BEGINNERS GUIDE TO VENDING

PRICE HUNTING

Shopping for the best prices for softdrinks, snacks and candy is more important then ever. Companies such as Vistar, Sam's club, Cosco and BJ's are starting to feel the heat of slowing sales, i have talked to the manager of my local Sam's and he has told me this himself. I have noticed that candy prices have dropped 2 to 3 cents since they raised their prices 5 cents in late may. I have also noticed in my area that these four companies are competing with each other with sales, coupons and larger count boxes of candy. The best way to find lower prices is to find a Sam's, Cosco, or BJ's that are near one another, they become very competetive when they are only a few miles apart. To be honest i do not shop at Cosco they have a very limited selection of snacks and candy, their chip selection is awful. I find Sam's to have the best prices overall, you can't beat their prices on chips, cookies, frozen food and ice cream. Candy is still the toughest to find a good price, some Sam's have brought in the counter top display box's of candy they have more pieces per box and in some cases they are a variety of two candies, such as skittles and starburst. The best thing about these boxes is the unit price, 3 to 7 cents cheaper then the regular boxes. I have found Vistar's prices to be the least competitive but they have the best selection of chips, softdrinks and frozen foods, they carry all the varieties of chips you can't find at the warehouse stores. BJ's runs sales on candy once and awhile and you can find some great prices on some of their sales, i have found some recent sales at 32 cents per bar that's a great price on chocolate bars. BJ's also sends out coupon magazines and booklets, some coupon's are for 1 to 2 dollars off an item and buy one get one free.
If you shop around you can find some excellent deals, try to find a Cosco, Sam's or BJ's that are close together don't drive around too much and eat up your savings on gas, stick to your area.
HAPPY VENDING!!

CHOCOLATE BAR SUBSTITUTES

Hello again, as we all know chocolate bars such as snickers, twix & butterfinger have skyrocketed in price over the last couple of years, so what can we do. We can do a few things, we can absorb the increase in price, we can pass on the price to our customers, or we can substitute some of the chocolate bars with some higher profit items. If you do not have these items in your vending machine then try them, Nutty bars (these are chocolate wafers with peanut butter between them), Oreo cookies (6 pack), Sweet & salty bars & Fruit by the foot. My vending customers love the nutty bars & oreo's are a big favorite, there are other substitutes out there you have to find them & try them. You can sell these items at a lower price (your customers will like that) & your profit & profit margin will be higher. An example would be snickers cost around 43 cents & most are charging around 80 cents to non-commission accounts. The profit would be 37 cents or 46%. If you used nutty bars you can charge around 65 cents to non-commission accounts & the cost is only around 20 cents. The profit would be 45 cents or 69%, in the case of the oreo's the profit should be around 40 cents or 61%. In both these examples i am using 65 cents as a sale price, 15 cents less then the choc. bar & in both cases the profit was higher with both substitutes. Again both of these items are cheaper for our customers to buy & both are very popular in my machines. A couple of things before i end, chances are you will not be able to take out all the chocolate bars lets be realistic, our customers want some chocolate bars so you still have to decide what to do about the price of those items. Second you will have to experiment with each vending account before you find out what choc. bars you can substitute & what substitutes sell in each account. Keep the big sellers & move out the smaller selling bars, this will keep them happy then sprinkle in the substitutes & see what happens. Check out our other tips at http://vendingideas.blogspot.com/
HAPPY VENDING!!

FUNNY M&M'S COMMERCIAL

HOW DO WE STAY PROFITABLE

Make sure your customers are happy, this is obvious to most of us but we may not be doing all we can for our vending customers. Things like showing up once a week to fill their vending machines and rotating product is obvious but stopping by to say hello to your contact person may not be as obvious. I have found that having a good rapport with my contact person has not only kept me in touch with any problems or concerns they may have but has allowed me to keep my accounts for long periods of time. Also make sure your contact person or persons in charge of calling you in case of a problem has your business card (their the cheapiest form of advertising). If you keep a good relationship with your contact person or persons in charge of calling you they will not just call you they will call you immeditatly after they find out about the problem.
HAPPY VENDING!!

LATEST NEWS

News in the vending biz isn't good, all costs are up and gross sales are down all over the country. Chocolate prices have soared 13% over the last 2 years, the good news is it looks like choolate prices should be stable in the near future. We all know fuel prices have taken a bite out of our profits but the real problem is our customers have less money to put into our vending machines due to gas prices add the higher prices venders have to charge and we have a real problem. Some good news as of 7/18/08 oil prices have droped from $147 a barrel to under $129 hopefully this trend will continue. Unfortunatly i just found out that Coca-Cola is going to raise their prices in the fall 2008 and as of now they have not said by how much.
HAPPY VENDING!!