The Vending Consultant

Note: The following is believed to be the best consultation you'll ever receive in helping you start the right vending business. Skimming this section would be a waste of time. Read each section carefully. After doing so, feel free to call us for additional counsel.

There are only two important factors to consider:
Rate of return on your (1)time & (2)money invested.

THE BEST VENDING BUSINESS?
There are many vending programs on the market. The following is a comparative analysis between the snack and soda business, or any similar type vending business, and the bulk candy and gumball vending business, more specifically, the U-Spin Spacesaver. This Consultation page will clearly point out which business serves as the best use of your TIME & MONEY. TIME & MONEY, by the way, are the only things that are important. Furthermore, you will learn why the U-Spin Spacesaver (4 & 8 Selection bulk candy merchandiser) is the best merchandiser in the industry and why it makes finding locations easy and servicing efficient.

The U-Spin Spacesaver (right) is not a "snack" machine. A snack machine is a merchandiser that dispenses candy bars, potato chips and pastries. The U-Spin Spacesaver is a bulk candy, gumball and toy vending machine. This vending machine dispenses handfuls of candies such as Skittles, M&M's, peanuts, Fruit Tart Chews, mints, gum balls and more.

Although the snack and soda vending business is a good sound business and at times very profitable, compared to the properly built bulk candy vending business, there is no comparison. After 13 years of being in vending, we no longer sell snacks, drinks, coffee or sandwiches. The biggest reason for this is that it's not very efficient. We make allot more money with less work in the bulk candy and gumball business. Snack and drink vending requires that you stock one item at a time. The most average profit one is able to pick up in an hour's time is around $75.00 (before route expenses, taxes etc. That's stocking about 225 items in about 45 minutes to 1 hour including setup and drive time. The average profit per sale is around 35 cents.

COMPARE
A large capacity will give you the ability to collect a large amount of money when visiting a vending machine. The U-Spin Spacesavers hold between 650 & 2000 servings. That's 3 to 4 times greater capacity than most snack and soda machines. This is crucially important to me because it means I SERVICE THE MACHINE WHEN IT HAS COLLECTED OVER $100.00. In fact, we average around $125.00 per visit less 20% food cost leaving us with $100.00 GROSS PROFIT per visit. Instead of wasting our time plopping one gum ball at a time into the machine, like snack & soda, we pour 500 servings of candy in and do 2 to 4 STOPS PER HOUR. That's impossible to do with snack and soda, especially since the profit margin is terrible compared to bulk candy. We run a 20% food cost with bulk candy while snack & soda vending averages around 45%-50% cost.

If a machine has this much capacity, there is no need to service it until there is at least $100+ in it. If it's doing $100 per month, simply wait 6 weeks and collect $150. If you have a route of 60 machines, service 10 each week. After 6 weeks, you'll have serviced the entire route and it only took 5 hours per week. Want proof? Come here and run the route with us.

Something to consider: If a good location, like a restaurant, allows machines, they probably already have them. Why should they let you in the door? Good question. With the typical candy machine, they'll probably say "NO". If you're lucky enough to get in the door, you'll be set beside all the others and do a measly $15.00 per month. Not with the U-Spin Spacesavers. Read on

Continued in column 3...

THE DIFFERENCE
THE ONLY TYPE OF LOCATIONS THAT I LIKE TO CALL ON ARE ONES THAT ALREADY HAVE MACHINES. Why? If a location has a machine, or two or three, that means they allow them in the first place. With the U-Spin Spacesavers, we show them a vending machine that has as many, IF NOT MORE, selections as ALL 2 OR 3 OF THEIR VENDING MACHINES COMBINED, without taking up any more space than any ONE of their machines, let alone all three of them cluttering up the place. Location is everything and the vending machine you present will make the difference. Personally, even if you gave a 2 or 3 selection vending machine for free, I wouldn't waste my time trying to grow the route. The work itself is more than I would want to do in finding locations. The volume produced and the money collected per hour, due to small capacities, would make it even worse. We've been down that road.

My opinion is very strong because I know how hard I used to work on the route for 'peanuts'. Now I can service 10 machines in less than 5 hours, including going to the wholesaler to pick up product, and collect over $1000.00.

Although we only operate bulk candy and gumball machines on our own vending routes, we do sell snack and soda machines as well as medical and other miscellaneous vending machines. If you have an interest in these types of vending machines, check out our catalog and give us a call with any questions about the vending business you might have.

To check out these phenomenal bulk candy, gumball and toy vending machines called the U-Spin Spacesavers, visit our U-Spin site.

Whatever you want to do, we're here to help you. Feel free to contact us anytime.

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