The vending machine business involves more than just getting the latest machines or selling popular items. It is also about finding the right location and knowing what people in certain locations want to buy. Study human behavior, habits, weaknesses, and which locations will bring in the most profit.One human weakness that is advantageous to the vending machine business is impulse buying. Many people buy products from vending units because the machines happen to be at there at the right time. Some people buy things just because they are there and they can buy them. Others buy out of necessity but many of your customers will be impulse buyers.How many times have you bought on impulse. Maybe you bought coffee from a machine on your way home when you knew that you could make your own cup in a few minutes. The same thing happens when other people walk by a vending machine. Teens in college campuses buy sodas from vending facilities when they know they can get one at the cafeteria.You can take advantage of this impulse buying habit if you sell the right things in the right locations. If you plan to sell coffee, you might want to place machines at airports or hospitals. Other things you can sell in places where people wait are soda and snacks. They will eventually get hungry or thirsty.Other places where you find people waiting are car detailing centers,car repair shops, barber shops, spas, train and bus stations. Place coffee, soda and snack machines in these areas too. Place your machines where people can see them, preferably see them when they look straight ahead. Place machines near the waiting area’s seats and smoking areas if you plan to vend cigarettes.Children love colorful plastic toys, you can find many kids in children’s hospitals, pediatrician’s clinics or dentists’ clinics. You can also sell snacks and drinks in these locations. Even gum and candy are good sellers in clinics. When kids start to whine and beg for that red toy in the vending machine, their mothers will likely give in to their whining and begging after several minutes.Stopovers are great places for a vending machine business. When travelers stop at highway stopovers to rest, they will probably be hungry and thirsty. Place soda, cigarette and snack machines at gas stations, near public toilets and rest areas. People also stop at motels or B&Bs to rest between destinations. Other travelers also stop to eat at fast food restaurants. Place soda, coffee and snack vending machines near camping sites too.Heavy foot traffic won’t make your vending machine business successful if you are selling the wrong products to the wrong crowd. It’s important to match the market and the products you will sell in your machines. Do more research about your demographics to find out what people want. It’s the best way to find the perfect locations for your machines.
Tag Archives: services
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.