How To Choose a Snack Vending Machine
Snack vending machines come in all shapes and sizes. Some are
small enough to hang on a wall and some are the full size floor
models like the one I had. Some are electronic that you plug
into an electric wall socket. Some are manually operated that
don't require any electricity at all.
There are snack vending machines that offer user's the chance
to buy a coffee right out of the same machine, while others can
vend soda and other cold beverages. There is snack vending
machines that do all three! That's right, these machines offer
customers the chance to buy coffee, cold beverages and snack
products out of the same machine.
I've seen a snack vending machine that sells cigarettes.
I've seen a snack vending machine that sells hockey cards.
I've also seen a snack vending machine that sell bus passes to
access the local transit system.
And I've even seen a demo where one of my local distributors
showed me how he could vend a can of three (3 ) tennis balls out
of a snack vending machine! That actually impressed me.
So what does this all mean and how do you choose the right kind
of snack vending machine?
You need to have as much flexibility with your snack machine as
possible. I wanted my machines to be able to have maximum
flexibility to sell my customers whatever they wanted (within
reason and legal parameters) and I needed to have the machine
that was capable of doing that.
This meant I needed...
Pricing flexibility. I needed to be able to raise or lower my
prices according to my supplier costs or customer demands. That
meant I needed to have snack vending machines that gave me that
option without any additional equipment upgrades. That meant
mechanical was out, you just don't have the kind of pricing
flexibility with mechanical as you do with electronic. With
electronic you can raise or lower prices of individual
selections and do that within seconds. With a mechanical snack
vending machine you might have a customer stand in front of your
machine with a pocket full of coins but your mechanical machine
can't sell her anything because it isn't configured to accept
certain coins.
Payment options. All my snack vending machines came with built
in capabilities to add payment options. I could have added a
bill acceptor if I wanted to. This may have boosted sales if the
customer had bills in her pocket instead of coins. Some machines
may allow you to add credit card or smart card capabilities.
Product options. Have you seen the Pringles chips business
opportunity? How about the Campbell