There are hundreds of different vending machines on the market and they are look and operate differently. The simple answer is it’s the machine that meets your customers’ needs. Every location is different and if you have a variety of vending machines to select from, you will be better able to serve your clients. If you’re in the bulk candy machine business, it’s a good idea to have double, triple, 4-head or 8-head candy machines to offer your customers. I wouldn’t bother with single heads since the selection just isn’t big enough. In fact, you might not bother with the double head machines either.
I use a lot of the 3 head machines because it provides a large enough selection so most of your customers will like one of the candy choices, but not too many choices that you end up with stale candy. The vending racks that have 8 or more heads or the U-turn Terminator machines that have 8 heads on them are great machines if you have a location that can warrant the greater selection. It’s been my experience that most of your locations will produce more spoilage which lowers your profits if you give them the larger machine. Obviously this will all depend on the type of locations that you or your locator pursues.
My experience has also proven that the bright colored flashy machines really will produce more sales. As an example, about 5 years ago, I had an account with a Dollar General Store. I had placed two kid-friendly, bright yellow Candy King vending machines in the store which were located right at the front entrance. These two machines combined were huge kid-magnets. Each of the machines had 3 candy canisters so there were 6 selections total. I grossed approximately $75 per month between the two machines which I was very pleased with. After a couple of years, the corporate offices decided that all candy machines had to go because they were going to place their own machines in the store. So I grudgingly packed up my machines and found a different home for them.
After a couple of years, I was shopping at the store and noticed that they still didn’t have any new machines located there and that the management had also changed. So I decided to play dumb and ask the new management if I could place my machines at their store. The new manager quickly agreed on the condition that I use a Vendstar machine so it would match what they had at their other Dollar General Store. If you aren’t familiar with Vendstar machines, they are a great functioning machines but they are gray in color and not nearly as flashy. So I placed one triple-head Vendstar machine in the exact same location as the other 2 machines that I had placed a few years before. However I only had half the amount of candy as I had offered before.
After 3 months in which my Vendstar machine had been placed at the Dollar General, it was grossing approximately $20/month, or about 25% as profitable as my 2 yellow Candy King machines were doing. I tried replacing the Vendstar with the Candy King machines again but the management wouldn’t allow it unfortunately. So the lesson I learned is that often times a greater candy selection as well as a bright flashy machine really can double or even quadruple your sales.
