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NEW! Is Now the Right Time to Buy Gumball/Candy Machines for Passive Income?
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8 Ways to Pay For Your Vending Machines
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Will I Need
Business Insurance?
Use your Home as a
Bank to Pay for Machines
How
Much Time will it take?
Optimum Route
Size
Figuring Your Cost Per Vend for Higher Profits
Quick Ways to Increase Sales, 1
Quick Ways to Increase Sales, 2
What Can I Sell in My Machines?
Hard to Vend Items
5 Things to think about Before Buying Machines
What Type Machines are Best?
What about Vending Locator Services?
Investing Your Tax Refund
Talking to Bankers
The Real Costs of Running a Vending Business
Grow the Person, Grow the Business
Great Business Reading
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Hard to
Vend Items
It is best to carefully consider the products you sell
in your vending machines. There are a few items that are hard
to vend unless the conditions are favorable at the business
location. Here is a list of hard to vend items to help
you:
Hot Tamales and Mike and Ike's:
Both of these candies have a gummy texture which can cause the candy to
stick together. This in turn causes the candy not to fall
through the machine and vend (or get a partial vend). This
can partly be solved by lightly spraying the candy with
a cooking spray such as "Pam" available at grocery stores and
Wal-Mart. I do not recommend cheap brands of cooking spray as they
seem to not hold up as well as Pam. This problem is WORSE
in humid climates as well as in the summer season. Some
operators only use these choices in the winter and fall. If the
sales are not high enough to empty the machine, the candy will turn hard
and can smell bad in as little as 2-3 months.
Peanuts,
Nuts, and Cashews: While these can be vended
successfully, if the volume of your sales are not high enough you will end
up getting complaints about the product getting old. Throwing
away product cuts into your profit margin. Nuts already have a low
profit margin to begin with. For that reason, I vend nuts
only as a last resort (when the customer insists on
it).
M&M Peanuts: I have many
M&M Peanut machines and will probably sell about 500 large
bags or so this year. They work good ONLY if you have a high
volume of sales to keep them fresh. If a machine
only sells a few dollars of M&M Peanuts you will lose
money. Currently, these are the lowest profit margin on candy I sell
but the high volumes cause me to stay profitable. You also must
watch the temperature of the business. If it gets too hot the candy
will melt. If it is by a window during the winter, it can
freeze. When the M&M Peanut thaws, it explodes an
becomes a real money-losing mess.
Reese's Pieces and
Skittles: You also have to watch high temperatures with
Reese's Pieces and less so with Skittles. Again, high volume will
help make up for some of these problems, but it is always good to be aware
of what can potentially happen with your candy choices. By far,
these two choices are easier to vend than the previous products
mentioned.
The image you project is just as important as
anything else, and healthy looking candy helps you achieve a good name and
great sales. And remember, great sales means you get to take that
vacation, buy more machines, or do whatever floats your boat!
I
recommend reading the article "Figuring Your
Cost per Vend" to help you consider if you can sell some of these
hard to vend items.
Mark Evants
(C) Christmark Enterprises,
LLC.
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