Installing a vending machine in your business brings many benefits. It establishes an additional income stream, and every business can use more income. Customers also view your business more favorably because they enjoy the extra solace in favorite drinks or snacks, especially if they need to wait for their business to be taken care of. Moreover, employees’ productivity improves if they can purchase their favorite snack in the middle of the day without leaving the premises.
So now that you want to add a vending machine to your office, you have two choices. You can buy your own vending machine, install it, stock it and keep all the money it collects. Choice two is to allow one of the vending machine service companies to install their vending machine on your property. You will receive a monthly percentage of sales clocked in, but you will not own the machine or any stock in it.
Should You Self Service Your Vending Machine?
Self-servicing the vending machine means that you are in control and responsible for running the vending machine. You also get to keep the full amount of money the vending machine collects.
Vending machines come in a range of sizes and can stock various items. As an owner, you will choose what items are dispensed on your premises. Unfortunately, you will also be responsible for all the machine’s administration, restocking and maintenance.
Since the vending machine is not your primary business, you will need to consider how much time you can dedicate to ensuring that it is fully stocked and all the items are within their expiry date. If the stock expires in the machine, you will have to bear the cost of removing the expired items and replacing them with fresh stock. Also, maintenance may prove to be a headache since people generally do not show much respect for vending machines and have been known to occasionally bludgeon one, especially if it fails to dispense a selected item. All these costs will eat into the profit you make from the vending machine.
Should You Full Service Your Vending Machines?
The other possibility of acquiring a vending machine for your business is the "hands-free" option. In other words, someone else (the servicing company) will own the machine and take care of all the administration, restocking and maintenance tasks. You will still control what products are stocked in the machine, but you won’t have to purchase them yourself. The servicing company takes care of all that.
You will receive a portion of the money collected for your trouble of allowing the full-service vending machine to operate on your premises. So, in other words, you will be able to enjoy all the benefits of installing a vending machine in your business without any of the costs and time spent maintaining it.
A vending machine may be a good addition to your business. It is up to you whether you prefer a hands-on approach to managing the machine yourself or whether you don’t mind other people taking care of it while you receive a commission on the takings.