Vending?

[JBTcajun]

Hi all, need your wisdom. What are the pros and cons of using a snack vending macnine for soap and such. They are less expensive and easily set up to accept cash and the card. With the usual set up you have 45 rows. I am told you can have all large slots witch would reduce the # of rows.
My wife said folk would not buy meds out the same machine with soap. I say why not they are in a vacum seald pack. If all soap, bleach, bags, and meds could be dispenced out the same card ready machine wouldnt this be a good thing?
Please help as I have no experance and prefer not to rely on a salesman.

Tks for all your help sure love this site.
JBTcajun

[Fred50]

I spoke to my local health dept about vending soap (on the bottom) and chips and such on the top and they said no go. Don't forget that everything in there will smell like soap as well. I don't know about meds, but I assume that you mean Advil, etc and I'm not so sure that would sell too well.

I know someone that has a smaller "snack" vendor and they vend soap boxes and laundry bags from it. It works OK, but soap vends better (less trouble) from a soap vendor.

[pete f]

With all the different brands of soap and supplies it might take a 40 row machine. There are some smaller snack vendors, you can not vend any food or something you would eat, but soap and laundry products, maybe long distance card, bags, stain remover whatever you can find like that.

[Duane]

The last thing you would want would be a small kid and a dollar sent to the vending machine for a snack while mommy does laundry.


LAWSUIT !


I can't do it in my county do to health regulations. The inspector also likes to see several feet between the snack and soap vendors. Setting them close together could confuse a small child. Heck, the way people read signs now a days, you might have some grown ups foaming at the mouth after their snack.

Vendrite 360 for the soap.

USI combo 300 for snacks and soda vending.

[Westlake]

I understand that these machines need to be modified with larger motors to push the heavier products. Does anyone know where you can buy or lease these modified vending machines?

[Anonymous]

It would probably work very well if all you sold from it was laundry products. Don't mix anything edible in it. The food / candy will pick up a soap smell and taste. Even sealed soap vents off odors. Just walk down the laundry product aisle in the local supermarket and take a good whiff.

[BWJR]

I spent 10 years in the vending business. In addition to local health concerns, you should not vend soap with food. Also the coils are designed to handle light weight snacks and candy, not soap boxes. The size of the box will cause the product to get stuck in the coil and Jam up. Depending if the machine is wired from each motor to the board or wired in a series the one jam up could put the whole machine down. Believe me your snack/soap machine will get jammed with soap boxes and will tick a lot of people off who will lose their money. Buy yourself a used soap machine for about $350.00 from NY laundry in Long Island and forget merging the two products. Keep your customers happy.

BWJR

[JBTcajun]

I wasnt going to mix food and soap. was thinking of med and soap but now the whole idea is out. what is the address of this ny laundry. can I get a used machine that can be adapted to the card system?

[Fred50]

JBT,

I think that you would need an electronic soap vendor to use with a card machine. How would you activate a vendor with mechanical slides?

Both Duane and I have done it with the Vend-Rite 360 and they now have an 8-column version.

[fluffy]

For what it's worth, I have vended soap and chips/candy out of the same machine with absolutely no problems. The chips/candy are sealed for goodness sake, as well as the soap.
I put the soap on the bottom row and the other articles above. I also vend phone cards out of the machine too...anyone concerned people would eat them by mistake?

[pete f]

take a walk down the candy isle at Sam's club, then a walk down the detergent/soap isle. You should notice a different essence in the air. I don't even like mixing brands of cigars in my humidor, can't fathom soap and snacks in the same place. Look at the way the super markets are set up. The soap is usually buffered by an Isle or two of paper goods, maybe dog food is the closest. People food is far away.

[Anonymous]

I vend chips, candy, pastries, AND soap out of the same machine. I have never had a jam of the soap spiral due to the weight of the box. AS a matter of fact, I can't think of any jams I've had on the soap rows at all.....

I also own a small grocery store (3000 sq feet). We sell plenty of detergents AND snacks. No penetration of the soap smell into my chips. And they aren't that far apart.

I don't buy the "soap smell getting into the chips" thing. I store both products in a small closet in the back room of my laundromat. It's actually not much larger than my vending machine. If the smell is going to cross permiate all products, them we better have a different sealed storage area for each product.

I will give you that the soap boxes will leak a bit. I clean it out of my vending machine all the time. But the soap won't get into the sealed chips and candy.

As far as getting sued for a kid buying & eating soap instead of a snickers. Hell, you think you WON'T get sued if the kid buys the soap out of a strictly soap vendor and eats it? He could pick some soap out of the trash, eat it, and probably still get you in trouble!!

I like having one vending machine. Plus, it's real easy to set the price of soap to whatever I want........

Just my $0.02 worth.

[Duane]

Dave,

I don't worry about the smell and I do keep the products next to each area in storage (soap on bottom). However, if a small child dug some soap out of the trash and ate it, or was able to buy soap out of a soap vendor it is a much different situation legally than if a 4 year old thought they were buying candy and ate soap instead.

By placing the soap in a machine that has a main purpose of vending consumable items, you have just opened yourself up to legal issues.

Check with your local health department, most (including my county) will not allow the two items to exist in the same machine. My county also requires a certain distance between the two type of machines with the soap vendor needing to be clearly labeled.

Can you vend soap in snack machines? Yes.

Should you? No.

Duane.

[Kitty]

OK,
Girls point of view here, which of course is the main part of your customer base.

Food and detergent in one vend machine. GROSS.......and damn sure cheap looking. Seeing this would not give me a good impression on the establishment.

Sorry

[Anonymous]

Cheap Looking? In your opinion maybe...... you would base your entire decision about a laundromat on how the soap was dispensed? Hmmm...... I should probably be offended by that remark. As far as the "women's point of view", it was the previous owner's WIFE that came up with the idea!

Apparently my customers don't seem to mind. I make a VERY good return on my vending. I dare say I probably do better on my vending than most folks.

Health Department? Why go looking for trouble? If I'm doing something they don't like, then they will tell me about it. I deal with them daily in our grocery store. The most they will do is tell you what you are doing wrong then give you a month to correct it. No big deal. But the soap has been dispensed this way for almost four years without a hint of trouble or complaints. I doubt I'll be making any drastic changes too soon.

Kitty, I'm still bothered by your statement. I think it VERY unfair for you to pass judgement on my laundromat just because the soap and candy are sold through the same machine.

God, I hope I put my phone card dispenser in a spot you approve of....

[Kitty]

Do not take offense, you do what you like and what YOU feel is a good decision in your market, not at what I may comment about nor anyone else........but, when you state how you are doing things, there are many of us who do things different. In this case, I do not like to see soap in my candy machine, and frankly as a customer why should I?

MY comment was posted to make you aware of the first impression. As a first impression of your mat, may have been good, the impression I would have gotten form a vending/soap machine could certainly sway how I feel about the establishment. My opinion, is just that, mine. I wouldn't do what you do, but you do, so be it. Your the one that does best for you. I assure you, I am not passing judgement, I am merely visualizing the machine and how I would feel about the vending machine.

[mike]

Dave in Il

Did Kitty even say that you could HAVE a phone card vendor ?

Just Kitting, both of you !

[Kitty]

Mike, I told you I know Taebo!!!