Posts Tagged ‘purchasing a vending route’

Purchasing a vending machine route

There are some people in this world who have more money than brains. Please do not get me wrong I am not trying to be critical of those types of people and if you have read any of my other post you would know I have fit the profile at one time or another. We have all been there at one time or another in our lives. We get excited about buying a gently used jeep and take it for a test spin. The engine seems to run fine and the interior is nice and then we exchange money and get the title. After a week goes by we decide to test out the 4 wheel drive and realize that the jeep you bought doesn’t have 4 wheel drive at all. You feel ripped off or cheated maybe and then realize the bad purchase was completely your fault. You became so excited and wrapped up in the thought of owning that jeep you completely became blinded by all the logical things that should have protect you.

So the question is should I purchase an established vending route? My answer is only if you can get it for a good price. A great price is for the cost of the used equipment and not a dime more. A fair price for an established vending route is the cost of the used equipment and 1 or 2 months revenue.

Anything more than that amount and you can purchase your own machines and if you get on a roll during a locating day you can land anywhere between 10 and 30 new locations.

Those that flip vending machines routes are in business generally trying to sell over priced equipment and inflated revenue statistics. If you then purchase their route you generally  WILL BE RIPPED OFF! I have seen it happen to a close friend of mine. It happens to the best of us.

When serious about purchasing a vending route:

1 run the route with the person selling to help validate statistical claims (note that summer generally will have more sales than December)

2 Get to know the locations owners. They need to be informed that ownership may change. You must be capable of maintaining original owner’s agreement. You don’t want to buy a route and have to renegotiate the commission terms and loose location as a result of non agreement.

3 Know exactly why they are selling the route. Do they flip routes? Are the business statistics not working for them? Get to the TRUTH as to why they are selling.

In closing please keep in mind that you are always better off trying the vending business out with the purchase of a few small machines. This will help you learn the vending machine business with real hands on while the investment is cheap. No need to spend $80,000 dollars on a vending route or machines you might not like to operate.

(By the way this information is applicable to mechanical vending machines only. Do not purchase a route full of electronic vending machines unless you are completely aware of all technical aspects of those machines AND IF THE REPLACEMENT PARTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE. You would be surprised how often people sell those routes and for killer prices. In reality a killer price for that type of route is FREE especially when replacement parts are not available anymore!)

There are some great places to find vending machine routes but please keep in mind the route for sale in your local classifieds is generally a package for new machines placed for you.  Please comment rate and subscribe to the blog and visit our other posts.