Servicing New Vending Accounts Loading Drink Machines

Servicing New Vending Accounts Loading Drink Machines An interview with Larry Towner

In the last video in this series, Larry goes into detail about handling the money from your vending machines. In this video,Servicing New Vending Accounts Loading Drink Machines Larry explains how to efficiently load a drink machine.

Do a pic list of the drinks you’ll need. Now is the time to use your hand truck and you’ll want to load them in order from back to front or first in last out.

On average we walked 6-7 miles per day, if you can cut that walking time down you’ll be much better off.

You’ll develop a rhythm for what we call “flippin” bottles and cans.

In the next video, Larry talks about trucks and security issues.

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Episode Transcript:

Tom Shivers Servicing New Vending Accounts loading Drink Machines : I’m Tom with the Vending Business show, here again with Larry Towner, and we’ve been talking about what to do when you land a vending account and we just talked about how to handle the money and now what’s next Larry?

Larry Towner: Well, we talked about a snack machine and we talked about handling the money on a snack machine. We haven’t talked about how to service a drink machine and so let’s do a real quick session on a drink machine just as an addendum to the snack machine, they’re very, very similar obviously except you have a lot less product or a lot less choice in your number of products and you have a different set of concerns.

Larry Towner: We should be able to get a drink machine in one video, I’m kind of assuming. So first thing is you know you’re gonna need some drinks. If you do ’em separately, snack machine and drink machine together, you can do ’em separately. Let’s just assume you’re gonna do ’em separately, just because you’re, just because, you’re gonna do ’em separately. If you’re gonna do them separately, you’ve done a pick list of what drinks you’ll need, ’cause you got your snack machine, you then open your drink machine, you look in, you need a case of Coke, a case of Pepsi, a case of Mountain Dew, a case of Diet Coke, you run out to the truck and you go get ’em.

Larry Towner: This is where you really need that hand truck, you need that hand truck or some kind of way to move that product in.

Tom Shivers: Hey Larry.

Larry Towner: Yes.

Tom Shivers: Just real quick. Explain what a pick list is.

Larry Towner: See I’m using jargon and I’m glad you picked me off on that. A pick list is a piece of paper that you take, and it can be cardboard. I used to use three by five cards ’cause they fit in the pocket of my shirt but it’s a piece of card and you actually go through and you pick exactly what products you wanna put into that machine so in a drink machine case, I always worked from left to right so I would look over to the far left and I’d say that was usually diet coke, I’d go I need a diet coke, I don’t need any of the grape, don’t need any of the tea, I need a Dr. Pepper, a Pepsi, a Mountain Dew, and a regular Coke so I’d have those things listed down or say I needed two Coke, whatever the quantity was you could do the same thing in a snack machine. You write down what that pick list. That’s a pick list.

Larry Towner: What am I going to the truck to pick up is what it is. That’s where the term comes from.

Tom Shivers: All right. Great.

Larry Towner: So you got your pick list. You go out to the truck. So yeah and you need to know that. You need to know that that’s a way to do it. So we got out to the truck. We get our pick list. We put the things done the way you, remember if you write ’em out one way up then you’re gonna load them backwards. You always load them in order. I said that with the snack machine and it’s more important with the drinks that you know where each item goes, put ’em on your handtruck or your flatbed. You’re gonna need a way to carry ’em ’cause carrying ten cases of drinks in, that’s where you lose the gym membership really really fast with the amount of time it takes you, the amount of time it takes you is what kills you ’cause that back and forth, we did a study one time.

Larry Towner: This is just kind of a boring little aside but we did a study and we spent on average walking during a day, we walked six to seven miles per day. Our longest walk from truck into a machine was about two hundred yards and our closest one was literally you pull the truck up to the machines but on an average day, about six or seven miles. If you can cut that walking time down, I know it’s good for the gym membership, keeps you young, keeps you healthy, but if you can limit the amount of walking that you do, you’ll be a lot better off. It just takes a whole lot less time so that’s just a quick tip that we have for doing vending route.

Larry Towner: So anyway, you roll in with your stuff, and then you just start filling and you’ll develop for what we call flipping drinks. You’ll learn how they go in, whether they’re bottles or they’re cans, you’ll get into a real rhythm for how to load those drinks up and how to make things happen really smoothly so that’s what you’ll get into, load again from right to left or left to right, always do it the same. Do all of the motions that you make to be exactly the same every time when you’re loading your machines.

Larry Towner: Handling the money on the drink machines again it’s the same as you do with the snack machines. You wanna close out the door. You wanna fill that bag up. You wanna get the money out of the validator and you wanna keep it out of sight as soon as possible. Same thing. Put it into a box or something to take it out of that building and head on your way. Remember, as I told you in the last one, don’t lose the money when you put it in the truck. Make sure you remember where you put it. We’ll get into trucks and security issues and things that happen on your truck or vehicle, whichever it is, in a future show. Any other questions, Tom?

Tom Shivers: Yeah so I guess that’s where we’re headed next in the next video, right?

Larry Towner: Sure. Why not? We’ve gotta keep our audience entertained, don’t we?

Tom Shivers: You’ve been watching Servicing New Vending Accounts Loading Drink Machines at the Vending Business show. A publication of A&M Equipment Sales.  Check out other blogs at Acquiring New Vending Accounts

Vending Industry and Nutrition

Vending Industry and Nutrition U.S. Schools have been fighting obesity for six years now despite the financial hardship it has brought on and the vending industry has supported this cause – one example is NAMA’s Fit Pick program.

Vending Industry and Nutrition These wellness issues have been difficult for vending operators to deal with but necessary for long-term planning and changing consumer perception of vending.

The US Department of Agriculture is pressing for new rules for vending machines under the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs.  Vending operators would do well to lead the charge in consumer perceptions of vending, rather than following it.

It has been six years since U.S. schools began removing soda from vending machines. This was a controversial move. Some observers claimed it would create financial hardships for schools but would not change kids’ eating habits.

The removal of soda and other products has certainly created financial hardships for schools. Obesity rates among young people remain high. However, this past week, the journal, Pediatrics, reports that laws that curb the sales of “junk” food and sweetened drinks at school may play a role in slowing childhood obesity.

The vending and beverage industries have largely supported these efforts. They have done so in recognition of the seriousness of the obesity problem and in the interest of being good corporate citizens. The beverage industry has voluntarily removed soda from many schools. The vending industry, led by the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), has promoted wellness through its voluntary Fit Pick program.

Many vending operators have supported these efforts because they recognize they need to be health advocates. But from a profitability standpoint, it would be an understatement to say the wellness programs have been a challenge. At a time when the industry can least afford it, many school accounts have become less profitable.

While the wellness initiatives have been a tough pill to swallow, vending operators need to consider these efforts within the context of their long-term objectives. A key objective has been the need to change consumer perception of vending.

NAMA has invested heavily in a public awareness campaign to improve the vending industry’s image. The campaign has largely focused on promoting new vending technology. Research indicates consumers are viewing vending more favorably, particularly younger consumers. One reason is that the wellness activities are changing the traditional association of vending machines as purveyors of “junk” food.

Today’s younger generation does not see vending machines filled with soda at school. They see machines offering more water and other noncarbonated beverages. They see snack machines with more baked chips and whole grain snacks. These students are tomorrow’s consumers.

Read more exciting articles  Take Over A Vending Route Or Start Your Own?

Read the full story: Nutrition Rules Hurt Short Term, But Ultimately Help Improve Vending’s Public Image  

Imbera Glass Door Coolers

Imbera Glass Door Coolers  An interview with John Brock

John has served as a manufacturer’s representative in the vending and soft drink industries for more than 20 years and today represents MEI payment systems, Changer Services, and Imbera USA.

Listen to the podcast as John answers questions about Imbera Glass Door Coolers

  • Who is Imbera USA?
  • What type of equipment does Imbera offer?
  • Who are some of Imbera’s current customers?
  • Where is your equipment manufactured?
  • What are some of the features of your equipment?
  • What sizes does Imbera offer?

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Imbera Glass Door Coolers  Tom Shivers: I’m Tom Shivers with the Vending Business Show here with John Brock. He lives here in Atlanta and has served as a manufacturer’s representative in the vending and soft drink industries for more than 20 years. Today John represents a handful of companies including NEI Payment Systems, Changer Services which is NEI’s authorized repair center, and Imbera USA. So thanks for being here John.

John Brock: Hi, Tom. Thank you so much for having me.

Tom Shivers: Who is Imbera USA?  What are Imbera Glass Door Coolers?

John Brock: Well Tom, Imbera USA is part of a big company call FEMSA or “femsa”. FEMSA is an organization with business activities in the soft drink industry, breweries, and convenience stores. Imbera USA manufactures equipment to support customers throughout the United States and Central and South America.

Tom Shivers: What type of equipment does Imbera offer?

John Brock: Imbera  Glass Door Coolers are some of the finest  cold drink merchandisers in the industry. Our coolers are designed to deliver the coldest products, the best performance, the lowest cost of ownership, and superior energy efficiency. As you know, energy efficiency is a key topic in conversations today and Imbera does all this in beautifully designed, well thought out cabinets.

Tom Shivers: Who are some of Imbera’s current customers?

John Brock: Of course we have customers throughout the United States, Central and South America. Our primary customer is Coca-Cola. Imbera is a primary supplier to Coca-Cola in the United States. We literally have thousands of coolers on location throughout the country. In fact, Imbera serves as the largest supplier of coolers to the global Coca-Cola system. So we have a lot of equipment out there.

Tom Shivers: Where is your equipment manufactured?

John Brock: Imbera manufactures their equipment in a state of the art facility in San Juan, Mexico. We have multiple production lines and we manufacture coolers of all shapes and sizes. We offer both custom and standards graphics packages. We offer a level of design flexibility that really other manufacturers just can’t match. From the exterior cabinet to the glass doors to the refrigeration system, at Imbera we manufacture and assemble every component that goes into our equipment. Also, every Imbera cooler is quality tested for construction, for lighting, for refrigeration, and it’s completely tested before it’s placed in our inventory, which our inventory is at our warehouse in Laredo, Texas.

Tom Shivers: What are some of the features in your equipment?

John Brock: We have a lot of great standard features in the Imbera equipment in all of our models. First we offer electronic thermostats or electronic temperature controls on all of our equipment. The idea behind an electronic thermostat is to efficiently maintain the interior temperature of the cooler based on the surrounding conditions. What that means is that depending on what happens in the surrounding area around the cooler, the thermostat will adjust the temperature on the inside of the cooler. So it’s a very efficient way of managing the interior temperature within the cooler. We also use electronic fan motors and electronic fan motors are very energy efficient. They perform really, really well at a fraction of the energy that’s required by a standard fan motor.

John Brock: Next, we also offer fin less condensers on all of our coolers. Fin less condensers reduce the dust build up. By reducing the dust build up that comes through the refrigeration system we allow the compressor to cool more effectively and we also extend the life of the compressor because the dust build up doesn’t get in the way of the airflow, so the compressor is going to work more efficiently and more effectively for years.

John Brock: We also have great glass doors. We use a double panel door and we fill that door with argon glass. What that does is it allows for a more energy efficient door. In fact, the Imbera cooler, on all of our coolers we have the most energy efficient doors in the industry.

John Brock: Also another key feature of the Imbera line of equipment is we use LED lighting in all of our coolers. Imbera actually assisted Coca-Cola in developing the LED lighting systems. So today every Imbera cooler comes with LED perimeter lighting. LED lighting really makes products stand out. It does a terrific job of lighting the interior cabinet at just really a much lower energy cost than what a fluorescent light would be. The LED lights last for about seven years so it has a much longer life cycle than a fluorescent light would have.

John Brock: All of our cabinet are made of heavy duty 24 gauge prepainted steel, so our cabinets are strong and they give years and years of durability. We offer the highest quality painted finish that’s available in the market today. So that’s a few of the standard features of the Imbera equipment.

Tom Shivers: Well what sizes does Imbera offer?

John Brock: Imbera has a full line of equipment and we offer everything from the smallest counter top cooler … We have little tiny counter tops. We have full size counter tops. Then we have a line of single doors from small single doors to large single doors. Then we have a couple of different double door models. And then we even offer a really large triple door cooler. In all the standard sizes we offer coolers that can meet just about anybody’s needs.

Tom Shivers: Any closing comments?

John Brock: Sure. At Imbera our mission is to offer the finest coolers with the most energy efficient designs using the most environmentally safe components all at the lowest possible total life cost. So it really is our mission and we strive every day to do everything possible to make environmentally safe equipment that is energy efficient and still looks great. And that’s what we do.

Tom Shivers: Well thanks so much, John. Of course you can get Imbera Glass Door Coolers at A & M Equipment Sales by contacting your representative there or going through AMEquipmentSales.com. You’ve been listening to Imbera Glass Door Coolers at  the Vending Business Show, a publication of A & M Equipment Sales.  More Blogs at the Vending Business Show  Getting Started With Vending Micro Markets

Royal Vision 500

Royal Vision 500 Machine

episode transcript:

Royal Vision 500  Rep: I’d like to introduce you to the Royal Vision Vendor 500. I want to take you through some of the key features and show you the benefits of these features.

Royal Vision 500  Rep: The first one I’d like to show you is the size of this vendor. The size of this vendor is pretty much the same footprint as a regular cold drink machine or a snack vendor. What I said earlier about taking an existing account and finding new ways to increase the sales, this makes it nice for taking this glass front vendor, going to that account, and taking a machine out of your bank of equipment and placing this one into the same location as that machine. It fits very well, banks very well. It being the size and the piece of equipment it is, it’s easily to get into certain locations as far as the doors that its access to.

Royal Vision 500  Rep: Let me take you through a couple more of the key features of this particular vendor. One feature that we have in this particular vendor, is we have a positive vend mechanism, where we actually pull the product off the shelf into the cup. We do not rely on gravity to make the drink fall into the cup. Now this vend mechanism right here, it was tested by ETL. Edison Testing Laboratories verified it as the most dependable vend mechanism available on any machine.

Royal Vision 500 Rep: Another feature on this right here machine is the flexibility of the packaging. You can see we’ve got 20 ounce bottles. We got the 12 ounce can. We got Gatorade. It’s nice when it comes to vending different packages, we can do that very easily without any kits, adjustments, shims, or anything else, which makes a nice easy transition from one package to another in this machine. The shelves in this machine are a black, doesn’t show the dirt as much as the other machines that have the white interior.

Royal Vision 500 Rep: Let me bring you through a test vend and show you what amazes your customers when you watch this machine. I have it on “test vend.” I’ll activate it by hitting the #, it’ll come up, find section 11. The augur comes out, pulls the product off the shelf. Then it comes over to the bin assembly and dispenses the product. The credit is not canceled until the customer actually takes the product out of the bin assembly.  Thank You for tining into Royal Vision 500 at the Vending Business Show.New To The Vending Business?  More videos can be seen

AMS Visi Combo Machine

Combo Machines

AMS Visi Combo    EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

AMS Visi Combo   Tim Paul: This is an AMS Visi Combo, a glass-front merchandiser, of course, that vends both snack products and beverages. It’s a fully insulated cabinet, with dual pane heated glass. You have your sense it system across the top of your delivery bin to guarantee that any product vended the customer always gets his product. You have your changes, validators, or any peripheral you need inside a fully insulated, away from the refrigeration compartment.  The AMS Visi Combo is very user friendly, your control board is right up here, easy to get to, easy to reach all the components for. You can vend this … use this machine in either a 39 inch, which you think of as a five-wide, or a 35 inch, would you think of as a four-wide.

Tim Paul: The AMS Visi Combo shelves are easily removable. Products are easily adjustable. A shelf just comes straight out. You have 19 positions for vend motors. You can have up to 10 products across there or you can use five, three, or whatever is convenient for the products you are vending. Shelves just slide right back in, and plug in inside of this compartment. Each shelf has enough cord to reach all the way to the floor with a six-foot cord.

Tim Paul: As you use our equipment, you are going to need, with refrigeration, to make sure that it has plenty of air getting to the compressor and across that compressor. And we have made a couple of changes. You have a door here. You can get to your screen to clean a screen and make sure that you have clean air getting to your compressor. In fact, every 30 days we’re gonna give you a little beep on your control board to tell you to clean the system.  Available through A&M Equipment Sales.

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