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I find it interesting that the operators are buying from Sam’s club rather than a legit wholesaler. $0.50/unit for soda is ridiculous I looked into this a few

I find it interesting that the operators are buying from Sam’s club rather than a legit wholesaler. $0.50/unit for soda is ridiculous I looked into this a few years ago because someone on reddit wrote a long post about I couldn’t find. The ROI looks amazing until (as the article alludes) you look into how much labor is required to keep the operation going. It kind of works if you have capital and your time has low opportunity cost. I think the smart way to do it would be to start a franchise that provides machines with financing, acts as a wholesaler, etc so you can take a cut of the operation with less capital investment and less driving around to actual machines. But then that starts looking like an MLM...

chillwaves 6y ago
Knew a guy who had vending machines at my office. He was a UPS driver and many of the vending machines were on his typical route. Seemed like a good side gig.
from 6y ago
I found this odd too. Most of the largest wholesalers have microscopically thin margins (i.e., they're not making much from you), whereas grocery stores tend to be a lot higher. I'm not an expert in the food distribution business but it seems most wholesalers (McLane, for instance, https://www.mclaneco.com/content/mclaneco/en/customer.html https://www.mclaneco.com/content/mclaneco/en/customer.html) are happy to take new customers. Maybe Sam's club is offering a better deal than wholesalers on specific items because of coupons/sales and whatnot?