Re:The economics of vending machines
by TwelveNights on Monday October 05, 2020 @09:58AM
(#24687792)
The only thing missing in OP's calculation is the cost of employees. Maintaining a fleet of 250 vending machines alone doesn't seem very possible.
If we assume that the restock is 3 times a month (close to the once every 2 weeks that was mentioned in passing), that leaves around 25 visits per day. If they're in close geographic proximity, that seems like it might be doable.
It would also be a lot easier if the majority of your machines were identical. The majority of vending machine products have a LONG shelf-life. So if you stock a truck with all of the things that all of your machines carry, you don't have to take the step that the article alluded to where you take stock and then go get the supplies. You'd just have all the possibilities on hand and restocking the truck only happens maybe once a week once you get a good idea of the flow of the individual products. It seems very feasible to me that 2 people could service that many machines. Especially if you're willing to work 12-16 hour days some days.
Where you're standing makes a massive difference to your perception. Using your back of the envelope calculations, 200k or even quite a bit less is a lot of money to many, if not most, people. The median USA income is apparently 50k, so they'd be earning more than most other people. Compared to a hard working minimum wage job, which can have longer, inflexible hours, this is definitely worth the squeeze for many people.