re: Anyone own vending machines?

Truthfully, we could have figured out how to do it all ourselves, but since we have a couple other businesses...time wise it's way better to pay them $200 in labor to knock it all out. And for $9k all in (original purchase, card readers, and upgrades) we're going to have 8 fully functional machines with card readers. Not too shabby.

We went with sams club/costco for now. I figure that'll work well until we decide to find new locations. Then we'll have to go with what you do as it'll make life a million times easier.

I'd say our biggest headache so far has been learning how to properly fill the snack machines. Holy shite is it easy for the product to get stuck in those frickers.

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I'd say our biggest headache so far has been learning how to properly fill the snack machines. Holy shite is it easy for the product to get stuck in those frickers.

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Chips are the worst if your coils aren’t big enough. Not far enough down, they’ll pop out and lay on top and someone loses money, then eventually someone gains a bag of chips. Candy bars…they’ll need to have a slight lean backwards with the back of them leaning on the coil behind them and the bottoms of them up against the coil in front of them.

80+ machines is a lotttt of effort to be bringing home less than 100k take home. And it seems like a fair amount of risk in terms of investment. Hard to sell that many machines really fast. Seems viable if you live in a big city, and much less so if you live in a smaller area.*

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why would I want to sell any of my machines?

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No, you definitely wouldn't. I was saying for those of us that were intrigued enough to try this out and ultimately fail because of various reasons. Seems like a business model to start slow and ONLY scale 1 machine at a time.

I live in Tuscaloosa, AL. Not a big place. I've grown up here and bet I could weasel into a few spots if I wanted to, but that is a lot of money tied up in machines to start on any big scale at all.

I appreciate all of the input btw. It's been a fun thread to watch.

I was hoping you’d update us. How did you clear after expenses?

We make about 50% on each item we sell. Have no real expenses other than the product we buy to refill and the $10/month fee we pay per credit card reader.

We haven't fine-tuned any of the pricing yet. We're waiting to see which items sell and which don't. Then we'll adjust the pricing and will definitely bump up the 50% profit margin while staying much cheaper than convenience stores.

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Quick update: ended up buying six more routes and 13 more machines. So up to 21 machines. The guy I bought the previous route from saved his best six routes after he downsized from 100+ machines and is now just looking to retire. Getting an awesome deal on the machines/routes.

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Nice bump. Enjoyed reading the thread.

Best locations are away from population centers + good highway traffic. Use to have machines in Galliano and Port Sulphur. Incredible numbers….

5 month bump. Googled "Vending Machine tigerdroppings" and this thread came up. I was interested into getting into this type of business at a slow pace.

Not sure if you live in Arkansas Hawgeye but what direction would be best....

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A taxpayer is given 3 options to manage their vending operations in Arkansas. All vending machines must display an annually issued vending device decal, no matter which option is chosen.

Option 1 involves the payment of sales tax directly to the supplier of all merchandise that will be sold through the taxpayer’s vending machines. Food sold through a vending machine can qualify for taxation at the Reduced Food Tax rate (see Rule 2007-3). No Sales/Use Tax permit is required if Option 1 is chosen.

After the opening of a Vending account, fiscal year decals are issued and placed on vending machines by the taxpayer. Prior to the beginning of each new fiscal year, a decal order form is mailed out to all Vending accounts. There are no fees for the annual Option 1 decals.

Option 2 involves reporting/paying the 7% Wholesale Vending Tax (see Rule 1995-2) each month on the merchandise to be sold through the taxpayer’s vending machines. Merchandise is purchased tax free under the sale for resale exemption. A Sales/Use Tax Permit is required. The taxpayer is required to file a monthly ET-1 Excise Tax Report and pay the appropriate tax.

After the opening of a Vending account, fiscal year decals are requested, issued, and placed on vending machines by the taxpayer. Prior to the beginning of each fiscal year, a decal order form is mailed out to all Vending accounts. There are no fees for the annual Option 2 decals.

Option 3 involves exempting vending merchandise purchases from tax under the sale for resale exemption. A Sales/Use Tax Permit is required. The taxpayer is required to file a monthly ET-1 Excise Tax Report.

After opening of a Vending account, fiscal year decals are purchased, issued, and placed on vending machines by the taxpayer. The vending machine operator purchases Option 3 decals based on various factors – manual verses electric vending equipment, value of the vended goods, and bulk verses individually vended goods. Prior to the beginning of each new fiscal year, a decal order form is mailed out to all Vending accounts. Decal costs are shown below.

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TheOcean

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Sorry Ocean...did not see this. Thank Pioneer for getting my attention on Arkansas board...

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Quick update: ended up buying six more routes and 13 more machines. So up to 21 machines. The guy I bought the previous route from saved his best six routes after he downsized from 100+ machines and is now just looking to retire. Getting an awesome deal on the machines/routes.

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That is awesome.

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Hawgeye -- how do you go about pricing items? We want to be significantly cheaper than convenience stores, but high enough price wise where we're making ~$1 per vend.

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You wont like my answer to this if you are trying to be cheaper than convenience stores...but I use convenience stores as my price setter...I end up being cheaper because there is no tax charge obviously.

On items I dont like to just look up on the Quick Trip app, like some pastries or cold food items, I always charge 2.5 times or 3 times my cost. You need to make more than $1 per vend. Not sure what kind of deal you have worked out on Coke products, but I can get a case of Coke products (20oz. bottles) for about $23 which comes out to around $0.98 per bottle. I sell those for $2.75 each. Pepsi products are stupid high. They suck really for vendors. I sell those for $3 because their cost per bottle is around $1.22 for me. I limit my pepsi purchases to Pepsi, Mt Dew and diets in those as well, that is it.