Review and optimize your vending location

1Track the right number

A busy machine and a profitable machine are not the same machine.

Revenue per machine is the number everybody quotes and the least useful one to run a route on. What matters is what is left after product, commission, and card processing — roughly 20% to 35%, or about $40 to $120 per machine per month on a typical placement. Track that per machine, every month, and the decisions about what to fix and what to move make themselves.

• Record sales, product cost, commission, and processing per machine per month
• Expect 20% to 35% net on a healthy placement
• Back sales tax out before you call anything profit
• Compare machines against each other, not against a target you invented

Net margin on a healthy placement

20–35%Net margin on a healthy placement

Net per machine, per month

$40–$120Net per machine, per month

2Find the leaks

A persistent gap over 3% is not noise.

Telemetry reports what the machine sold. Your deposits report what you collected. Those two numbers should agree closely, and when they do not, the difference is theft, miscounts, or a jammed bill validator — not bad luck. Check it monthly. A gap that persists over roughly 3% is worth investigating properly, because it will not correct itself and it compounds across every machine you add.

• Reconcile telemetry sales against cash and card collected, every month
• Treat a persistent variance over roughly 3% as a problem to investigate
• Check the bill validator before assuming theft — jams are common and silent
• Fix it on machine one before the same blind spot runs across twenty

Variance above which a gap is a problem, not noise

3%Variance above which a gap is a problem, not noise

How often to reconcile telemetry against collections

MonthlyHow often to reconcile telemetry against collections

3Act on it

Tune it, or admit the location is the problem.

Most underperformance is fixable with product and price changes, and that is where to start. But some locations were never going to work, and the honest move is to stop paying for the mistake and relocate the machine when the term allows. A well-placed machine typically pays back its cost in 18 to 24 months — past that window, it is worth reassessing the placement against what that machine could earn somewhere else.

• Start with product and price; most underperformance is fixable
• Reassess any placement that has not paid back inside 18 to 24 months
• Watch for seasonal patterns before you condemn a location on one quiet month
• Use machine one's real numbers to make the case for machine two