Eliminating Coin Vend Sales

[Adamski]

Guys,

I've been selling both Coin Vend (single load boxes) and 12 - 32 load bottles of detergent in my Vision vender. I'm thinking about phasing out the Coin Vend sized boxes and selling just the larger bottles and boxes of detergent and supplies. Has anyone else stopped selling the Coin Vend boxes in favor of the larger bottles/boxes of detergent and supplies?

As always, thanks for your intelligent imput.

[Howard]

Just out of curiosity how many coin size boxes do you currently sell versus large boxes?

I don't have any first hand experience selling the large sizes, but did not do it for several reasons. First I did not want to deal with stocking all that inventory. Next I figure Walmart and the dollar stores can buy it much cheaper and sell it much cheaper than I could. Most people that used our large machines brought their own detergent with them, and while some used premium products a huge portion used their own magic formula in a glass jar. Having said all that the only reason I even sold the little boxes was as a convenience to the people that used the small washers. Most of them did not want to carry bottles of detergent around.

I will be very interested to see what people think about this one.

[dmen921]

I do not sell the larger sizes right now, but it seems to be the markup wouldn't be as great. I buy single use boxes for $1.00 and buy them for $.34 cents each. That's 200% markup. Why would I stop that? What kind of markup are you getting on your larger sizes Larry? Just my two cents...

[silver56]

My two cents on this, Larry:

Not sure what kind of customer mix you have but if you have a Latino bent I would stick to the single serve boxes. It is deeply-rooted in Hispanic culture to favor buying only what you need instead of "going big" even if it makes perfect economic sense. When I spent time down in Central/South America it was not uncommon at all to see people go so far as buying ziplock bags of dog and cat food for their pets, which would last them a couple of days.

I think this has a lot to do with the fact that they were not economically well-off, so even if it makes sense to buy in bulk as a consumer, the reality is that they probably need to buy a bunch of things (food, detergent, etc) so tying up $20+ in detergent is simply a no-go. Instead, it's a couple of bucks for detergent, a couple of bucks for tortillas, a couple of bucks for gas....

[epic02]

Larry, I use to sell a lot of single vend soaps but once I got my new vending machine I was selling larger items more often. So I let my single vend boxes sell out, now I only stock Tide. I don't go thru it very fast but it's there when the customer needs it. I would only keep one or two single vend items in you machine like Tide and either Bounce or Downy. Every once in a while you'll get a customer that will come in and just want to buy soap for a single load. So it good to cater to them also. No need to stock a bunch of different brands for single loads.

[jh]

Larry,

We have a coin vended machine for single load vended boxes and we sell larger bottles on the counter. Over time we've figured out a good mix that works for us and my customers. Very few customers here purchased oxyclean or clorox2 in larger bottles. Most of them requested the smallest(cheapest) for one time use. So we took these off the counter item list. There are customers who do not want to communicate with other people including the attendants. They go straight to use the soap vending machine.

[ldm]

Larry: We are unattended and use the 12 select single box system. This almost seems like a question you need to answer based on the sales stats of your products. My guess is, if you can sell a few single use products out of your Vision Vender, and can put the single box sales space to better use, it might be worth considering. Les

[Adamski]

Guys,

Well, I see that I left some questions in your minds so let's see if I can make this issue more clear.

I am currently selling Coin Vend sized boxes of Tide, Wisk, Downy, Bounce and Clorox2. I make about 50 cents profit per box. I also sell 50 oz bottles of All, Era, Tide and Arm & Hammer for $6.50 to $7.50 each making a profit of about $1 per bottle. I also sell a few products like bottled Clorox and 32 ct Bounce that I make about $1.50 on each sale. My bottled product prices are competative with local grocery store prices but above Dollar Store prices.

I have many more Coin Vend sales than large product sales.

My thinking is that I might be losing some large product sales due to the availability of the Coin Vend products.

I have very, very few Hispanic customers. My customers are about 65% white and 35% black.

Thanks for your imput and I look forward to more responses.

[MrMachine]

Originally Posted by silver56

My two cents on this, Larry:

Not sure what kind of customer mix you have but if you have a Latino bent I would stick to the single serve boxes. It is deeply-rooted in Hispanic culture to favor buying only what you need instead of "going big" even if it makes perfect economic sense. When I spent time down in Central/South America it was not uncommon at all to see people go so far as buying ziplock bags of dog and cat food for their pets, which would last them a couple of days.

I think this has a lot to do with the fact that they were not economically well-off, so even if it makes sense to buy in bulk as a consumer, the reality is that they probably need to buy a bunch of things (food, detergent, etc) so tying up $20+ in detergent is simply a no-go. Instead, it's a couple of bucks for detergent, a couple of bucks for tortillas, a couple of bucks for gas....

That is true about Hispanics, but another thing is also true....They do big loads of laundry. I find they like to buy the 500g Ariel which I sell for $2.00. They can get about 4 machine loads from one bag. Many Hispanics have so much wash they buy 2 or 3 bags.

The markup for the "over the counter" sizes is keystone. Not bad as far as I'm concerned. The sizes are big enough to satisfy your customers without them feeling they need to leave your Mat to run down to the local grocery store. If you ever have problems with laundry left in washers that are not being used, you may want to think about the fact that some of them went to the store to buy detergent.

I sell both coin vend size and the larger over the counter sizes to please as many customers as possible.
It's all about good customer service, isn't it?

[jh]

Originally Posted by Adamski

Guys,

Well, I see that I left some questions in your minds so let's see if I can make this issue more clear.

I am currently selling Coin Vend sized boxes of Tide, Wisk, Downy, Bounce and Clorox2. I make about 50 cents profit per box. I also sell 50 oz bottles of All, Era, Tide and Arm & Hammer for $6.50 to $7.50 each making a profit of about $1 per bottle. I also sell a few products like bottled Clorox and 32 ct Bounce that I make about $1.50 on each sale. My bottled product prices are competative with local grocery store prices but above Dollar Store prices.

I have many more Coin Vend sales than large product sales.

My thinking is that I might be losing some large product sales due to the availability of the Coin Vend products.

I have very, very few Hispanic customers. My customers are about 65% white and 35% black.

Thanks for your imput and I look forward to more responses.

Larry,

I think you increase the customer happiness level by selling coin vend size boxes. Your store has something that they need. No more and no less. People are attracted by the price. Often time, they purchase multiple boxes of the same product and don't realize that they could have paid less for a bigger box of the same amount. I assume that the sale of the larger items will increase if you remove the small boxes. You can test this by simply stating that these sizes are temporarily out of stock to see how your customers will react.