Has anyone had experience with this company called Vendstar?

Question

I'm looking at investing. I looked them up on BBB and they are not approved. If not that company, what other way would be good investing in vending machines?

Answer 1

Listen to the counsel of Web Advisor.  This is all sizzle and no steak!

Answer 2

With respect to Vendstar, the way the website looks, tells me it is a lot of hype and short of fact.

It would be an untrue statement to say

"Vending routes require no rent for an office or additional utilities fees"

http://www.vendstar.com/

One cannot not put a vending machine anywhere they want. If one does not own the property where the machines would be located or hold the lease with rights to have a machine present, one will have to get written permission and concession rights (contract), which will not be free.

Security?

What will prevent someone from just picking up the machine and walking away with it? Unless you have a 300 lb+ machine, or many sautered together with steel, these machines look like anyone can just snag them. And who can lift those bigger multi-vending machines in the first place? The lighter the weight of the machine, the easier it will be for someone to steal it. Get insurance? Yes, but at what cost for that?

After reading the cost to acquire these cheap  looking machines, I think it is a total rip off.

http://www.vendstar.com/howtogetstarted....

Let's do some math.

Assuming one spent a whopping $9,995 on 30 machines ("Silver Plan") that works out to be roughly $333 per machine. Assuming you bought the candy or whatever is inside the machines for free, and one charges 25 cents per purchase (vending disbursement), it will take about 39,960 purchases before you break even on just the machines!

Let's say you have one purchase from every single machine per day. That will take 109.479 years before you break even on just the machines!

Can you imagine if if one could do this, how much would all those quarters weigh, and where are you going to cash the quarters in?

Via CoinStar maybe, that will cost you 7-10% of the gross depending on the region the machines are in.

This does not includes your time, effort, and negotiating contracts (legal fees) to get the machines where you want them.

In general, traditional vending machines are not big money makers like they used to be. Most all are corporate owned, or owned by the individual store where they are located; or the store leases the space to the vendor.

Vending machines we more popular in the 1950's to 1970's, and the ones that sold ciggs made the most money.

As far as I can evaluate, the only people who make money on Vendstar is Vendstar.



If i was to get into this business, which I would not because the costs far outweigh the potential returns, I would consider a a real company such as CoinStar - a public company. Their machines are located in supermarkets, etc,  they automatically count change and you get dollars. The owner of the machine gets a % of the money fed in the machine.

Biggest Risk: Cost of the machine, maintenance, choosing the right location, and costs to have it at a particular location. If you own your own retail store, these ideas are easier to do.

I don't know how much the machines cost, but I would assume they are very expensive too. And you prob lease them.

Nasdaq CSTR

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=CSTR

Corp web page

http://www.coinstar.com/us/html/a-home