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If you’re running a vending machine business, you better understand the needs of your location if you want to be successful. This is especially the case with snack machines.
Most people will still buy from a soda machine even if it doesn’t have anything they like if they’re thirsty enough. But when it comes to snacks, if you don’t have anything of interest, it will stay on the shelves until you have to swap it out.
In this article, we’re going to cover all the snacks you should be putting in your snack machines.
Chips are a classic vending machine snack that does well in any location. The profit margin typically won’t be as high as other snacks, but it makes up for this in volume. Here are some popular chip options to consider:
When selecting chip options for your snack machine, it's important to consider the preferences of your target audience. If you're placing your machine in a school or office setting, you may want to consider offering healthier options like baked chips or veggie chips. Additionally, be sure to include a variety of flavors to appeal to different tastes. If you’re not sure what your crowd is into though, always resort to the classics.
Overall, chips are a snack machine staple and a must stock.
Chocolates are another popular snack choice for vending machines. They sell well, and have higher profits than chips. Here are some of the most popular chocolate options that you can consider stocking in your vending machine:
Hershey's chocolate bars are a classic choice that many people love. They come in different sizes, although you’ll typically be putting the standard 1.55 oz bars in your machines. You can also choose from different flavors, such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and cookies and cream. From our experience, the most popular bar is cookies and cream.
Statistically, Snickers bars are the most popular chocolate bar. Not having these in your snack machines is a major disservice to your business and your location. Make sure these are stocked regularly.
Kit Kat bars are another big hit. You’ll usually be stocking the standard 1.5 oz bar. Kit Kat Chunky does well in most locations as well. Kit Kat bars also come in different flavors, such as dark chocolate and white chocolate. These flavors can be hit or miss, so we recommend testing them out before you make them a default snack at your location.
After Snickers, M&M's are the second most popular chocolate. Peanut M&M’s typically do better than regular M&M’s. Another great thing about M&M’s is that you can stock them year-round without worrying about them melting or getting “the bloom”.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are another staple. These typically do very well, and you would have to be crazy not to include them. If your location has a lot of concerns surrounding peanut allergies though, make sure to check in with them before adding these to your machine.
When choosing which chocolates to stock in your vending machine, make sure to consider your target audience and their preferences. You can also rotate your selection periodically to keep things interesting and offer variety.
Candy might not be as popular as Chips or Chocolate, but can still do pretty well depending on the location. Here are some of the most popular candies:
When choosing candy for your vending machine, it is important to consider the preferences of your target audience. You may also want to consider offering a variety of options to cater to different tastes. Keep in mind that candy can be high in sugar and calories, so it is important to offer healthier options as well.
Gum is a great item to have in vending machines. It offers a quick and easy way to freshen your breath. The profit margins are significantly higher than Candy & Chocolate as well.
When choosing which gum to stock in your vending machine, it's important to keep in mind your target audience. If you're placing your vending machine in an office setting for example, mint flavored gum would usually be the best choice. If you’re putting your vending machine in the presence of a younger crowd, you might see success with adding fruit flavored gums as well.
Pastries are a great option for vending machines. Not only do they sell well, but the profit margins are solid as well. Best of all, because they’re more filling than a chocolate bar, there are people who will treat them like part of a meal.
Here are some of the most popular pastries to put in your machine:
When putting pastries in your vending machine, be sure to consider the best before date of each item. Pastries don’t have the shelf life of other snacks and you don’t want to risk having someone buy stale or expired pastries.
Healthy Snacks are becoming more of a popular thing every year. Some locations will ask you to include them, while other locations will have them as a requirement.
Healthy snacks provide their own set of unique challenges: they’re more expensive, they have shorter shelf lives, and most of the people that ask for them will never actually buy them. This doesn’t even account for the fact that most “healthy” snacks aren’t really healthy at all!
However, you should still put them in your vending machines whether or not the locations asked you to. Some people at every location really are trying to watch what they eat and the last thing you want is to lose sales because you don’t have anything that’s low-fat or sugar free.
Here are some Healthy Snack options you can consider putting in your machines:
In our professional opinion, Nuts are the best healthy snack to put in a machine. Not only do they sell well, but they’re also the most “Healthy” option. Almonds and peanuts usually do well with older crowds and health nuts (no pun intended).
These can do okay if you have the demand for them. Companies like Terra sell chips made from vegetables like Yam and Taro that tend to do well among people trying to watch what they eat. You’ll have to price them higher to get the same profit margin from regular chips though which might put off some people.
Protein bars do really well at vending locations that have a fitness crowd. Places like Rec Centres, Gyms, or Workplaces with an office nearby. If there’s any trace of a workout culture at your location, protein bars are a must have in your snack machines.
By offering a variety of healthy snack options, you can attract customers who are looking for a quick and convenient snack that won't derail their diet. Consider adding some of these healthy snack options to your vending machine to appeal to health-conscious customers.
Microwaveable items are perfect for vending machines that are located in places like offices or anywhere that has workers present at all hours of the day. Many of these items make for quick lunches, and it’s easy to have people at a location that buy them on a regular basis.
Some microwaveable items you can put in your snack machine include:
When it comes to microwaveable items you can add to your vending machine, Instant Noodles are a staple. They’re easy to stock and sellable at a good margin. The people who buy them will appreciate the fact that they’re available as well. You can choose from chicken, beef, shrimp, and vegetable flavors. Make sure the vegetable flavor is always available for the vegan/vegetarian crowd.
Microwaveable popcorn is another staple in snack machines. They’re easy to stock and have good margins as well. They’re particularly popular in office locations although some small retail breakrooms will enjoy them as well.
Mac and cheese is a classic comfort food that can be prepared in just a few minutes. You can choose from a variety of flavors, including traditional, white cheddar, and bacon. Mac and cheese is a great option for people who are looking for a quick and easy meal.
Rice bowls are a great option for people who are looking for a more substantial meal. You can choose from a variety of flavors, including teriyaki chicken, beef and broccoli, and vegetable fried rice. Rice bowls are easy to prepare, and they are a great option for people who are on the go.
In addition to the popular snacks mentioned earlier, there are a few non-snack items that you may want to consider including in your vending machine. These will mostly be dependent on the location, and in most cases you won’t ever be adding them.
Some miscellaneous items include:
Most of the time, Miscellaneous items are location specific and mainly added to meet the demands of the location. It shows the location that you are going above and beyond for them, and they will appreciate your services greatly.
We hope you found this guide useful!
Snack machines can be more complicated in terms of what you can provide for your customers, but as a result there are more ways for you to satisfy them.
If you own vending machines, feel free to check out our vending blog for more tips and advice on running a successful business.
If you own a building in Toronto, Ontario and would like to have top of the line vending services at your establishment, visit our website and contact us.
Till next time, good luck!
If you’re in the vending machine business, you better get familiar with snack machines. Next to Drink Machines, they’ll be the vending machine type you’ll be getting involved with the most.
While Pop machines can have a lot of factors to consider, Snack Machines are even more complicated. They come in a bigger variety of sizes and have more parts to them.
In this article, we will explore the top snack machine brands based on our personal experience.
When it comes to choosing the best snack machine brand, it's important to have a good understanding of snack machines and how they work.
Snack machines typically have a number of trays, each containing a number of compartments where different products ranging from chips to small pastries can be stored.
These compartments have a metal coil in the middle (known as a ‘spiral’) that rotates, dispensing the purchased product. Newer machines also have sensors that detect when a product has dispensed but got stuck.
When it comes to choosing a snack machine brand, there are a number of things to keep in mind. These are what we consider to be the most important factors to consider:
You want a machine you can depend on. A reliable snack machine will be able to dispense products consistently without frequently running into issues.
Some snack machines can’t dispense products too many times without either the product getting stuck or a technical issue on the machine arising, which can cost you money.
You want a machine that can tolerate frequent usage. Depending on the amount of foot traffic, vending machines can be subject to a lot of wear and tear.
A durable machine should be able to withstand dispensing product as much as hundreds of times per week without breaking down.
This is another important consideration. If something on your machine breaks down, you want to be able to easily replace it with something similar without having to do something as expensive as replacing the entire machine. Look for brands that offer interchangeable parts to make maintenance easier and more cost-effective.
It's important to choose a brand that offers readily available replacement parts. This will ensure you can quickly and easily get your machine up and running again if it breaks down and you can’t substitute the parts with anything from a similar model.
Some brands will have everything from replacement motherboards to keypads readily available for purchase from them and this is what you want.
If the brand is good enough, you can even find the parts for cheap on sites like Craigslist or Kijiji (if you're Canadian). This is extremely convenient and can save you a lot of money.
In general, you want to look for snack machines from brands with a lot of history in the vending industry.
That doesn’t mean that newer companies can’t be good, but the companies that have been around for decades understand the wants & needs of vending better and it reflects in their vending machines.
In general, we recommend using snack machines from companies based in North America. They’ve been around the longest, and understand the needs of vending machine businesses best.
In addition, since they’re based in North America, parts are easily attainable and maintenance problems are more easily understood and solved.
When it comes to snack machine brands, AMS is a solid choice. Established in 1997 by the late Roy Steeley, AMS has become popular among vending machine business owners due to its range of reliable and durable snack machines.
One of AMS's most popular vending machines is the Classic Snack, which was first presented in 1997 and remains a favorite among customers to this day due to its simplicity, dependability, and rugged construction.
AMS vending machines are built with state-of-the-art materials and technology, making them a reliable choice for vending machine operators.
Overall, AMS is a trusted brand in the vending machine industry, well-known for reliability and durability. If you're in the market for a snack machine, AMS should be a brand to consider.
When it comes to snack machines, Automatic Products (or AP for short) is another well-known and trusted brand. They have been in the industry for over 50 years and have a reputation for producing high-quality machines that are reliable and easy to use.
One of their most popular snack machine models is the Automatic Products Model 111 Snack Machine. This machine is compact and can fit in a variety of locations, making it perfect for offices and small breakrooms. It also has a simple design that makes it easy to stock and maintain.
Another popular model is the Automatic Products 123 (MDB Board) Snack Machine. This machine is a bit larger than the Model 111, but still has all the main features that make the 111 a winner.
Overall, Automatic Products is a reliable brand that produces high-quality snack machines. Their snack machines are easy to use and maintain, making them a great choice.
When it comes to snack machines, CPI is one of the top brands in the market. More famously known as Crane, they have been producing top of the line snack machines for decades.
At Lucky Vending, they are our personal snack machine brand of choice.
One of the most popular snack machines from Crane National Vendors is the Crane National Vendors 167. It’s a super durable, super reliable, 5 column snack machine making it a great option for accounts with high foot traffic.
Overall, Crane is one of the best snack machine brands in the industry and you cannot go wrong by choosing them.
When it comes to snack vending machines, USI (U-Select-It) is another one of the best brands to consider. Owned by Wittern, the company has over 90 years of experience in the vending industry and it shows in the excellence of their products.
USI offers a wide range of great snack machine models to choose from. From ambient snack vending machines like the Mercato 3000 to full-featured vending machines like the Evoke Snack 5, there is a USI vending machine to suit every business need.
A great feature of USI vending machines is their reliability. USI is known for producing high-quality vending machines that are built to last. This means business owners can count on their USI vending machine to operate smoothly and consistently, minimizing downtime and maximizing profits.
One of the best things about USI snack machines is their affordability. Despite being a top-tier brand, USI snack machines are some of the most affordable on the market. This makes them an excellent choice for small business owners or those just starting in the vending machine industry.
Overall, USI (U-Select-It) is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a reliable, affordable, and durable snack machine. If you’re just starting out, they’re probably the best snack machine brand to choose from due to the affordability while also being a top of the line product.
When choosing a snack machine, there a lot of factors to consider including reliability, durability, interchangeable parts, and availability of spare parts
Go for North American brands with a lot of experience in the vending industry
The best vending machine brands for snack machines are AMS, Automatic Products, Crane, and USI
If you’re new to the vending machine business, the best brand to choose when starting out is usually going to be USI
We hope you found this article useful in choosing a proper snack machine for your business!
Snack Machines are just as important as drink machines, so it’s important to know which brands are the best investment.
If you're a business in Toronto or the surrounding areas looking to have vending machines placed in your facility, click here to contact us and we'll be in touch.