Ideas on
vending:
1. Have a
vending area or island as opposed to simply hanging machines on walls at various locations.
2. Both drop shelf vendors and machines which vend many products ahve their own advantages and disadvantages. I'l limit my self two two: 1. If a drop shelf vendor malfunctions only one product is off the market till repairs are made - - not so for the multiple item
vending machine. 2. The items in a glass front
vending machine are visible to the customer - - not so in a drop shelf machine.
3.IMO the soda machine should vend only drinks, not other car care products.
4. Drop shelf vendors MUST have
lock guards around the padlocks; the folks making them should offer a super high srcurity model at extra cost.
5. It is more difficult to change a drop shelf vendor to a new product than to change products in a multiple product.
6. The Fawn vendor, at least the one I bought, was junk - - constant trouble. The Shure-vend has a strong reputation and I believe the man who owns the company is (was?) a fellow car washer.
7. Owning your own soda machine versus letting Coke or Pepsi maintain and fill one of theirs and pay you a commission is a tough call - - many variables. Among them: Commission rates; flexibility of products; speed of repairs when down - - weekend service? There's apt to be a wide variation form distributor to distributor.
8.For the majority of customers washing their cars is not an "impulse" decision. Once a customer is at a wash, especially a self-serve, buying products from a
vending maching IS an impulkse decision - - thus the importance of price is reduced.
Patrick H. Crowe
