people love vending machines because

they're convenient

if you're thirsty get a coat if you're

hungry get some doritos

not many people know that anybody can

own them there's low startup costs and

there's a potential for high return my

name is marcus graham and i made over

300 000 last year for my vending machine

business

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i have 21 vending machines spread across

baltimore philadelphia dc

and detroit

My Vending Machine Business

these are a couple of my vending

machines this snack machine makes 800 a

month and this drink machine makes a

thousand dollars a month this machine

makes a thousand dollars a month and

this machine makes thirteen hundred

dollars a month i started my vending

machine business in 2018. i had a friend

who saw a woman taking cash out of a

vending machine and it kind of sparked

the idea about maybe we should get into

it

it cost me about 4 500 to get started in

the vending machine business between two

machines and two credit card

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readers in 2018 it made four thousand

dollars 2019 it made 25 000

2020 it made over 200 000

2021 and made over 300 000

and i'm currently projected to make over

five hundred thousand dollars in 2022.

before starting the vending machine

business i was making 30 000 a year

i was living in poverty and i was just

hoping that one day i could turn my life

around

i used to try to be a music producer and

that didn't work out so i moved back

home and my goal was to

live with my mother for a period of time

to save money i stayed with my mother

for about nine months and was able to

save up ten thousand dollars from that

point of time i wanted to move to

philadelphia to

start a business i didn't know what that

business was going to be

and i landed on the vending machine

business what started out as a side

hustle

became my life i

went from making thirty thousand dollars

a year to over three hundred thousand

dollars a year

Vending Machine Tips

a few tips that i have for starting your

own vending machine business is one

never buy a machine until you have a

place to put it

when i'm looking for a good vending

location i'm looking for places that

have a lot of foot traffic you know

places like

apartments

hotels

motels um you know student housing

to buy a vending machine you want to

look for your local vending machine

warehouse which i think is the best you

can also find vending machines on places

like craigslist facebook market or

places like ebay

a vendor machine can cost anywhere from

one thousand dollars to ten thousand

dollars depending on if it's new or

refurbished

this is the vendo 511 drink machine also

known as your classic pepsi machine a

refurbished machine like this will cost

you around fifteen hundred dollars and a

new one will cost you around thirty five

hundred dollars

well this is your standard ams snack

machine

if you were to have a refurbished ams

snack machine you should expect to pay

around fifteen hundred to two thousand

dollars and if this was a brand new

snack machine it would cost you roughly

around five thousand dollars

this is the crane national 449 combo

machine if you were to have a vending

location that only has room for one

machine you can use something like this

if you were to get a refurbished machine

it would cost around 3 500 and if you

were to get a new machine it would cost

you roughly 7 000.

before the pandemic this machine was

fourteen hundred dollars and that was

two thousand dollars

this machine was a thousand dollars and

that was fourteen hundred dollars

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a typical day for me as an owner join

the vending is i wake up i check my

vending machine sales i contact my staff

to see what machines they're going to be

stocking

i then shop for product for the machines

that i service and then i go stock the

machines

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some of my best-selling products are

coca-cola

red bull

peanut m ms nacho cheese doritos

lipton iced tea

those are some of the things that people

love the most in my machines

to get our vending machine product we go

to wholesale distributors like sam's

club bj's costco's we even come to our

local vending machine warehouse that

also sells vending machine product

i buy a bottle of coke for 55 cent and i

sell it for 175. i profit about 1.20 per

bottle of coke that i sell

i pay 60 for a bag of doritos at a

wholesale price

and i resell it for a dollar fifty so

i'm profiting about 90 cent per bag of

doritos that i sell

i buy a can of red bull for a dollar 42

cent at a wholesale price and i resell

it for 2.85 out of my vending machine so

i profit 1.43 per can

i buy peanut m ms for 75

at a wholesale price and i resell it for

a dollar sixty cent so i'm profiting 85

per pack

30 of my revenue goes towards buying

products for the vending machines 10

percent goes towards paying my staff

another 10 goes towards miscellaneous

things like gas and the other 50

i profit

What I Love About Vending Machines

some of the things i love about running

a vending machine business is that i

have a lot of flexibility i can work

when i want to work i also like the

ability to

service people to provide a need to them

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one of the challenges of running a

vending machine business could be

vandalism

one time i had someone try to break it

to my vending machine to steal cash

they broke the bill validator where the

cash goes in and efforts to take out the

money

fortunately for me they weren't able to

do so

in the future i'm looking to expand to

multiple states

add more vending machine locations

around the nation i want to add more

staff to the team and then potentially

open up my own vending machine warehouse

where i would sell my own vending

machines card readers and vending

machine product

by being in the vending machine business

and finding success in it i've been able

to employ my sister which is something

very very important to me

and she's been able to turn her life

around

she's running my business in

philadelphia while i live in the suburbs

in a very nice house with my family in

maryland

i've been able to change my life i've

been able to change my sister's life

i've been able to change my family's

life with the vending machine business

and i want to change other people's life

by talking about the business um doing

speaking events seminars webinars

whatever i can do to you know help

everyone learn about a business that not

a lot of people know about

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you