Choosing the right vending machine
Picking what type of candy vending machines you will use will be the single most important thing you do when you start your bulk vending business
Picking the right machine will make your life as vendor very easy, picking the wrong machine will have you quitting the business.
There are a couple of things that I believe are must haves when picking a machine.
In the next paragraphs I will let you know what you need, and what you don’t.
Interchangable Canisters
This is a must have when deciding what bulk vending machine you want to buy.
If you don’t have interchangeable canisters then changing out the candy in your machine will be very hard.
You might be asking what are interchangeable canisters.
They are when you can separately remove each canister from the machine.
For example let’s say you have a three head bulk vending machine,and you need to change the skittles because they are getting low.
You arrive on location and you open the machine and you pull off the canister that is holding the skittles.
You take canister back to your car and put new candy in it, or you load it up right there on the spot.
If you don’t have these interchangeable canisters it would be impossible to do this.
You would have to dig the old candy out by hand, and it is virtually impossible to get out all the old candy, and it would take a long time.
Changing your candy vending machines to different types of candies at would be very hard also.
How is the Money Kept
This is another important aspect of your candy vending machines. Where does the quarters dispense to?
Do the quarters dispense into a tray of some sort or just in the back of the machine, or maybe into a tube of some sort.
My first machines the quarters just fell into the back of the machine.
When I got on location I would take my key out and open the back and takes the quarters out one by one.
At first when I started out this wasn’t a big deal but when there were 25 to 40 dollars in the back of the candy machines, it started to be a real pain bending and squatting down to get the quarters.
So when you are looking for a machine you need to buy a machine that the quarters drop into something so you don’t have to pick the quarters up one by one.
Whether it is a tray or tube or whatever, as long as you are not picking up quarters one by one.
Two Separte Locks for your Machines
The next thing you need to think about when buying a machine is does the machine use two different sets of locks and keys to open the candy compartment and the money compartment.
This is key if you every want to hire someone to service your machine.
You can give the key to the person you hire to service only the candy part and not worry about your money being skimped off the top.
So look for a bulk vending machine that has two different sets of locks, one lock and key for the candy and one lock and key for the money.
Look for Candy Vending Machines with a small Footprint
When picking your candy vending machines you will need a machine with a small footprint.
A small foot print is a bulk vending machine that doesn’t take up more than two feet of space on the floor.
You don’t want your machine taking up more that two feet of space on the floor because it will be hard to place the machine, and if you use a locating service then they are going to want to charge you more.
Do not buy Cheap Plastic Vending Machines
Please do not be cheap when you are buying your candy vending machines.
If you buy a plastic machine you are only going to have to do repairs and you will lose a lot of money.
My friend from high school is in the bulk vending business too and he has over 300 vending machines and they are all plastic.
The coin mechanisms are plastic which I believe is just insane, and by the way plastic starts to look cheap after a while.
Coin mechanisms are where you put the quarter in and turn the knob; I believe they should be metal so they won’t break.
He does a lot of repairs and loses money every month when a machine breaks.
For example lets use my friend as an example he has 300 machines and he goes to every machine at least once a month, which is what the average bulk vendor does.
So he goes to location A which is one of his car wash locations and on December 5, well he is not going to service that machine until next month.
Well a couple of days later some kid comes up to the machines and breaks all of the coin mechanisms by turning them the wrong way because they are plastic and can easily be broken.
Well my friend Mark comes back January 5 expecting to find 25 to 40 dollars in his machine, but instead finds his candy machine out of service.
He goes to his machine and opens the money compartment and only finds 5 dollars, he is upset of course because he was expecting any where between 25 and 40 dollars.
I hope he brought spare parts with him, because if he didn’t he will have to double back on his route or worse come back another day and fix the machine.
A broke machine is a major problem, and it can cause you to lose your location. Nobody wants a problem.
Your candy vending machines need an air tight seal
This might be harder to find but there are candy vending machines out there that have an air tight seal.
Having an air tight seal on your bulk vending machine will save you a lot of problems.
Problem number one is ants. With an air tight seal you will not have an ant problem.
When I first started out vending I got a call from one of my locations telling me that my machine had ants in it.
When I got there it wasn’t pretty, ants were all over and in the machine.
I took the machine out of the location and of course the owner didn’t want my vending machine anymore, I didn’t want it there either.
I lost 38 dollars in candy and I didn’t use the candy machine anymore.
If I would of started out in vending with a machine with an air tight seal no ants would have got in the machine and it would have save me a location.
The location was a good one too, it was doing about 42 dollars a month.
The next reason why you need an air tight seal on your candy vending machines are to preserve the candy inside a lot longer.
When I first started I would change my candy about every two months and I was losing all kinds of money.
The Candy wasn’t fresh and it was getting stale, so I bought more candy. This wasted time and money.
Now I change candy every six months unless one of my machines empties out of course, but other than that it is every six months.
Now my candy stays fresh longer and you can be confident that you are selling a fresh product.
Lets Recap
Ok the most important things if I was starting over today purchasing candy vending machines, would be interchangeable canisters.
The next thing would be buying a bulk vending machine that has all metal coin mechanisms, and hopefully the machine is mostly made out of metal also.
The last thing would be an air tight seal. I say last because I know there aren’t a lot of machines out there have this feature.
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