Coke Machines - Own vs. Commissions

[BillClinton]

I have 3SS + 1IBA with a coke machine and a Vitamin Water machine. The two machines are owned by Coca-Cola and they give me commissions, which don't amount to much. They stock the machines and maintain them. Do you guys own your own machines and fill them up? If so, where did you buy the machine? How much did you pay? What volume do you need in order to break even on this analysis, etc.? Coke says that I get a 30% commission on cokes and 20% on Vitamin Waters, but I have no way to verify the volume of sales out of the machine (other than take their word for it).
Thanks for your help.

 

[Waxman]

Many threads exist on here about this very topic.

I had Pepsi and the same deal as you and it was silly and not profitable.

Here's what you do. Go on Ebay and buy a nice, used machine and stock it yourself. The machine is $700-1000. Get a machine that holds 12 oz. cans and sell em real cheap. This was discussed and I believe the best way to get max usage out of the machine as well as make a little $ and offer the convenience to customers.

 

[MEP001]

You may be able to have Coke or Pepsi supply the machine and let you stock it with product you purchase from them. It's more profitable than letting them pay you, but it's still not much.

Do you really want the expense, bother and risk of owning a machine? If it gets broken into, it's really costly to repair. There's not a lot of profit in it no matter how you do it. I've had a machine more than once before, and at best it's netted about $100 a month in the summer. In the winter they hardly got used at all.

 

[coincarwash.ca]

I bought two coke machines off Ebay....make sure it's a local seller and have them deliver and set it up if possible. I paid $800 and $1000 each. I buy water at Costco for about .16 cents each and sell at $1 ea.
I buy pop when it is on sale. When Coke is on sale I buy 20 or 30 cases.
I sell pop and water for $1.00.

The machines pay for themselves every year over and over.

 

[pitzerwm]

You can go to vending companies and buy an old machine and paint it up. Also secure the hell out of it and hook it to your alarm system. I've gotten them even from Coke or Pepsi. If you are actually selling their stuff, they will sometimes fix it for free. They are pretty bullet proof. They use to even give you signs, although their name was larger than yours.

 

[mac]

I can't believe they give you a smaller cut on the frigging water. It's water for crying out loud.

 

[bigleo48]

I have Pepsi supply my machine and I buy their overpriced pop and resell. It's not used much and I think I had sales of $1000 last year of which I made $500 (minus utilities), so it's more of a convenience thing for my customers.

But that got me thinking that if I got a surevend machine with the cooling option, I could sell pop, water and snacks. As mentioned I would buy the snacks from a local wholesaler or Cosco and mark up. Now I would turn a better profit and likely pay for the machine in a year. I figure I'll do this in the spring when vending picks back up.

BigLeo