Is Vending Business Sales Down Due to Pandemic?
You’ve heard that vending business sale down due to pandemic, but do you know why? It’s because of the effects of the virus on the human mind.
- People will shy away from everything they see, and that includes the food and drinks that are available in your vending machine, and it can make selling at your business a difficult and miserable experience.
- That said, here are a few certain things that you should have ready when people decide to come into your vending business: bottled water, cups of water, clean drinking water, wet wipes, toothpaste, mints, tissues, unscented baby powder, hot milk, healthy snacks like chips, cookies, and bagels, and any other snacks or sweets that are appropriate.
- Put some ketchup or mustard into your snack food like chips and crackers and a bag of chips with a small bottle of bottled water.
- That way, you can serve both hot and cold snacks and drinks as well as add a little zest to the vending business.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a small bar of your favorite sweets so that you don’t have to rely on having it sitting around your vending machine, nor do you have to worry about the employees having it all the time.
Just have the candy and soda machines for the kids to eat and leave the healthy snacks and drinks for your customers.
Yes, I hear many stories on the vendors here in Vancouver, BC.? Here are the scenarios.
- Vendors who exclusively cater to community centers are doomed
- Vendors who exclusively cater to schools are doomed
- Vendors who exclusively cater to downtown offices are doomed
The 2nd phase of reopening is in effect already here in Vancouver, BC but there are still lots of places such as : community centers, continuing education, ESL, gymnasiums, swimming pools, outdoor events and movie theaters are all closed.
- Even if they are open, the people here in Vancouver, BC jobs are cut 50%. Self-employed businesses are losing money or hardly making ends meet.
- I have started visiting my locations in Downtown Vancouver, BC offices and all of them are on bare minimum attendance.
- I got downtown offices before the pandemic with 100 to 300 and now it is just 20 employees working, so how will vending machine business survive?
Good thing that there is CERB offered by the government where self employed individuals and contractors earning less than $1,000 can avail the $2,000 offered by the government which will end on September.
Im not working from home so if i do not go out then I do not have money on the table to pay bills, rent or mortgage.
Here is the usual collections from my visits and the general look of the vending locations that I visit.
See the pictures below.
collecting expired chips
Collecting expired chocolate bars
Where is everyone
My collection for the above location
Vending Operators Who Depend on Colleges and Schools Have Hurt the Worst
Many people are now making their money in a different way that those who depend on vending operators who depend on colleges and schools have hurt the worst.
Before the pandemic the college operators are the ones who do the best, they are the ones who know what they want.
The college vending machine operators need to take a step back and look at the big picture.
If they continue to use college vending operators who depend on colleges and schools, they are always going to be at the bottom of the list, and they may never recover.
Office Transitions to Working From Home
Many offices have had to make the decision to start planning for office work that can be done from home. This is a very common trend in today’s business world.
Many corporations are seeing how great it is to be able to hire people and they are taking advantage of this. These jobs are not only high paying but are also relatively easy to maintain.
Many offices that did not have a necessity for an office from home also transitioned to working from home.
It is a lot easier to transport files around to allow employees to move to other areas or even take them with them if they want to.
There are some companies that will even reimburse for the costs of travel when the person is on leave from work.
This means that employees are not having to commute by public transportation and they do not have to worry about parking fees.
A lot of companies will also offer a good amount of money as an incentive to get an employee to work from home. They see this as a great benefit and one that is worth the time spent and the investment of funds.
Many offices that were not going to get into this kind of employment have also started using the Internet for a way to perform tasks that would require them to have to drive somewhere.
With the internet and the way that businesses are moving forward, this is becoming a lot easier. More offices are now utilizing these ways to be able to bring in a better income. It is a good move for them to make because if they do not do this, they are missing out on this type of revenue.
Productivity Has Decreased Since Employees Were Sent Home to Work
Vending Operators Need Time to Recover Their Losses
Vending operators suffered loss as well and they will need time to recover. For example, before the recent economic downturn when people were able to shop in malls, they could spend a lot of money shopping for items that would just a few hours later be sold out on the streets.
Most people would never be able to find the specific item they were looking for unless it was sold in a vending machine or convenience store.
It is because most people prefer to buy food and drink, they do not want to walk around or drive around any longer, instead, they would just take their order and buy them at the store.
- When the economy started to go down and the number of people working started to drop, this created an unfortunate situation in which many numerous businesses started to suffer loss.
- After a while, more people would lose their jobs, and other businesses were not able to hire new employees.
- As a result, the number of lost jobs quickly increased and people started to make their living by working at home.
- In addition, the number of people working at home also rose, so the number of vendors needed to compete for each customer who would visit the business also increased.
All these different factors resulted in a situation where operators needed to think of a way to recover.
- In other words, they needed to try to regain what they had lost.
- To make sure that they will have enough resources to handle the increase in customers, the operators will need time to recover.
- This is because they might not even be able to make enough money to support themselves with the amount of money they lost.
- During these hard times, the owners of the business might want to consider employing outside help, such as a contract vending services which will allow them to hire individuals or teams who can help them to recover what they had lost.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket On Vending Business Locations
If you want to get into the vending machine business but want to put all your eggs in one basket then there are a few things that you can do to help you succeed.
As I have mentioned before. If you rely only on community centers, schools, airports, gymnasiums, and continuing education you would lose your home and everything since there is virtually no one using the machines on those locations.
How long can I wait for my other locations to be fully operational?? Not only me but other contractors too.
