Have you ever considered buying your own vending machine?
By shewolf52002
@shewolf52002 (1214)
United States
December 16, 2009 10:21am CST
Remember going to the store with mom or dad and begging for change to put in those little machines? Man I bet I have spent a small fortune in those things. I never thought about actually making money off of them until a friend of mine bought some machines and a route. At this point he is actually working his gumball and candy machines full time. What do you think? Good way to make a living?
If you are interested in more information check out my friends site:
http://www.vendingarticles.net/
This is NOT, repeat NOT an affiliate program I am involved in... sincerly this is a close friend of mine who works like everyone else! There is some solid information on his site about how to get started, the pros and cons....ect... Thanks and I welcome your thoughts.
1 person likes this
8 responses
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
17 Dec 09
Certainly sound very interesting and can be a very profitable business, if successful. I think like what the others have said, the routes are important. And most are already taken up so yeah. Anyway, here in my country, normally the vending machines are owned by corporate companies and small shops and mini-marts.
2 people like this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
17 Dec 09
Yes, I truly have considered that because my friend has three of them and she earns a lot, but her kid does the work. Another friend has a lot of them and it is a full time job. He does OK, but his machines are older and he is fixing them all the time in addition to keeping them stocked. Like any other business owning a vending machine can tie you down a bit, but if I were 30-something I would do it. It is not that big an investment and sure beats 9-5!
Also here in the US we can buy the machines wholesale from warehouse clubs and so it is really easy to get started if you have a high profile location. If we do not want to deal directly with the big food vendors, who can sometimes be a pain to deal with (!) we can also buy the drinks and snacks wholesale at a local warehouse. So here a lot of individuals have their own vending machines. They do have to deal with vandalism and theft, though. That is the downside.
1 person likes this
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
18 Dec 09
Wow.. they can steal too? Like how did they do that.. must be hackers there.
I'm enticed... I don't know how's the policy here in my country, whether we need a specific license or we need to deal with the shops and only we could rent or purchase the vending machines. Your friend must be making some good money; that's just so awesome. Thanks for explaining this in details to me..
@AlexanderJPerilli (10)
• United States
17 Dec 09
Of Course, I woul buy my own vending machine. I am actually gathering money in order to buy one. i want a classic style gumball one.
2 people like this
@shewolf52002 (1214)
• United States
19 Dec 09
If you are new to the whole process I really encourage you to check out the link in my post. This is a friend of mine who has done fairly well with vending machines. They havent made him a millionaire by any means but he does have some excellent advice on the process, machines, routes and more. And dont worry it is not an affiliate link or anything, just some good information, in fact he has been planning on putting together an ebook for sale but hasnt pulled it together yet..lol.
@LouieWpHs04 (4554)
• United States
16 Dec 09
It's possible.. if you can actually get a good route. In most places though, all the good routes are taken up, but! Just like on the internet, there is always a "goldmine" route that noone would have thought to put a vending machine at. You can also strongly consider an even more potentially popular one(on my opinion) being those $1 a DVD boxes if you've ever seen one. The other thing is that a lot of stores are not an option because stores say, "why pay him money when we can just do this ourselves and get 100%?".
So really.. it's about finding the right route. 
I was considering it at one point but the only way I see it really being popular is if I ran my own physical business in a good area. Soda/Snack/DVD machines can be quite popular/profitable if done right! 
I was considering it at one point but the only way I see it really being popular is if I ran my own physical business in a good area. Soda/Snack/DVD machines can be quite popular/profitable if done right! 1 person likes this
@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
17 Dec 09
I have, I've also considered buying an arcade game, but where would I put it?
1 person likes this
@gardenstategreg (175)
• United States
16 Dec 09
perhaps... that is if I had the money to actually buy the machines and the products to go inside the machine plus lets not forget that the only income you will make unless it is a soda machine is quarters although it probably would bring in a reasonable income depending on location and foot traffic per month could likely bring in $20 on a bad day to $100.00 on a good day yeah... its something to think about esp if you are unemployed... yeah its not going to pay the bills but it would allow you some extra spending money
1 person likes this
@PamelaL (252)
• United States
16 Dec 09
I remember years ago I went to one of those free conferences and it turned out to be a vending business. I didn't buy from them because they were so expensive, but then I found out a friend bought some at Sam's Club and started his own, mostly as a part time job for his teen agers. I think they did fairly well. I wouldn't know how to find places to put them.
1 person likes this
@jahernandezrivas (11288)
• United States
17 Dec 09
I have considered it,but I considered it as sort of a way to keep money in a jar,so to say.To keep it for the family, and then like I said, just use it as the money jar.Never actually thought of buying one and making a business off of it,but it sounds realllly interesting.I may think about doing that now.Thanks for the information!!!:)
@millertime (1394)
• United States
20 Dec 09
I was actually thinking about doing this very thing at one time. I looked into the machines and how much they cost and the different types. I think it would be a good business but the only thing that gave me pause is the cost of gas. This type of business depends on driving the route regularly and if gas prices spike, especially as fast as they were going up when they reached $4 per gallon, it would severely cut into the profits.
I wasn't sure that the profit margin was very high either. I'm not sure it would be possible to actually make a good living just off of this business. There are companies that will sell you the machines and set you up with a route and that got me thinking also. They make their money selling the machines and routes, which makes me think that there is much more profit in that than the actual vending. I finally decided not to get involved.
