Friday, October 26, 2007

3 Things To Consider While Starting A Vending Business

A vending business is not just a way to earn money for sponsoring your vacation. It’s much more than a “quick get-rich” scheme. If you want to make substantial profits, there is need for professional planning, organization and implementation of various elements. You can’t purchase and place vending machines and products at random locations. Before heading into the vending business, you must take various factors into consideration.

a) Location
Buying a good quality vending machine like Planet Antares vending machines is essential for establishing a successful vending business. However, the key element is the location of vending machines. If your customers cannot access your vending machines easily or the chosen locations are not popular, you cannot expect to earn high profits.

The vending location has to be frequently visited by many people. Common places include restaurants, schools, college, business offices and convenience stores. Finding the right location is not about populated places alone. The chosen location should match the products your machine intends to sell. Think about the needs of target customers while choosing products to be sold. If you place the vending equipment in busy locations with lots of waiting people like restaurants, airports, subway, train and bus stations, school and college campus.

b) Positioning
Once you have chosen a particular location for your vending machines, the next step is to decide its position in the premises. The first thing to be kept in mind is the product you are selling. For example, candy and toys should be placed near places with children, toiletries near bathrooms and so on.

The position of your vending machine also depends upon the kind of place chosen by you to install your vending machine. For business offices, its best to place vending machines in the pantry or lunchroom while doctor clinics and hospitals have vending machines in waiting rooms, near the chairs of people.

c) Looks
Another factor that affects the performance of your machine is the looks of vending equipment. This component is often ignored by vending machine operators while buying vending machines. If your vending machine looks attractive, customers will be more probable of making impulse purchases as compared to a dull, boring design bearing machine. This can contribute to the sales of the company as well as increase profitability.

All these factors contribute to the success of vending machine business. If you carefully select the vending equipment, it is easier to earn profits from a low investment vending business.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Schools As Planet Antares Vending Machine Locations

For a long time, schools have been great vending machine locations. Planet Antares snack and beverage vending machines are very popular among school children as quick fix hunger solutions. Recently, there has been growing concern over the vending products effect on the health of kids in schools and college students.

Many children have grown overweight due to the unhealthy snacks and soda available in schools. Government organizations and health institutions have been emphasizing the need to replace or supplement existing vending products with healthier options.

Vending machine operators may feel that this may have an adverse impact on the business sales and profits. However, there are various healthy food items which can be used to balance health issues with business returns.
Healthy food options include:

• Salads
• Dried fruit
• Sandwiches
• Yoghurt
• Plated meals

Apart from these, there are many new meal replacement products available in the market. New products are launched every month and if you purchase them in bulk, you will get large discounts too.

Planet Antares food vending machines are reliable and provide fresh, healthy snacks to children in schools. You may also go for vending machines with cold storage and refrigeration facility to keep items fresh for a longer period of time.

Healthy drinks are also being dispensed through vending machines in school and college campuses. They help in reducing long queues of people waiting for meals. Also, the school cafeteria staff can focus on food preparation and distribution can be handled by vending machines. This helps in avoiding crowding of serving areas too.

Competitive pricing of healthier snacks and beverages like milk, tea and fruit juices helps in maintaining adequate sales level and business profitability. You can even revolve new and traditional snacks of various kinds according to the customer preference. Analyze the sales pattern of different items to know which ones are bestsellers and which ones are low performers.

Healthy products should be used for vending machines in schools to provide healthier food to children. Snack, soda and water vending machines are the most suitable equipment for this location. Once you have purchased the right vending machine, place it strategically to maximize customer satisfaction and business returns.