One of the first questions to ask when considering buying a healthy vending machine is what products to stock. Let me just say that this is a very expensive question to ask if you go to the wrong source. There are new healthy vending franchises popping up every week and they all promise to provide you with the best machine and the best support. I’ve spoken to many of them and tried to get access to their products list and found that this is top secret, proprietary information. If you are willing to spend $10,000 – 15,000 on a new machine then you can get the list. I’ve always told my customers in the past that they should just buy the healthy products at Sams Club, Costco, or even Whole Foods which stocks more organic and healthy foods. When you buy from local sources, you won’t pay for shipping costs so you can save a lot of money this way.
However, there may be some additional healthy vending products that you won’t find locally and you may need to order them on-line. So do you have to be part of the franchise to get access to special healthy vending foods? Absolutely not! Most of the healthy vending franchises get their products from United Natural Food International or UNFI, which is available to the public. There are minimum order requirements though. You can check them out at www.unfi.com
So what about the product list? We provide customers with the complete recommended list when they buy a healthy vending machine from The Discount Vending Store. It will include the bestselling drinks, snacks, and entre’e items along with the suggested retail price. I will say that our experience proves that Zevia and Blue Sky beverages, Breakfast bars, Clif bars, Luna Bar, Nutrigrain Bars and the Single-serve noodles & rice products are some of the most popular and profitable healthy vending items. You will need to do a lot of testing to see what’s right for your specific market though. The key to buying the product is the buy it at an affordable price so that your customers can afford it as well. Most folks are willing to pay a little more for a healthy item but if you charge too much, they will keep buying the traditional junk food.
