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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
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
[Music]
you