Ways to Promote Your Bulk Candy Vending Business!

Apart from getting out and pounding the pavement, calling up businesses and bringing up your business in mixed company, what methods are out there to help you get the word out about you and your awesome bulk candy vending business?

     One more traditional method is business cards. Many people don't realize that there are bulk candy / gumball vending business cards available- now, you don't want cheesy cheap ones like you could print on your own home printer- you want cards that look professional. Just because you're not running a 6 figure frozen food route doesn't mean you can't look like you roll with the big guys. To the left is a great gumball / Bulk Candy Business Cards design.

A cool and playful way to get the word out as you're out doing your errands is vending company t-shirts. There are a lot of trendy designs for gumball vending machines HERE.

Other ideas are to print out cute flyers that feature the type of machines you operate, plus logos of popular brands of candies available. Certain brands are instantly recognizable worldwide- even someone living under a rock knows what M&M means- tasty chocolate goodness.

Novelty Bulk Vending Machines

There are lots of different "bulk vending" machines on the market, besides just the standard candy / gumball / capsule machines. The bulk vending market also has quite a few "niche" machines out there that are very profitable if you can get into the right kind of locations with them.

One popular and eye-catching option is the "Antique Gas-Pumper" gumball machines. Most of them, such as these (5 new, never used ones for only $900!) are over 5 feet tall! Some are up to 7 feet tall. The cool thing about them, apart from looking retro which is popular due to all the junking / restoration shows on TV these days, is that you can customize the logo on the top (the real gas pumpers would have had oil & gas company logos.)

Here's another popular little machine, especially with the kids- Shootin' Hoops gumball vending machines. (Left.) Yup, you guessed it, you push the button and try to get the gumball into the little basketball net. How cute is that? Perfect for pizza parlors, game rooms, theater lobbies, etc.



On the more high-tech side of novelty bulk machines are the interactive vending machines that put on some type of show for the customer. They can be quite pricey, but if you get them pre-owned, you'll save thousands.

An example of the Interactive bulk machines is the Wowie Zowie vending machine by Wacky Fun Factory. It is a brightly colored frame in a clear case full of gears, levers, cogs, pulleys, etc. As the gumball travels down to the hand of the customer, it moves through the parts with colored flashing lights and silly sounds.

Gumball Machine Bandit Arrested

I can't help but think this is funny. What on earth compels a person to walk up to a metal gumball / bulk candy vending machine and take off with it? Supposed he did get away with it, how much trouble is he going to have trying to open it and get the change out? Newsflash: commercial gumball machines aren't nearly as flimsy as you'd think.Someone is very likely to get stopped trying to flee the scene with a machine. And they sure as heck aren't goignt o be able to break into it it public.
http://www.kristv.com/news/suspected-gumball-machine-bandit-arrested/

Luckily, theft of gumball machines is a very uncommon thing- only the most desperate bozo would try it. Fortunately for bulk candy vending machine operator, it's easy to pick up some used, like new bulk candy machines for cheap to replace one that's stolen or just needs to be replaced. 

Bulk Vending - Get the Scoop

The bulk vending machine business actually consists of several different types of machines and products: Novelty capsule venders, gumball venders, flat vending (which includes temporary tattoos and stickers), and few other niche items. In 2005, the dollar volume of all the different types of bulk vending was appx. $413,417,000; in 2009, it was $398,417,000. It's an area that still has room to change and grow.

Because of the crunch in the credit industry, it's is harder for all types of vending machine operators to purchase new equipment on credit. Luckily, there are other ways to obtain quality vending machines at extremely reduced prices. If you will steer away from the "usual" ways to buy bulk vending machines, you can save yourself a lot of money and not have to bother with creditors.

While the number of bulk candy, bulk capsule, and gumball vending machines out on locations has diminished somewhat over the past few years, the industry is still very lucrative. The idea is to minimize your initial investment, so that you can recoup your losses very fast. If you buy your machines from a business opportunity company, you'll be paying WAY too much to begin with, and you may never recover your investment, much less realize the profit that the biz-ops want you to believe.

Vending business opportunity companies will often expect you to pay ridiculously high prices for their "services" that go along with the machine purchase. They will also give you very inflated profit projections about how much you will make. Once they get you hooked, they reel you in- you'll end up paying for: the machines, "locating services", extended warranties, "coaching", and sales literature.

Really, all you need are the vending machines, and you sure don't need to pay full price for them. Warranties? What a joke. It's a little mechanical machine that takes quarters, not a high-tech computer. If a part breaks, then just snag the part off one of your machines that you're not using, and replace it.

You don't need machines straight from the manufacturer- get them USED. You'll find that there are LOTS of bulk candy machines on the used market, that aren't even used! Some of them are still brand new in boxes. Some of them are like new.

Getting Started in the Bulk Vending Machine Business

One of the most profitable and least risky vending business ventures has got to be the bulk candy vending machine business. What exactly ARE bulk vending machine? In general, bulk vending machines are any machines which dispense products in large amounts- handfulls of small gumballs, Skittles, M&M's, Peanuts, Runts, etc. But, it can also refer to machines that contain bulk amounts of items such as bouncy balls, large gumballs, etc.
Some bulk machines are also called Capsule machines. These are the little clear plastic balls that have little toys or jewelry inside. Bulk candy and capsule machines are generally the same kind of machines, but the type of wheel inside can vary in order to dispense certain products.

There's a big variety of bulk vending machines out there to choose from. There are tiny ones that sit on countertops, medium sized ones, and 6 foot tall ones. They can have classic gumball machine shapes, have spiralling delivery systems, gears, cogs & lights, and even ones meant to look like antique gasoline pumps. All have one thing in common: high profit margins & low maintenance. Even the cheaper varieties are generally maintenance free.

The most important thing to remember about getting into bulk vending is to NOT overpay for a bunch of bells & whistles that you will never use, or can do for yourself with just a little effort. When you don't do your research, you can spend 10's of thousands of dollars for just a few machines, when you could spend less than $1,000 to get started. How? Don't fall for the biz-ops, that's how.

A Biz-Op, or "Business Opportunity" in bulk vending is when any company sells you machines that have a HUGE price tag that also includes placement, location services, extended warranties, dvd's, sales literature, and worst of all,  "coaching". Really? Do you need a coach to operate gumball machines? If you can read, add, subtract, multiply & divide, you can do any of this on your own.

As for the machines themselves- there are TONS of used bulk candy vending machines available at rock-bottom prices. Some of them are even still in their boxes, never used. Why? Because the original owners bought too many, thinking that the Biz-Op company would find places for them, and guess what- they didn't. So now they're trying to get rid of them quick.

Warranties... What's the point of those? It's a gumball machine.  It has simple parts and mechanisms. It's cheaper to buy another machines to replace a lost of damaged one, than to pay for a warranty. Or, buy a couple extra ones and pirate the parts off those as needed. Get the picture?

Placement... all they do is literally look in the yellow pages of your town, call up businesses and ask if you can put your machine in there. You can do a much better job by walking into a place with a photo of your machines and examples of the type of product you'll provide, and asking them yourself. And you know your town better than some company on the other side of the country.

Bottom line is, don't pay for anything you can do on your own. The best place to get USED bulk candy machines is USEDvending.com . Use their handy zip code search too to find listing that are within driving distance from you. You will find super bargains there. Be sure to look at their features items on the home page.