New Vacs vs. New Vendor?

[Red Baron]

Deciding between these 2 projects.

1. Replace all 4 existing D&S vacs (3 frag and 1 shampoo) vacs that accept quarters only, with new D&S combo vacs with bill acceptors and/credit card acceptors. or;

2. Replace D&S 5-column vendor with glass-front vendor.

Option #1 will cost around $16,000 minus the value of my used vacs, and I would use this opportunity to go to $2 to start. Option #2 would cost around $11,000 including block work.

My vendor works fine and vacs work fine, but need to upgrade things. Which do you think will pay back fastest? Other ideas in terms of vac options?

 

[Eric H]

Could you post a photo of your existing vacs? IMO, CC payback on vacs would be waaay tooooo long. I also do not like bill acceptors on vacs because: 1. it is another item to monitor, 2. it makes collecting the money take so much longer. Most people have a buck or two in their car for a vac.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

Is it possible to replace one vac, and see what the results are for a month. 16k is alot to drop on vacs, if results are good then next month replace the rest. The $2 start will help also, Do those expensive vacs have a good payback, I was looking at a dual vac, but not sure those combo vacs would get good usage as I have so many sprays in the vendor. What kind of prices can you get with the combos.

 

[jprb]

We replaced two of our vacs (vac only) with a vac/frag & a vac/shampoo - both with bill acceptors. They HAVE increased my vac sales. Shampoo & fragrance seem to be getting lots of use, too. I have two glass front vendors at other locations. Since you already have the the frag & shampoo, I don't know how much the bill & CC acceptors will increase your sales. This might take a coin toss to decide!

JPRB

 

[MEP001]

I would do both, one now and one later. The only decision would be which to do first, which would turn a bigger profit sooner. For what it's worth, we have three combo vacs with shampoo/spot remover and three fragrances in each that are in front of the bays, and eight plain vacs under a covered drying area. The three combos bring in as much as the eight plain vacs, and I routinely see people spend $5 and use three features. Operational costs and labor are minimal. I would think that would make combo vacs more profitable than a vendor.

We have eight electronic drop-shelf vendors, which all together do about 15% the gross sales of EACH combo vac.

 

[Red Baron]

I would do both, one now and one later. The only decision would be which to do first, which would turn a bigger profit sooner. For what it's worth, we have three combo vacs with shampoo/spot remover and three fragrances in each that are in front of the bays, and eight plain vacs under a covered drying area. The three combos bring in as much as the eight plain vacs, and I routinely see people spend $5 and use three features. Operational costs and labor are minimal. I would think that would make combo vacs more profitable than a vendor.

We have eight electronic drop-shelf vendors, which all together do about 15% the gross sales of EACH combo vac.

MEP, do you have credit card and/or bill acceptors on your vacs? Pro and con on that? Another option I'm considering is building a third vac island and install 2 new combo vacs there. This would cost me about $5,000 less than replacign the 4 existing vacs, and would give me 6 total.

 

[MEP001]

No CC or bill acceptance on any vacs, though I want to put CC acceptance on the combos. I don't see much benefit of bill acceptors on a vac other than customer convenience.

 

[Kirb]

Option #1 will cost around $16,000 minus the value of my used vacs, and I would use this opportunity to go to $2 to start. Option #2 would cost around $11,000 including block work.

I would like to find out where you are getting 4 combos with bill and CC for $16,000. The ones I have looked at are between $5,000 to $6,500 per vac with these options.
Thanks,
Kirb

 

[Red Baron]

I would like to find out where you are getting 4 combos with bill and CC for $16,000. The ones I have looked at are between $5,000 to $6,500 per vac with these options.
Thanks,
Kirb

Shhhh...my distributor reads this forum...I'm haggling.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

We have eight electronic drop-shelf vendors, which all together do about 15% the gross sales of EACH combo vac.

I would echo MEPs comment - vacs are way more profitable that vending.

 

[Waxman]

How about doing both by purchasing a used glass front vendor as well as adding a vac or 2?

 

[JMMUSTANG]

I had to make the same decision several years ago. I decided to do both at once.
Wish I had done the vac combos first. More people use vacs/combos.
If you go with the vac combo make sure you get a bonus time option for each use.
I have double the time if a customer uses $5 and it seems to work pretty good especially for the moms with the mini vans and kids.
One caveat is that there is more problems over the long haul with vac combos than just vacs.

 

[captain cw]

vacs. I love my bill acceptors.

 

[PEI]

I've found that the vacs will payback faster.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I went the vendor route and I have been pleased with my return, but I think that some combo vacs would really flesh out the options we have. My .02, go with the combo vacs.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

How is the security on the bill acceptors on the vacs with bill acceptors?? When you decide to sell the vacs -- email me I am always looking for more profit centers.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I have followed this post with some interest when we are asked for opinions concerning investments in Combo vacs versus a vending center. Red gave his proposed investment numbers for the Combo vacs and for replacing a D&S 5 column drop shelf with the modern computer controlled multi-vendor. What we don?t have are any current monthly income numbers from the vendor or the vacs that are needed to render an opinion about payback on either investment decision.

He already has modern Combo Vacs with coin only activation and wants to add bill validators and credit cards to this service. It is hard to project how much increase he might get out of adding these to his vacs. 10%?? 20?? IMO adding bill validators and/or credit cards to the Combo vacs will take a long time to pay off.

We don?t have an average monthly income is received from the D&S-5 column vendor or where it is located on the wash site. These are important things to know. We do know that Red has a cost investment of $11K penciled in for the new vendor installation. IMO a good, profitable vendor installation can be done for far less than that.

I mean no disrespect to any who responded to this thread, but, IMO, if the numbers were known, I think the payback on a properly located multi-vendor would be much faster than the investment in changing the Combo vacs.

Uncle Sam

 

[Waxman]

Me too. But since I just secured nice, used combo unit for my wash I may be biased. In my mind, I plan to make my vendor just like Christmastime for the car enthusiast and carwash customer.

If you've ever seen pics of Whale O Washe's vendor, that is the look I'm going for, plus a few 'Waxman" twists and turns on the theme. You'll see.