Things have been going pretty well lately, but I've noticed sales starting to dip a bit. I'm wondering if it's time to switch up the product mix or if I should give it a little more time.
For those who've been in vending for a while, how do you decide when to replace slower-selling items? Do you try new flavors, switch to different brands, or focus more on what already sells consistently?
What would you pay? Super new to this. I’ve scored an apartment location that has 2 laundry rooms and they want 2 machines in each, so 4 total. 1 will be drinks/snacks and the other is laundry/body supplies.
Each laundry room is open 24/7 and they have 80 units that tend to each room, so 160 units total.
They want a monthly rent fee. What would you pay? They made it clear they expect more than something like $25.
Question for the operators. Card readers and telemetry tell us what's in the machines, but how are you tracking what's in the garage, unit or storeroom?
- Spreadsheet, notebook, or just in your head?
- How do you decide what needs ti be bought at the cash & carry?
- Ever been caught out by stock going out of date, or cash tied up in stuff that doesn't sell?
I'm a small operator in Essex and I've been struggling with this myself, so I'm curious what works for everyone else.
Does it make a difference if it’s a cooler and you have chips crackers candies etc in the same machine ?
I have the opportunity to install 4 machines at a massive property. It’s a creative work space so I anticipate half the traffic will be tenants and half their clients.
Landlord is cool w it but obvs wants a cut, mostly for electrical pull.
I don’t mind buying the machines and doing everything myself. But monthly, what percentage of profit should I offer the property owner?
I run a few smart fridges in Essex, and my card reader is great at telling me what's in the machines. What it doesn't do is tell me what's sitting in my storeroom, garage and van, what's about to go out of date, or what I actually need to buy before restock day. I was doing that on a spreadsheet and getting it wrong.
So I've built an app for it called Backstock. It's aimed at operators with a handful of machines rather than big route businesses.
What it does:
- Tracks stock across your storeroom, garage, van, etc.
- Keeps best-before dates per batch and always uses the nearest date first
- Builds your shopping list from your own reorder levels and recent sales, rounded to whole cases
- Pick lists for the machines you're visiting today
- Imports Nayax sales reports
- Scans receipts and barcodes so there's less typing
- Puts restock days in your calendar with the shopping list added the day before
- Spots slow sellers and the money tied up in them
What I'm after: 15–20 operators to use it for real restocks for at least two weeks from 17 November, and tell me what's confusing, broken or missing. iPhone and Android both welcome, but I especially need Android testers, because Google requires 12 people opted in for 14 days before a new app can launch.
What you get: free Pro access during the beta, then the founding price for life (£4.99/month instead of £7.99) if you want to keep using it. (We also offer the equivalent in dollars for our US operators)
Sign up here (takes 2 minutes): https://forms.gle/NDSW8JgWqSYQXm4w7
Also happy to hear how you all track storeroom stock now, even if you don't want to test. Spreadsheets, apps, back of an envelope?
I recently started a vending machine business and i got my first location I’m installing a 38 combo selection vending machine but im stumped on this choice what do you guys carry in your vending machine and where do you guys get it from everyone says Costco, Sams choice and Walmart
Hello,
New to the vending world but curious which mobile app was the “managing” app for cantaloupe?
TIA
I’ve been thinking about getting into vending, but there’s one major problem that keeps bothering me: I already know I’d probably hate constantly restocking a traditional snack/soda machine.
I completely understand why chips, candy, and soda are the tried-and-true vending products. They’re cheap, recognizable, people make an impulse purchase without thinking much about it, and you make your money through volume.
But that model just doesn’t really appeal to me. I’d rather have something with a somewhat higher price point and margin if it meant I could restock less frequently.
The problem is figuring out what people will actually buy.
I’ve been looking at things like TCG products, collectibles, toys, etc. Pokémon seems particularly interesting right now because there’s clearly a huge amount of demand. But I also don’t want to rely on buying Pokémon products at inflated prices and then putting them in a machine at scalper prices. If a booster pack normally sells for $5–6, I don’t think people are necessarily going to pay $10–12 just because it’s in a vending machine.
I’ve also thought about cheaper toys or mystery items, but I’m wondering if the problem with those is that they’re too random. Something can look interesting enough to get someone’s attention, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll spend $5–10 on it. I also am perplexed. Why not sell your products online where people have wide accessibility. I mean you could still sell your tcg or whatever online. Why would someone do vending ? For me, there is something about physical that makes me feel like I accomplished something. If I did a eBay store let’s say there’s nothing tangible. I feel like I’m not so successful. Strange but that’s what I’m feeling at the moment.
So I’m curious about people who have actually experimented with non-traditional vending products:
What did you sell?
What price point worked best?
Did people actually buy it consistently?
Did the product get attention but not sales?
Was the problem that people didn’t recognize the product?
Was the price too high?
Did the novelty wear off?
Was the profit margin good but sales volume too low?
Or did it actually work better than traditional snacks/drinks?
I’m especially interested in products that are recognizable, somewhat unique, don’t expire, and can sell for maybe $5–15.
Ideally something that appeals to adults as well as kids/teens, because I’d rather not depend entirely on parents buying something for their kids.
I’m not necessarily looking for someone to tell me “just sell chips and soda.” I understand why that works. I’m more interested in hearing from people who tried something different and learned why it did or didn’t work.
What have you guys tried?