I tried this a few years ago and I can really attest to just how awful an idea buying a used machine is. I found a decent condition one on craigslist for $100. I bought it, and it's been stuck in my garage for 2 years now.
I must have gone through $200 of parts just trying to get the bill collector to work, and it still doesn't. It would be at least a few hundred more to bring it to a place that can fix it.
If you're thinking about doing this, you need to make sure that every part of the machine works, because if you're just starting out I can guarantee that you won't be able to do the maintenance yourself.
The economics of vending machines
91–100 of 166 posts
Re: The economics of vending machines
#92The juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze. 40% margin, maybe less and you need a shit ton of machines to make decent money. You also have to restock all the machines, so it seems like a difficult business to scale that actually gets harder the larger scale you are. 250 machines with 500k in revenue for 2 people doesn't seem like that much. With 40% margins, that's 200k and assumes you have no employees which seems unl…
I'd agree, but its one case study. One of my best friends told me recently he has about 150 vending machines(in the sf bay area), he is the silent partner, providing capitol and his other partner does the stocking and collecting/refilling of coinage. I didn't want to pry into how much he was making but after reading this article it seems like it could be a lucrative side business for a non tech employee. (he is a manager primarily(non-tech)). There must be a number of machines that would be a limit where taking on additional workers/partners ceases to make it a profitable venture.
Re: The economics of vending machines
#93The juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze. 40% margin, maybe less and you need a shit ton of machines to make decent money. You also have to restock all the machines, so it seems like a difficult business to scale that actually gets harder the larger scale you are. 250 machines with 500k in revenue for 2 people doesn't seem like that much. With 40% margins, that's 200k and assumes you have no employees which seems unl…
You're right. This is why (as they said in the article) there aren't any massive players in the market. It's viable if you have a few machines in your area that you restock as a hobby, but the minute you add in any sort of overhead, your margins will dry up immediately. Plus, the numbers in the article are actually a little high. 25% margins or less are more common, and generally a single machine will only bring a few hundred or less per month in profit.
Re: The economics of vending machines
#94One big takeaway here from this is that you can compete on inventory. Keep the high-volume items that are popular, but also sell, e.g., masks, sanitizer, other knickknacks that are relatively disposable and are good impulse buys.
Re: The economics of vending machines
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
The U.S. used to have cigarette vending machines. I believe they were phased out due to the desire to enforce age limits for smoking more strictly, not because of theft. My general impression is that the U.S. used to have more vending machines in general ~30-40 years ago. I remember soda machines being outside of every grocery store, but I don't see that anymore. Newspaper vending machines also used to be common. But…
I remember the cigarette machines from my youth. I was amazed that something so forbidden (I was a kid, and my parents didn't smoke) was available in restaurants if you were just bold/sneaky enough. In Germany there are bars that still have them, but I think they're pretty rare now even there. The one used by one of my friends who smokes a lot even requires old DM coins, which you can get at the bar.
That's an amazing bit of indirection that both spares them having to update the machine and let's them change the price without reconfiguring the machine. Just like subway tokens.
Re: The economics of vending machines
#96This is a topic I know a fair amount about. For a brief while, I worked at a startup that made software to manage vending machines and handle digital payments, from the device stuck on the front, to accept credit cards. Basically, the name of the game is location location location. It's very tough to find a good lucrative location to put your machine at. Why? Because there's likely already a machine in such location.…
Are there white papers / briefs out there that have hard information on what quantifies a good location vs not?
Re: The economics of vending machines
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Climbing Mt Fuji in Japan is a reasonably serious climb (for ordinary people). At 3600m you need to think about altitude acclimitisation and it's best to sleep overnight on the way up. The achievement is only undermined by the fact that there is a literal queue of people in front of you for the entire ascent, and by the fact that after completing the climb you are greeted with a vending machine at the summit!
Thats about 12,000 feet. You dont need altitude acclimatization for that, it'll just suck a decent bit more than normal. I just went backpacking at 13k+ feet without any prep, it was fine outside of needing to take more breaks.
It really depends on the mountain, which you should always research beforehand.
For example, I climbed Mt. Massive in Colorado (second highest peak and >14k feet) without any special training or problems (I normally live near Washington DC). If you are in reasonably good shape (i.e. you run regularly) then you should be fine. Yeah, I stopped to catch my breath a little more frequently the higher I got, but it was a totally manageable 8 mile round trip.
Re: The economics of vending machines
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Climbing Mt Fuji in Japan is a reasonably serious climb (for ordinary people). At 3600m you need to think about altitude acclimitisation and it's best to sleep overnight on the way up. The achievement is only undermined by the fact that there is a literal queue of people in front of you for the entire ascent, and by the fact that after completing the climb you are greeted with a vending machine at the summit!
Thats about 12,000 feet. You dont need altitude acclimatization for that, it'll just suck a decent bit more than normal. I just went backpacking at 13k+ feet without any prep, it was fine outside of needing to take more breaks.
This can depend widely on the altitude you are acclimated to (what altitude do you live at, how regularly do you hike/climb/run near the target altitude, etc.), as well as how quickly you go. For some, finishing the mountain without having to overnight on or near it is more convenient, but others might overnight so they can go faster on summit day without getting altitude sickness.
Side note (I'm not saying this applies to above comment): I'd caution anyone to take 12,000 feet seriously, it's a serious altitude and you want to think in terms of turnaround times and eventualities, not "I'm getting to the top no matter what".
Re: The economics of vending machines
#99I find it interesting that the operators are buying from Sam’s club rather than a legit wholesaler. $0.50/unit for soda is ridiculous I looked into this a few years ago because someone on reddit wrote a long post about I couldn’t find. The ROI looks amazing until (as the article alludes) you look into how much labor is required to keep the operation going. It kind of works if you have capital and your time has low op…
Knew a guy who had vending machines at my office.
He was a UPS driver and many of the vending machines were on his typical route.
Seemed like a good side gig.
Re: The economics of vending machines
#100I was pleased to find dairy vending machines in Greece, for when you can't wait for that yoghurt:
https://popupcity.net/observations/cooperative-milk-vending-...
Apparently they are farm-to-machine, which is also nice. Seemed to get plenty of use at least where I was in Thessaloniki.