How to Buy Snack Vending Machines

Snack vending machines come in many different styles and sizes. You can buy snack vending machines that are small enough to sit on a coffee table or large enough to require a whole wall of floor space. Most snack vending machines have a clear plastic or glass face so the customers can see what they are buying.

Instructions

1. Consider flexibility of product packaging. Chances are good you will want to offer a lot of variety in your snack vending machine and not all snacks are packaged the same. Many snack machines use coils for product delivery, others use columns. You will want to buy snack machines that offer an assortment of product delivery sizes.

2. Find locations for your machines before buying them if possible so you can purchase a machine that is the right size for the business. If you need to buy the machines before finding the accounts, think about the type of businesses you will approach to place your machines in. Consider the number of employees they typically have when buying your machines.

3. Decide if you want electronic or mechanical vend snack machines. There may be some exceptions, but in general mechanical snack vending machines are considerably cheaper than electronic vend. However, mechanical snack machines also tend to have move vending problems and they can not stand up to abuse from customers.

4. Play with the snack vending machine before buying it whenever possible. If you are going to look at a used vending machine for sale bring along a couple of candy bars and a few bags of chips as well as a pocket of change. Ask the person selling to show you how to load the product then try vending the machine to see how it handles coin acceptance and product delivery.

5. Ask the make and model number if you are considering buying snack vending machines off of the Internet or through mail order and you can't see the machine in person first. Research the machine on the Internet to see if the machine is still being made and how much it typically sells for. Visit vending forums to see if users have posted any feedback on the machine you are considering.

6. Buy from a reputable vending machine dealer if you are going to purchase machines from a company rather than an individual.

Tips & Warnings

• There are a lot of companies offering vending packages where they will sell you machines and some combination of business support. Use caution when considering package deals like this because they often charge you much more than if you found the machines on your own and the support received from them is often very little.

Resources

• Arrow Vending sells both compact and full size snack machines.
• Vending World has good quality refurbished machines.
• Econovend offers discount prices on new and used machines.