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

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

Warning : in this article there will be a lot of mats - in particular, coffee makers, snack makers and other hot dog units. As well as a couple of bad advice and a few pictures. Who needs it - welcome under 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 a completely economic plane: if a piece of goods can be made up to a maximum of 40% surcharge, then the selling price of coffee is 200-300% more than its cost price. Simply put, selling coffee is very profitable.
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Kinds

Coffee machines are divided into those based on instant ingredients (oriented towards markets where instant coffee is traditionally preferred, for example, the United States); and working on grain coffee (most often used in Europe - Italy, Spain, France).

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

Coffee machines for instant coffee are gradually being supplanted in the regions, the supply of them is reduced, while with cereals the situation is reversed. The reason is frequent breakdowns of cheap devices and increasing customer demands - if a person did not like the coffee from a particular vending machine, it will not work 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 get more tasty (in the Ministry of Education - tasty) coffee.

Prices

The cost of the coffee machines themselves varies from 1,000 euros (Korean-made tabletop machines, working only on soluble powders) to 6,000 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, pour coffee, add other ingredients. The cost of one automatic load of 500 glasses of coffee with sugar, cream, glasses, etc. is $ 100. The frequency of serving depends on how many cups of coffee is drunk per day.

Snacks

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

The most developed snack market is in the USA, where there are about 1 million 300 thousand corresponding automatic machines. In the States, snack vending stably amounts to 20% of all sales through vending machines, which in monetary terms is about $ 4 billion a year. Snickers has been the most popular snack among American citizens for 13 years in a row. For a long time, by the way, did Snackers not have a snack?

In Russia, the market of snack machines is not yet so developed - we still have coffee makers in the lead. The reason is the same: lower profitability compared to caffemata. Therefore, in fact, no one puts a snack machine on its own, without the presence of a coffee maker - and then provided that the sales volumes of coffee are quite high, since the risk of the so-called “bad installation” is high.

One of the ways to solve this problem is the pairing of 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 maker. Often, in this combination, the owner of the machine saves significantly on additional payment systems and has the ability to set discounts for the purchase of two or more units of goods, offering for example a combination of coffee, snacks and lemonade banks at a reduced price. The coffee machine is a “master” managing sales of the entire “sales line” through its own electronics. Snack machines connected to the coffee, do not have their own control and fully obey the caffeine.

The range in snack machines is almost always standard and most often includes soft drinks in a half-liter plastic container and 0.33 l in jars, 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 goods - from nuts, and cookies to sandwiches and salads in portion packs, and to choose the right amount of machine load: because in a small office it makes no sense to install bulk machines, and in the university whether narrow vending will be successful with 150-200 units of goods.

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

The range of prices for snacks is from 2,500 to 8,000 euros.

Installation sites

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

Mechanical machines

Historians argue that even in the temples of ancient Egypt, sale of consecrated water was established with the help of mechanical devices - apparently, the unenlightened man in the street 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 - history has not preserved data. But we can rightly say that the development of vending began with mechanical vending machines.

Device and species

It is known: the simpler the thing is, the more reliable it is. And the mechanical vending machine is just quite simple: a solid and beautiful stand, a mechanical coin acceptor, a product flask, and a dispenser at the outlet of the flask.

A coin thrown into a coin acceptor triggers the device, and a certain amount of filler is poured out of the flask - into a substituted palm or into a special cup. It is better, by the way, if it is still a glass - not every buyer will guess to give a hand, and the goods may be on the floor. When choosing a device, you can not particularly concentrate on what you are planning to sell - mechanical vending machines are to a certain extent universal: they sell candy, chewing gum, toys, shoe covers, swimsuits (the last three types of products are, of course, difficult to fill in the automaton flask and even harder extract from there, but for automated sales these goods are packed in special capsules and so on.

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

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

Disadvantages and weaknesses

Mechanical machines work only with coins, so you can’t sell there more than 10 rubles; besides, you can cheat a mechanical coin acceptor - one of the methods of cheating is described in the article “ How to steal the cud ”. Keep this in mind if you decide to work with mechanical trading devices.

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

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

Patties, hot dogs, pizza

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

Vending machines for baking sales (as well as machines for cooking and heating hot food, which, together with pie machines, constitute a group of a vending cafe) in their simplest modification consist of a cooled food storage bunker and a cooking or heating module that functions according to the microwave oven principle; Pirozhkomat works from the mains, coordinated by the on-board computer.

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

Of course, this is not all existing types of vending machines - in fact, there are about two hundred of them, and this number is only growing, because the human imagination, as well as the desire to shift their duties to machines, are inexhaustible.

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

What else

If you are not tired of this topic 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 for updates in My Business or their blog. Andorro .

If you are already eager to find out more, then I can recommend a couple of articles about new and promising areas for Russia: sokomats , water mats , non freezers (what a funny word came out), and milk cleaners .

And finally

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

And in the comments on the questions of the habrijeurs, the chief editor of veq.ru Anastasia Milma Lobanova answers , I ask you to love and spare no merits.