Finding & Landing A Good Vending Machine Location

What is a good location? This question is relative, based on your company's size and goals. A national vending concern considers a good account to have gross sales over $240,000 per year ($20,000 per month), whereas a small vendor working out of his garage might consider an account with sales of $6,000 per year ($500 per month) to be a good account. Start with your goals. What kind of vending machine business do you want? How much capital do you have? What are your operational plans? Is this a full time venture for you or a part time income?

For example, a vending machine account that generates $20,000 per month probably will have at least 6 vending machines (3 sets, snack/soda). These vending machines would need to be late model or new, an investment of at least $15,000 in equipment. To service an account of this nature, a vending machine operator would require:
* $2,000 in parts for immediate repair - Customers like this expect service calls to be completed within 4 hours of the initial call.
* A running daily inventory of $5,000 in vending machine product
* Service 2-3 times a day
* Fully insured - liability, workers compensation, etc.
* Paying a commission
* Driving a late model vending truck ($40,000)
* Extremely professional demeanor
* $62,000 in initial capital investment, plus ongoing expenses (telephone, office expense etc.), before the first dollar is generated

As you can imagine, this type of account is very rare, could require even more equipment than we discussed here, and is highly desirable.

A vending machine account that generates $500 per month can have as little as a single vending machine, which could be older and might even have been free. Servicing this account is much easier, requiring 2 route stops per month, service calls handled in a reasonable amount of time (within 5 days), could be run out of a car or pickup truck, would not be a commission account (unless you are crazy), and would have little ongoing expense. These accounts are much more plentiful and, therefore, less desirable.

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