The weather is getting better and better on each passing day.
The day is getting longer. The pop on the machines are getting consumed more and refilled.
This is a season for selling more drinks of any kind. According to my experience there is a lot of moving and renovating towards the spring and summer season.
There are also lots of Property listing for sale everywhere in the lower mainland.
Sometimes i wish that one of my locations will not affect the movement of my machines. The last month and this month i coincidentally received calls on several locations.
There was this hotel location wanting to move the machine to an upper level floor and i had it moved because they are renovating the lobby. I was visiting the location every week and it seems that the lobby is fantastic and very inviting in its new appearance.
I got a call again from a location that i was servicing for 3 years already and the taxi location which is 24/7 is also moving to a new place which is still not disclosed to anyone but i had a heads up.
The property that they are renting is owned by city of Vancouver and they have to move out.
I was advised and told that i have to be ready to move too by the end of the month or early May.
I thought it was over, i visit another location and the reception in the front desk told me that half of their staff is moving to a new office and it very small compared to the previous location. The new lunch room has no space for a vending machine and it has to be moved out.
Another call was received just today and i had a location in downtown high rise and it is a federal owned building. I was servicing the location for the longest time and had no complaints or whatsoever.
The elevators of the federal building renovations was almost completed. The management wanted to renovate the whole lunch room which is location on the top floor. So the machine was to be moved by the end of the month.
There are times that even thou you tried your very best to service the locations but there are unforeseen circumstances that your vending machine is affected.
I had several locations that was being renovated and most of them wanted the vending machine back again after the improvements.
But for some cases, my vending machine will not be making its way back to its location.
This is very disastrous for a small self-employed person. Imagine that you have to consider the moving charges, opportunity loss of sales and finding another location for your vending machine.
Looking for a new location is quite a challenge because normally if you solicit the owner of the building or apartment in most cases they will say NO.
NO ones like the hassle of numerous customer complaints and NO one likes to have the responsibility of having to put up with the vendor in case there is vandalism which might occur.
Everyone likes to have a stable and simple daily life activities and fewer responsibilities.
This is the real issue that all vendors have to take account. Even if you tried your best to make everyone happy and make sure that there are no problems with your vending machine. There are still several external factors factors that would be detrimental to your small business.
There would be questions of what if’s ?
What if i have only 10 locations and 3 locations had some renovations and needed the machines to be moved out and after a while the location forgot about you?
The vending machine business on the outside looks easy and simple to run but in actuality there are some risks involved. Everytime there is a new management expect to have some changes.
Everytime when spring season comes there will be some renovations from one of your locations.
I had so much experienced already and i can list all the reasons for your vending machine to be moved out.
- Renovation Renovation
- Downsizing Office Space
- Need the space for storage
- New Manager New Terms and Conditions
- Business Moving out to new location
In the vending machine business there is always the event that you will be loosing at least 1 or 2 locations every year even thou you are extra good in servicing.
In this kind of scenario, it would be a constant scouting for a new vending machine location. Some funds will be set aside for funding a new location. Of course used machines would be the best choice when you secure a new location.
Luckily im fully aware on such problems that will be arising. I happened to have a new great location replacement which i got by myself without spending a locator fee recently.
If you cannot find a location for the machines that are moved out, then a storage will be a temporary solution. Or keep the machines as a backup.
I had a case where i have an aging combo machine that is leaking so bad and the management wanted to have it removed immediately which it did.
