How to make money on vending machines: coffee, snacks and all-all-all

Blog them. Andorro, with the support of the Veking Vending portal , continues a series of publications ( 1 , 2 ) about the vending business in Russia. This time we will tell you about what kind of vending machines are.

Warning : in this article there will be many mats - in particular, coffee machines, snekomats and other hot dog units. As well as a couple of bad tips and a few pictures. Who needs it - welcome to cat.

Coffee makers

Coffee machines are the leader among vending machines - and the reason lies not so much in the popularity of the drink as in the completely economic plane: if a maximum of 40% margins can be made on piece goods, then the sale price of coffee is 200-300% more than its cost. Simply put, selling coffee is very profitable.

Kinds

Coffee machines are divided into those working on soluble ingredients (oriented to markets where traditionally they prefer instant coffee, for example, the USA); and working on grain coffee (more often used in Europe - Italy, Spain, France).

Coffee machines are desktop and floor. Floor often combined (hot drinks + snack products, or hot + cold drinks). Tabletop coffee machines are often used in fast foods or small offices - where payment systems are not required. Also, coffee machines vary in the number of glasses that are loaded into them. They can accommodate 180, 270, 300, 1000 glasses.

Instant coffee machines are gradually being squeezed into the regions, the supply for them is decreasing, while the situation is opposite with cereals. The reason is the frequent breakdown of cheap devices and the increasing demands of customers - if a person did not like coffee from a particular machine, he would not be suitable for him a second time. Moreover, network companies are now competing for places where vending machines will be installed. As a rule, those companies that win coffee machines have a beautiful appearance and pour more delicious (in the Ministry of Education - tasty) coffee win .

Prices

The cost of the coffee machines themselves varies from 1000 euros (Korean-made desktop technology that works only on soluble powders) to 6000 euros (new machines of European quality). Some companies offer used machines that have already been used in Europe for 2-3 years.

The coffee machine needs to be serviced on time: put cups, fill in coffee, add other ingredients. The cost of one machine load for 500 glasses of coffee with sugar, cream, glasses, etc. is $ 100. The frequency of service depends on how many cups of coffee a day are drunk.

Snacks

Along with coffee, one of the most popular products sold through vending machines is snacks. Snacks include sandwiches, cookies, popcorn, cheese balls, cereals, dried fish, chips, nuts, chocolate bars, donuts, crackers, dried fruits, seeds, and much more.

The most developed snack market is in the USA, where there are about 1 million 300 thousand corresponding vending machines. In the United States, snack vending consistently accounts for up to 20% of all sales through vending machines, which in monetary terms is about $ 4 billion a year. The most popular snack among American citizens for 13 consecutive years is Snickers. For a long time, by the way, didn’t they have a snack at Snickers?

In Russia, the market for snack machines is still not so developed - we still dominate the coffee machines. The reason is the same: lower profitability compared to coffee machines. Therefore, in fact, no one puts a snack machine on its own, without the presence of a nearby coffee - and then provided that the volume of sales of coffee is quite high, since there is a high risk of the so-called “poor installation”.

One of the ways to solve this problem is to pair two or more vending machines. Usually, this is an outdoor coffee machine and one or two snack machines, operating from a single payment system in the Master / Slave mode installed in the coffee machine. Often in this combination, the owner of the machine significantly saves on additional payment systems and has the opportunity to set discounts on the purchase of two or more units of goods, for example, offering a combination of coffee, a snack and cans of lemonade at a reduced price. The coffee machine is a "master" managing sales of the entire "trading line" through its own electronics. Snack machines connected to a coffee machine do not have their own control and are completely subordinate to the coffee machine.

The assortment in snack machines is almost always standard and most often includes soft drinks in half-liter plastic containers and 0.33 liter cans, chocolate bars, crackers with the most popular flavors and chips.

When buying a snack machine, it is important to choose a machine that will allow you to sell a wide range of products - from nuts and cookies to sandwiches and salads in portioned packaging, and choose the right load for the machine: since there is no point in installing volume machines in a small office, it’s unlikely whether narrow vending with 150-200 units of goods will be successful.

The more accurately the wishes of customers are taken into account, the more profitable the machines will be. You must try to place in the machines what the client loves. And work not only with ordinary chips and juice, but also with sandwiches, salads, dairy products. All products must be from world famous manufacturers who are known and trusted by customers. The experience of many experts refutes the prevailing opinion about the low profitability of snack machines, since the main thing here is an individual approach.

The price range for snekomats ranges from 2,500 to 8,000 euros.

Installation locations

Snack machines are installed where people do not have the opportunity to buy products at another outlet. In closed enterprises, where the dining room closes early, in paid educational institutions where evening classes are held, but there is no buffet.

Mechanical machines

Historians claim that even in the temples of Ancient Egypt, the sale of consecrated water with the help of mechanical devices was established - it seems that the unenlightened inhabitant had the impression that he was dealing directly with the gods. Whether the person who in 1886 patented the first vending machine for the sale of chewing gum knew about this, the story did not save data. But we can justifiably argue that the development of vending began precisely with mechanical vending machines.

Device and types

It is known: the simpler the thing is arranged, the more reliable it is. A mechanical vending machine is just arranged quite simply: a strong and beautiful stand, a mechanical coin acceptor, a flask for goods, a dispenser at the outlet of the flask.

A coin thrown into the coin acceptor causes the device to trip, and a certain amount of filler is poured out of the flask into the substituted palm or into a special glass. Better, by the way, if it will still be a glass - not every buyer will guess to put his hand up, and the goods may be on the floor. When choosing a device, you don’t have to concentrate on what you plan to sell - mechanical vending machines are universal to a certain extent: they sell sweets, chewing gum, toys, shoe covers, swimwear (the last three types of products are, of course, difficult to fill into a machine’s flask and even more difficult extract from there, but for automated sales, these products are packed in special capsules) and so on.

All the differences of mechanical devices are reduced mainly to the device of the flask for the goods, and the capacity of the dispenser. In some machines (for example, trading in chewing gum or dragees), the bulb on the outside is in the form of a sphere, glass or cube. In others (for example, in condoms), all contents are hidden in an opaque case, sometimes of impressive size.

The vending machine that you choose for your business should be outwardly attractive and reliable. Devices manufactured in Russia or China, as a rule, rarely combine both of these characteristics, so it is better to purchase a vending machine made in Canada or the United States. Prices are low - from 6 to 30 thousand rubles for Canadian-made machines.

Weaknesses and weaknesses

Mechanical machines only work with coins, so you won’t be able to sell goods there for more than 10 rubles, and you can also deceive a mechanical coin acceptor - one of the methods of cheating is described in the article “ How to Steal Gum ”. Keep this in mind if you decide to work with mechanical trading devices.

However, they also have advantages, for example, the lack of attachment to a place, because they do not require any infrastructure. In the morning, you can take such a vending machine to school, and in the evening, replacing the flask with the filler, put it in a night club.

By the way, about flasks - an automatic machine with a flask filled by about two-thirds is the best way to attract buyers. If the buyer sees that there is too much filler in the machine, he concludes that the product is slow-moving. If the flask is almost empty - according to the buyer, this indicates that the goods are stale and may not be very fresh.

Pies, hot dogs, pizza

Tents with fast food do not decorate the streets of our cities, and the dirt from them is pretty good. In this sense, the installation of a vending machine selling baked goods and hot snacks is not only a business enterprise, but also a practically socially responsible event. In addition, a niche for this kind of sales exists and is constantly expanding - as the authorities of megacities struggle with tents near the metro.

Vending machines for selling pastries (as well as vending machines for warming hot food, which together with pie vending machines make up a group of vending cafes) in their simplest modifications consist of a refrigerated food storage bin and a cooking or heating module that operates on the principle of a microwave oven; a pie-machine from the mains is working, its work is coordinated by the on-board computer.

The next stage in the development of such devices is automatic cafes, which offer in their assortment immediately both hot and chilled products, as well as drinks. Of course, this pleasure cannot be cheap - the prices for automatic machines from world manufacturers start at 150 thousand rubles.

Of course, this is far from all existing types of vending machines - in fact, there are about two hundred of them, and this number is only growing, because a person’s imagination, as well as the desire to shift his responsibilities to machines, are inexhaustible.

Moreover, no one bothers, for example, you invent and assemble your own machine with blackjack and whores . The main thing is to certify them in the relevant authorities, and the rest will be shown by the market.

What else

If this topic has not bothered you yet, then in the following materials I will continue to acquaint you with the types of vending machines and the vending business in general - stay tuned in " My Business " or their blog. Andorro .

If you are already eager to learn more, then I can recommend a couple of articles about new and promising areas for Russia: juice machines , water machines , non-freezing machines (a word that turned out to be ridiculous), and milk machines .

And finally

A fresh (which is important from the point of view of rapidly changing legislation) interview on the topic of taxes and law in the vending , which details the questions asked in the comments to the previous two materials.

And in the comments the veq.ru editor-in-chief Anastasia Milma Lobanova answers the questions of the hawkers .