a year for an agreement of 20 years. In addition to the hefty annual fee, there is also a profit share of %12.5.
I want everyone to know that even with a high profile franchise like Mc Donalds that there are some the fail within the franchise.
There is nothing more annoying to me than to see a guy over sell a franchise to another person. Heck, I think most people that sell franchises are only in the business to sell franchises.
Let me share true personal story with you. I went to a business owner shindig. We had a BBQ and the food and the friends where great.
I will never forget when a friend was telling me about the fruit smoothie and veggie wrap business he just purchased and he introduced me to the man who sold it to him.
The franchise salesman could not help himself even with my friend in his presence. I will call the salesman Jim because I do not remember his name. So Jim says, “Randall, what do you do for a living?” I said “Jim, I run vending machines” and I kind of gave him my elevator pitch on the type of equipment I operate.
The next words out of Jim’s mouth really shocked me. He said, “Huh, are there any franchises available for vending machines?” “I imagine there are I have never thought about that. I never really had a need for that.
I realized at that moment this slime ball sold my buddy a franchise not caring about what happened to my friend and now he was interested in opening a franchise in the vending business. A business by the way, he only new about from a 5 minute conversation he had with me.
Needless to say I was very sad my friend got sold on his smoothie franchise and after 2 years my friends doors where closed.
When it comes to the vending machine business it is best to start with one or two vending machines and then work your way up to full time. There is
not one vending machine franchise that I would ever recommend.
There is plenty of free information to help you be successful in the vending machine business.
Alright everybody I hope that you are having a great Day. I have taken the time to compile what I would call a short list of Vending machine suppliers and manufactures.
The list below is of no particular order. Many, not all links are to vending machine wholesalers that I currently use or have come to learn about by attending some to the Trade Shows.
There is a great opportunity to get information from trade shows Like the NBVA (National Bulk Vending Association) Show. So at some point I would recommend everyone go. You can really learn a lot from meeting the different vending machine suppliers.
You also get an Idea at the NBVA how of where the industry is going and what products become fads and really sell out for other vending machine operators.
Many Items are universal and will sell in any vending machine location. However, we should all be in tune with items that are selling in our machines. If you know your customer you know your product that you can offer.
If you are a supplier and you want to be added to this list please feel free to drop us an email at rhl.e@hotmail.com. So we can add you to the list. Thank you and have a great day.
Last summer Coca-Cola found a new, efficient way to reach out to customers in rural areas. This began in India when it was noticed that many rural areas do not have ways to cool the Coca-Cola products they are selling. Many of these areas do not have electricity consistently throughout the day or do not have it at all. While trying to be environmentally friendly and economical Coca-Cola India has created a solar powered cooler. It is called the ‘eKOCool”. According to The Times of India:
“eKOCool’, a chest cooler, operates exclusively through solar energy, with no other electricity source required to operate it. It has a capacity to store two crates, which contains 48 glass bottles of 300 ml each.”
Solar Coke Machines
This new invention should greatly improve sales of coke products in these outlying rural areas. Retailers of the product get to enjoy savings on their electricity and ice costs. Most retailers have been selling coke products in ice coolers, but with minimal ice. The Times of India continues to say:
“A pilot project under which 20 such coolers were placed in rural areas near Agra has been successfully completed this summer (2011). Sales from these outlets have jumped nearly five times, a company official said.”
As this new invention continues to be successful Coca-Cola sees many other areas of the world that will be able to benefit from it. They have already received orders from some African countries. We will most likely be seeing other companies following in their footsteps with solar vending machines. There is an additional cost for the solar panels, but with the ability to place them in areas that previously could not have electrical vending machines makes it very cost effective. I think Coca-Cola has come up with a great idea here and has changed not only the soft drink market but the vending machine market as well.
OK So here are 31 vending machines that I have thought to be weird for one Reason or another. Some because of the type of vending machine and others because of the products the vending machines are offering. I wish there was a way for you guys to vote on the photos that you like the best. Enjoy.
Pay Phone
Lobster Vending Machine
Vend “Like a Boss”
Live Bait
If you think sharing a bulk location is weird.
Hotdogs?Tuna?
The Guy who thinks he can win……Bahhahahhahaha
Buy Guns from a vending machine.
You will never find one of these in America
I don’t Even want to know what this machine does
Language Barrier I would imagine
HMMMM
Excellent for the kids. Should be “feed Pancho”.
Baby Vendor
Thats weird.
Old School
Play Golf?
Human Vending
That looks like a tourist attraction type spot
I have no clue.Ostrage eggs?
Iam impressed
Who ever took the time to make this is crazy
Nice combination. Liquor and M&M’s
Amsterdam. Im suprised the machines are not broken into. Seriously.
Some people
All about Homer
Not sure what they are going for here
Creepy
Oh boy. I can see the headline now, “Idiot loses are over .30 cent pretzel snack. Vending machine owner would not return arm for re-attachment.”
Are you confident that vending machine accidents statistics are in your favor as a business owner? After the research I have recently done I am not convinced. You are more likely to be killed or injured by a vending machine than by lightning.
The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission recorded 37 deaths and 113 injuries from 1978 to 1995. For those without a desk top calculator that is an average of 2.18 deaths per year and 3.05 injuries per year.
Now the CPSC report was to show that Soda Machines where safer with a label warning people of injury or death if shaken to get free product or money from the machine.
Anyone that has been around any type of vending machine will know that shaking a machine will only get the individual hurt or killed.
However, a single gumball machine that a kid is climbing on and ends up pulling that gumball machine down on themselves will certainly cause bodily injury. With any injury there is the potential of lawsuit.
If you have run a large vending machine route for years and years you may have experienced these vending machine accidents statistics yourself. The unfortunate situation starts when the little girl’s parents just happen to have a camera to shoot the pictures of the vending machine on top of their little girl along with her injuries.
All in all that is what you pay insurance for. They will send lawyers to handle and settle any claim that you have.
Any type of label you have to place on your machine warning idiot’s of the inherent danger of being crushed like a soda can. That would be great.
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