Tumblertown

It’s true that there is a lot of competition in the vending machine business; this makes it hard to get and keep good locations. One thing that you can do to make it easy to place your machines is to affiliate with a charity. Business owners are much more receptive to the idea of your machines if they help a charity as well. Plus, it’s a win for the vender as well. After all, who doesn’t like the idea of helping out a charity? It’s really a win win all around. This doesn’t make locating any easier, it’s still a chore, but it does give you a way to get your foot in the door and it gives you a slight edge over your competition.

How Does It Work?

The current going rate is a $1 to the charity for each vending machine per month. Now if you have only a small route, you’re not helping the charity much, but every little bit helps. If you have a good sized route, you could end up contributing a few hundred dollars a month to the charity.  Now this is a sizable contribution! The charity will send you stickers to put on your machine to show that you are affiliated with them and sometimes brochures to show to perspective business locations. Vending/charity affiliations make millions of dollars a year for non-profits with very little effort or expense incurred for the charity so it’s a very effective way to make money.

Make It Work for You

Almost all locators will tell you to affiliate with a charity, because it makes their job easier but it works just as well if you do your own locating. I actually made up a badge that I wear around my neck to make me “look official”. I also carry a binder with a picture of my machines so that the business owner can see my machines plus it’s also a good idea to carry your charity brochures in case the business owner want to see them.