Gumball vending bear

Hand carved red wood bear gumball machine

Gumball Machine

Good day to everyone in the vending world at How2vend! I was able to visit a really awesome shop today in Paso Robles, Ca and I cannot wait to share with you guys what I found gumball.  I found the most unique gumball vending machine that you will ever find in the world. This machine is hand carved out of wood by “Johnny” Daniels of Daniels Woodland.

Daniels Woodland is based in Paso Robles wine country on the Central Coast of California. What they specialize in is Tree Houses for the rich and famous.  As I discovered myself these tree houses are not like any other tree house that I have ever seen in my life. Johnny took me back in time to the clear cutting logging days. “When logging redwoods is what they would do is climb about 10 or so feet above the ground and “notch” the tree to place a board on. They would do that on either side of the trunk and have two lumberjacks climb up the trunk to the boards and cut the tree’s down.” Johnny explained.  Decades later those trunks still remain. Daniels Woodland will harvest those trunks. Many of those harvested redwood trees have trunks with a diameter of 30 feet or more.  “We have a 7’ chainsaw that we use to core out the middle of the trunks.” Johnny said.  After the trunk is cored they will stand the trunk up and cut a hole for the entry way. Then they build the most wonderful tree house with any type of amenities that you could think of. “Running water, electricity, and really your heart’s desire” Johnny said.  You will have to visit their website at Danielswoodland.com to get a look for yourself. They sell these tree houses to U.S. Policy makers and professional sports team owners. They do ship them all over the world. However, tree houses are not the only things they build. They do themes for movies and create the most amazing coin op shooting galleries around.

Johnny’s brother and partner Ron has operated vending machines for years and had always wanted to create a coin op shooting gallery.  Ron also inspired Johnny to hand carve the gumball bear that is pictured above.  This gumball vending machine in unlike any other vending machine I have every operated or laid my eyeballs on.  “This is just the type of machine that just really attracts people. It is unlike anything most people have ever laid their eyes on except at a place like Disneyland. At 6’ and hand carve out of one piece of wood you could imagine the sales we have made with this machine.” Ron said.  They tested the gumball vending bear at the local fair the past 2 consecutive years and could not keep gumballs in the machine. “We had fill the bear with an entire box of gumballs twice a day.” Ron explained. For those who are new to vending a box of gumballs is from 850-950 gumballs and every single one sells for a quarter. “ Next year we are going to place some green apple gumballs in the machine and change the coin mech so the machine vends at .50 cents instead of .25 cents. “ Ron explained.  “The foot traffic was there and we just want to protect our profit margins in such a tough economy. It is far better to gain more income with less.” Ron said.

These gumball vending bears are incredible and really bring a special element to the vending world.  I think a lot of vending machine operators really try sticking to the norm in a lot of ways capping revenue. These bears are a great way of adding a really unique money making element that all of us vending machine operators can learn from.  Worst case scenario we can all ad one of these machines to our routes.

Have a great day Vendors,

Randall

How2vend.com