Vending Technology From Vending Operators This technology panel Q&A discussion was recorded at NAMA OneShow 2012 and includes:
Doug Haddon, MEI
Stu Riemann, D & R Star Vending
Scott Meskin, Black Tie Services
David Sours, Coca-Cola United
Cliff Fisher, MEI (moderator)
Vending Technology from Vending operators This is a gathering of large and small vendors gathered at the NAMA show trying to find answers on Vending technology. This includes Vending credit card readers and vending telemetry Vending is starting to move towards prekitting all your products and then just having the route person bring them in and install them in the vending machine. Telemetry keeps track of sales – money in the machines and items that are sold. With this the owner has a clear knowledge what the machines and account is doing. This is your chance to hear from operators who are actually implementing many effective processes and technologies that include – but are not limited to – telemetry. They’re doing it on a large scale and to great success. Different operators discuss different credit card readers their effectiveness and cost as well as security and reliability. They also discuss telemetry whick systems are good and which systems are very reliable.
Vending technology From Vending Operators There are excellent questions from the audience for each panelist, in fact, that is the point. If you’ve ever had questions about telemetry or other vending technology implementation questions, you may find your answer in this video. You may want to see additional blogs of the Vending Business Show Vending Machines: How to Strike a Deal with an Establishment
Cashless Vending From an Operator As a new comer to cashless, you’re company must have decided to wait before making this investment. Why did you wait to get into cashless until this year?
Were you getting requests from customers to have cashless?
Did you develop a plan before making this investment?
How did you decide which machines to equip with cashless capability?
Cashless Vending From an Operator Speaker 1: Welcome to the Vending Technology Watch podcast. We’re here today with Lisa Leuchter, the Vice President of Snackworks in Bradenton, Florida. We’re here today to talk about cashless vending. Snackworks has more than 1,000 machines, and the company was founded in 1990. One of the reasons I wanted to talk to Lisa about this is her company has had a fairly recent entry into the cashless world.
Speaker 1: Lisa, my question is as a newcomer to Cashless Vending From an Operator your company must have decided to wait before making this investment. I’m curious to know why you chose to invest in cashless this year.
Lisa Leuchter: Well, as a smaller local vendor, we’re very aware of cashless, and we’re very attuned to it, and, of course, it has a cost to it for the operator. So, we kept our ear to the ground and really listened to our customers on a regular basis and talked to many of them about cashless, and as we felt it became a more prominent potential issue for customers, we seriously started to look into implementing it. But we were still on the fence. This past fall, I believe it was in the fall, when USA Technologies implemented their jump-start program, it made it easy to make that commitment to implement cashless in our equipment.
Speaker 1: Okay. Now, were you getting requests from customers to have cashless?
Lisa Leuchter: Very few, but we did proactively talk to our customers about cashless. It didn’t seem to be a hot button but, like all things, information grows and customers become more and more aware of options that are available out there, and we always strive to be on the forefront of what we do with our customers, and at the right time we implement new strategies.
Speaker 1: Okay. Now, did you develop a plan before making this investment?
Lisa Leuchter: We did. We developed a plan ourselves initially talking about it, and the customers that we felt would be best to start with, and we found that even with our plan there was still more to learn. So, once we committed to USA Technologies, we spent some time with Jim Turner from USA Technologies and did a full business analysis of our customer type by industry, and then looking at each individual machine, and then the bank of machines those individual machines resided in, in order to fine-tune the locations that we would initially install the cashless with.
Speaker 1: Okay. How did you decide which machines to equip with cashless capability?
Lisa Leuchter: Initially we looked at the industries that historically are known to have the highest usage, the highest acceptance of cashless. Armed with that, we then looked at our highest velocity equipment. Depending on your own personal strategy, you could look at turns, you could look at revenue. And then we had to ourselves make the decision that when we decided on equipment we wanted to put cashless in, to also include, or not, every piece of equipment in that entire bank. We chose to include it in all equipment, even if an individual machine wouldn’t meet our overall criteria.
Speaker 1: Oh. Did that include hot beverage machines too?
Lisa Leuchter: If in the bank, yes, and food, if in the bank, yes.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, I think that’s enough for the first segment of this series Cashless Vending From an Operator . Next time we meet we will talk about what some of the results have been to the cashless program to date. Thank you, Lisa. More Vending Business Blogs Vending Machine License: Is It Something You Need?
Push Beverages Higher Vending Margins An interview with Dave Mandella of Push Beverages
What type of beverage products do you produce for the vending industry?
What features does your product have over the others?
How do you position Push Beverages to sell in locations?
What do I do if I have bottler equipment?
Why has Push Beverages been successful with vending operators?
What areas of the country is Push Beverages currently being distributed?
Listen to the interview:
Episode Transcript:
Push Beverages Higher Vending Margins Tom Shivers: I’m Tom Shivers, with the Vending Business Show, here with Dave [Mandela 00:00:15] of Push Beverages. Dave, thanks for being here.
Dave Mandela: Thank you. Thank you for having me and spreading the word to many operators in the country.
Tom Shivers: What type of beverage products do you produce for the vending industry?
Dave Mandela: Well, Push Beverages, actually, four years ago we created this product, actually, as a vending company, to help us with our profit margins. And we produce a line of 20 ounce soda. We have nine flavors now. We have two bottles of water. One is a purified water, and the other is a raspberry flavored water. And we also have a line of 20 ounce teas called Tribe, which are a higher price point. But they’re excellent product. It’s a real brewed product. There are five flavors of those. Those are specifically made to be used in vending machines. And it’s done well so far.
Tom Shivers: What features does your product have over the others? Push Beverages Higher Vending Margins
Dave Mandela: Well, first of all, we made sure when we created the product, we didn’t create a no frills brand. What I mean by no frills is that you go into a supermarket, and you see value brand X or value brand. We made sure we put the best flavoring in these products. Over one year, we used focus groups and mass sampling to ensure that we had a national brand look and taste. And we didn’t make it a value price product. And we also had these other little features. First of all, all of our products have less sodium, about 50% less sodium than an Orange Crush or a Fanta Orange. And that’s really important. All of our products are gluten free. Our bottle itself, it’s a thicker bottle than Coke and Pepsi would have. Whether it’s Coke, Pepsi, Canada Dry, whatever flavors they use in the marketplace … We also have very high pressure cap, which keeps the carbonation in that bottle. Therefore, instead of having your typical three month shelf life on a product, we have an eight month shelf code where we guarantee that product. Talk about savings and in your vending world, flavors don’t sell as much as the core stuff, like Coke and Pepsi and Mountain Dews and Dr. Pepper, but people should have flavors for variety. And nowadays, instead of having a three month shelf life, you’ll have an eight month shelf life. So you save a lot of money right there.
Tom Shivers: Well, how do you position Push Beverages to sell in locations?
Dave Mandela: Over time, we’ve seen some operators, especially in the southeast, they go and use what they would call a value brand and slot it cheaper than your current price. In this day in the vending industry, where you need to get that $1.25 or $1.50 for a 20 ounce soda, you just re-slot this product, and it’s going to sell as good as the product you pulled out of it, because of how the product tastes and how it looks. Don’t lose those margins, because margins is a thing that’s killing the rest of us these days. And in the vending industry, I’ve seen pricing as low as a dollar, still, and as high as $1.50, $1.75, depending on where you are. But to compete and to keep that margin out there that you need, keep that price. If your Coke’s $1.25, put this in at $1.25. Why lose that margin?
Tom Shivers: What do I do if I have bottler equipment?
Dave Mandela: Well, that’s the key question. Fortunately, some operators have their own equipment or own their own equipment over time. And you want to talk about building equity in your company? There’s actually a program through A&M Equipment in Lithonia, Georgia. Everybody knows Joe Nichols, I’m sure. Where you can get equipment from him, a push-fronted machine that costs $1495. Now, that’s not very expensive. And that equipment is fully ready, it works. He gives you his warrantee on it. In addition to that, it comes with mech invalidator. And with that you get 23 free cases of Push beverages with that. You net down to $895. Now, for $895 to get a piece of equipment that you don’t have to be loyal to Pepsi or Coke, and bring your margins back into your business is a very good price. And some areas of the country, you can also get some of your bottler equipment, they allow you for two, three slots to put other product in there, too. Over time, if you build your equity up, you have leverage power with Coke and Pepsi, too. Because we all know, at the end of the day, we do need to use some Coke and we do need to use some Pepsi to stay competitive and to keep variety in those machines.
Tom Shivers: Why has Push Beverages been successful with vending operators?
Dave Mandela: Well, I’ll give you two scenarios. First thing, there’s a company in northern New Jersey that went ahead and re-slotted their machines. They basically kept … They were a big Pepsi buyer. So they kept Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Dr. Pepper. The rest they eliminated. They eliminated the Orange Crushes and they eliminated some of the other flavors. And they saved five or six dollars a case. Now, the sales after initial period, when they saw the product was good … And it takes a couple weeks to get people acclimated to it. My gosh, there’s a new product in the machine. You know what? They had no complaints from their customers whatsoever. What’s this orange soda? What’s this brand? So on and so forth. Again, if it looks good and tastes good, people will buy it. After the initial sales period, which was about two weeks, the sales rebounded. And it went 7% above the sales point, 7% more than they were making before with an Orange Crush or a Fanta Orange. And no customers complained at all. Actually, at that point, they were getting calls from people saying, “Where do I find this product?” Actually, in that year, in 2009, the company that I’m talking to, they have about 20 routes. And they saved $167 that year just by re-slotting Push. That’s a significant amount of money, if you ask me.
Tom Shivers: Great. What areas of the country is your product currently being distributed in?
Dave Mandela: Okay. Right now, currently, you can find the product in the Mid-Atlantic region. You can find it through Vistar in the southwest, out of Vistar, Georgia. That will cover the states of Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and parts of Tennessee. And, also, we’re in Chicago. Concession Services carries the brand. And they cover four big states: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Right now, those are our three main distribution points. Now, we’re also going to be adding two distribution points: one in Greensboro, North Carolina. That’ll be within the next six weeks. And, also, Memphis, Tennessee. Basically, you’ll be able to find our product anywhere along the eastern seaboard coming west to the Mississippi River. And we’re excited.
Tom Shivers: Well, Dave, thanks for sharing. How can people reach you?
Dave Mandela: They can reach me. My email is [email protected]. We also have a 1-800 number. It’s 1-855-PUSH-B-E-V. And they could call A&M Equipment, Joe Nichols. He’s down in Lithonia, Georgia, if they’d like equipment. But if they want to know more about the brand and anything that goes beyond it, just give me a holler. I’d be more than happy to talk to them.
Tom Shivers: You’ve been listening to Push Beverages Higher Vending Margins at the Vending Business Show, a publication of A&M Equipment Sales.
Vending Remote Monitoring An interview with Greg Hasslinger, VP of Sales at InOne Technology
Vending Remote Monitoring What are the technical requirements for a vending machine to be remotely monitored by an operator?
First of all the vending machine must be able to provide a DEX file. The majority of the OEM’s have been incorporating DEX into their machines for years. However there are many older machines that are still in use today that do not provide Dex. InOne provides 2 solutions for these machines without Dex- DEX audit kits or replacement controller boards for older AP, National and some Polyvend snack machines…
What are some of the benefits of vending remote monitoring?
Though a lot will depend on the operator, their current operation and what they define as a successful implementation. Some of the key benefits we hear from our customers after implementing vending remote monitoring : we carry less inventory in the trucks, we have been able to reduce unnecessary trips to machines that do not require product, we are informed ahead of time of problems with the machines, our customers feel they are being serviced promptly and can also see sales reports when provided with secured login capability…
Does the vending remote monitoring solution provide the operator with alerts?
Yes, InOne’s Arrow Connect Solution provides various types of alerts and alarms. The alerts are generated from the Dex file, over the MDB, as a result of rules set by the operator and by loss of power at the machine. These can be provided via text message, email or both to one or numerous individuals in the operation.
What costs are involved to add vending remote monitoring? What about adding cashless in the future?
Assuming the vending machines have Dex and MDB there is the cost of the hardware and the monthly monitoring fee. The cost will vary based on the purchase option the operator chooses. You can contact me at 410-666-3800 x1106 and I can provide you with the options so you can make the best decision for your current and long term needs. Yes, once you have the Arrow Connect you can easily migrate to providing cashless capabilities just by adding a card reader (which we provide a number of options).
I’ve heard operators say that they want to add vending remote monitoring to only a couple machines to start off, is that possible?
Yes, we have always believed to treat each customer the same, whether for 3 machines or for 3 routes of machines.
If an operator is using a route management software package, will you be able to send them a DEX file?
We have adopted the NAMA VDI standard and are currently sending Dex files to the route management systems where they have adopted this standard. Though there are some companies that have not adopted the standard and are working on it. More exciting videos Take Over A Vending Route Or Start Your Own?
Vending Efficiency Delivering Product An interview with Larry Towner, vending consultant
In this podcast, Larry discusses: Vending Efficiency Delivering Product
Plan your route schedule in advance
Park out of the way and avoid being off the curb if possible: marketing, security, safety
Inventory of each machine in one box
famous saying: “Vending is a business of minutes”
Do a pick list
Limit trips from truck to machine
Items to keep in your pocket
Drive in a line to limit windshield time
Plan well for a smooth and efficient route
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Tom Shivers: I’m Tom Shivers with the Vending Business Show here with Larry Towner who is a vending business consultant. Larry sold the majority share of his vending business a few years ago. Thanks for coming back, Larry.
Larry Towner: Good to be back, Tom.
Tom Shivers: Our topic Vending Efficiency Delivering Product The last time we talked, you had a lot of interesting things to say about efficiency and specifically you’re talking … told us a lot about loading the truck effectively so that you can have a smooth flow of your … of the products from the truck right into the machine. What are we gonna cover today?
Larry Towner: Well, I think today, Tom, what we’ll talk about is now that we’ve got the truck loaded and we’ve got it ordered in a way that makes sense, basically the way you have your machines laid out, let’s talk about getting out to the machines and getting out to the accounts.
Tom Shivers: Okay.
Larry Towner: Like I say, you’ve got your truck loaded. You’re ready and you’re rearing to go. Generally, just as a course of action, I usually started my day the night before. What I would do is … Well, actually, I started a week before, but I would have my route schedule printed out on a weekly calendar program. I used a office shelf calendar program that you can get at any store, but that allows you to do repeating schedules where you can do things weeks and weeks and weeks in advance. The keys here are is when you’re scheduling your time, you do it the night before so you have an idea. One thing that a lot of people don’t do, they don’t plan around traffic. Tom, you live here in metro Atlanta like I do. Is traffic a factor here?
Tom Shivers: Just a little bit.
Larry Towner: A little bit, yeah. We, in the vending business, don’t get paid to sit in front of the windshield of the truck. We get paid to sit in front of the glass of the machine and actually fill that machine up. One of the things that I always did, and just depending on the days, I would go and look on … look at my schedule and say, “Where do I need to be during the traffic time?” [inaudible 00:02:19] and I always used both traffic times, both morning and afternoon. I would be making sure that I had a series of stops that were all very, very close together during those traffic times.
Larry Towner: Generally vending people start very early in the morning. They start 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM, 6:00 AM in the morning. By the time the main traffic time rolls around, you are pretty much … you should be in a stop if you’re doing everything right. Of course, here in metro Atlanta as you know, you can get stuck in traffic anytime of the day, anytime of the night. It’s just how it goes being a major city. Anyway, you start the night before you go and you lay out your route and where you wanna go and when you think you wanna be there. You give yourself an approximate amount of time as far as your sales and your dollar [inaudible 00:03:01] per your accounts. That’s the first place where you start.
Larry Towner: When you get into the accounts, there’s a couple of techniques … Or, you’re heading into the accounts. You pull up into the driveway. There’s a few things that I used as a rule of thumb. One is I’m very marketing oriented and also … but also safety and security conscious, too. I would be very careful. I usually parked on the loading docks and I wanted to make sure that we were out of the way. We didn’t wanna be an eyesore to anyone and we didn’t wanna have to work off a curb if we could help it. You end up working off a curb a lot, but you try not to work off the curbs where you’re out in the plain view of everyone, at least that’s my opinion. I always liked to kind of stay back and out of the way.
Larry Towner: Then again, I don’t like to be in dark corners either for security purposes where there somebody might come and accost you because the minute they know you’re in the vending business, they know you’ve got cash and you become an easy target. Try to stay like, if you’re working at night, well-lit areas and things like that. You get out of your truck. Now, there’s several different ways to do it in the vending business. One way … The way that I currently do it is I have boxes inside the truck. Inside each box I carry a whole inventory of a machine, rolls into the account with me. I have a set … preset level of inventory that’s in each box and it’s arranged just the same way as the machines are. I start top shelf down and work my way down through the machine using my boxes.
Larry Towner: You think this is kinda silly, but the amount of time that you spend walking back and forth between your truck and your … the machines can add up to considerable time. In past shows, we talked about how the vending business is a business of minutes. It’s all about how many minutes. If you can cut five to ten minutes out of each stop, you can add one to two stops per day, which is giving you an extra impact on your bottom line of your business.
Larry Towner: We roll in to our stops with basically a full amount of snack on the thing and then we do a pick list on the drinks. You can roll in and do a pick list on your accounts if you want. I do that on some of the more difficult locations that I have. If I have to go up some stairs and I don’t have an elevator access or something like that, I might go in and make a pick list. A pick list just is you go into the machine and you pick out the particular items you need as per the shelf and you write them down in a card you brought. You pull them out. You put them into a box and you just carry one box in instead of carrying in nine boxes, which is what I currently take in with me every time.
Larry Towner: If I have a good, easy access, I roll the whole thing in. I make one trip into the machine. I don’t have to make multiple trips in and out in and out and in and out. Generally we try … Right now we limit our trips in and out to two. We can’t carry the whole amount of product with drinks and snacks in our hand truck all at once. We usually do too much volume to do that. That’s should be your goal that you have that much volume. Do you get an idea of what I’m talking about, Tom?
Tom Shivers: Yeah. It sounds like you wanna cut off those minutes and find a way to get things in and out quickly.
Larry Towner: Right. Right. That’s really the key. You also, when you make your lists, make sure you can read your lists so that you know. When you come out to get your drinks, don’t guess. Make sure you know exactly what you need. Again, to make one extra trip back out to the truck takes anywhere from two to five minutes just depending on the stop, but two to five minutes adds up at the end of the day. That’s what we do. We also walk in with our money bags.
Larry Towner: We walk in … I keep in my pocket, you’re gonna think this is funny, but I keep in my pocket, I carry two pens, a small screwdriver, a magic marker, and I also carry a three by five pack … I don’t use three by five cards, but they’re the three by five spiral ring notebooks is what I use now. I used to use three by five cards. They got a little pricey. I keep those in my pocket. I always have something to write with. I always have something to do a small minor repair and or open a box, which is what that little screwdriver is for. If I need to mark on something, I always have a marker. Don’t think it means that much, wait til you forget and you have to run out to the truck to get a small screwdriver to tighten something up or to cut something.
Tom Shivers: How ’bout a stopwatch?
Larry Towner: We’ve … We’re not UPS yet. If you’ve ever talked to … When you get out there, talk to a UPS driver. They’ll tell you, they’re measured by the minute with a watch, too. It is something that if you wanna do it, actually, we used to do a little bit. We tried. We’d time ourself and see how long it’d take us to get in and out. We would strive to do better and better on a daily basis.
Larry Towner: The key, again, it starts at night though. You wanna make sure you have all the prior … It starts the day before. You want all that product on the truck and you wanna make sure you have enough. You wanna make sure you get your boxes full and get your route scheduled because it’s the same issue if you’re driving … you don’t wanna drive back and forth and back and forth. You wanna drive in a line. We generally work our route lines … or routes in circles, where you start at one place, you go out, you loop around, and you end up back at home. We try to limit the amount of windshield time between stops because, again, we don’t get paid to drive. We get paid to fill.
Larry Towner: That’s really, really critical. All it takes is good planning. I think in a previous show we had talked about scheduling as far as your … how …what’s your interval between stops are as far as weeks go or months or days. It just depends on the size of the account. Again, you have to integrate all this information together so that you’re nice and smooth and efficient. Theoretically, on a great day, you’re gonna spend 80% of your time filling machines and 20% of your time driving, if you’ve really got everything clicking and doing really well. That’s where you’ll be.
Larry Towner: That’s some of the tips is basically use a pre fold type system. If you get farther on and you have better resources, there’s all kinds of technological things that stream real time data back into your handhelds or into your iPhones and stuff like that. For most guys starting out, you can’t afford that technology. It’s very, very expensive. It works great for very, very large companies, but for small guys it’s just a little pricey.
Tom Shivers: Good stuff, Larry. Thanks for the tips. Tell us a little about your business and what you do.
Larry Towner: Well, we do vending consulting. We specialize primarily in startup type operations and helping guys get out there and get efficient so that they can start to make some money in this business because, believe it or not, just because you buy it for a quarter and sell it for 50 cents, you can’t necessarily make money on that. We help people get efficient so that they can start earning money faster.
Tom Shivers: How can people contact you?
Larry Towner: Best way to get ahold of us is send us an email. It’s [email protected].
Tom Shivers: You’ve been listening to Vending Efficiency Delivering Product at the Vending Business Show, a publication of A&M Equipment Sales. More Blogs of the Vending Business Show Vending Efficiency Operating Procedures
Our vending consultants are happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have. Call 770-482-7993 or Email one of our consultants at: [email protected]
