A vending operator's customers are not the people buying a soda. They are the businesses that agree to host the machine. Without a host, a machine is a heavy box in a garage. With one, it earns on its own, every day, between your restocking visits.

Here is a 30-day plan for a fictional operator placing three machines, with the sales and margin figures for each site. The sales numbers are assumptions for the example, not typical results. Run your own before you buy a machine.

Kofi has two machines in storage and no hosts

Kofi Adeyemi bought three used combination snack and drink machines with card readers. He has a van, a few hours a day, and no placements. His goal is three hosted locations in 30 days, each with enough traffic to justify a visit twice a week. He will offer free placement with restocking, so the host pays nothing and takes no risk.

The host is usually the property manager at an apartment complex, the operations manager at a warehouse or office, the owner of a gym or an auto shop, or an administrator at a school. All of them have the same worry: will it be an eyesore, will it break, and will they have to deal with it. Your offer answers all three.

Week 1: list 30 hosts by name

Kofi looked for places where people wait, work long shifts, or have no food nearby. His list of 30:

  • 10 apartment complexes with 120 or more units and no machine in the lobby or clubhouse.
  • 8 gyms and fitness studios, mostly independent.
  • 7 warehouses and manufacturers with a shift of 40 or more people.
  • 5 auto shops, clinics and small offices with a waiting room.

He searched a map for each category and drove past ten to check for existing machines. Placing next to a competitor's machine is usually a bad idea. For apartment complexes, he named the property manager from the property's website; see finding property managers. For workplaces, he used office and facility managers. The lead list guide covers the spreadsheet.

Week 2: the first email

Subject: A free snack and drink machine for your clubhouse, restocked by me

Hi Ms. Brennan, I operate vending machines in the area and noticed Maple Court has no machine in the clubhouse or lobby. I can place a card-reader snack and drink machine at no cost to the property. I restock it twice a week, handle repairs within 24 hours, and remove it if it isn't working out. It takes one standard outlet. May I stop by Thursday to look at a spot? Kofi Adeyemi, Adeyemi Vending, [mailing address]. Reply "no" and I won't write again.

It follows the same shape as the property manager email: a clear offer, the three worries answered and a site visit as the only ask. He sent 30 emails over four days and called the first ten who did not reply, two days later.

Week 3: site visits and the placement offer

Eight managers replied. Five agreed to a visit. At each site, Kofi checked the spot: a visible area, near foot traffic, a dedicated outlet, enough room for the machine and its door to open, and a surface that could hold about 700 pounds. He photographed it, measured the doorway, and brought a one-page placement agreement. The agreement said: free placement, non-exclusive, 12-month term with 30 days' notice to either side, the operator carries liability insurance, the host provides power, and no commission. Two sites asked for a small commission instead of nothing; one of them asked for 5 percent of sales, which he accepted for the gym.

Week 4: placement and the first restock

Three sites signed: an apartment complex with 180 units, a gym with about 400 members, and a warehouse with 60 employees across two shifts. He stocked each machine on delivery day with a choice based on the site: water and protein bars at the gym, hot-weather drinks and chips at the warehouse, a family mix for the apartments. The first restock was three days after placement, to see what actually sold.

Monthly results per site

These are the assumptions for the example. Average product cost is 55 percent of sale price, and card fees about 5 percent.

  • Apartment complex: 12 items a day at $2.25 average is $27 a day, about $810 a month. After 55 percent product cost and 5 percent fees, about $324.
  • Gym: 18 items a day at $2.50 is $45 a day, $1,350 a month. After costs and a 5 percent commission to the host, about $473.
  • Warehouse: 10 items a day at $2.00 is $20 a day, $600 a month. After costs, about $240.
  • Total net across three machines: about $1,037 a month.

Time: each machine gets eight restocks a month, about 45 minutes with driving, so 18 hours a month for three. That is about $58 an hour before the machines' purchase cost and fuel. Product pricing, theft and spoilage will move these figures. If the net per hour falls below what you can earn otherwise, the site is not worth keeping. A gym that sells 18 a day is the best site; a warehouse at 10 a day is the one to watch.

Using this plan in your own town

Copy the free-placement offer, the three worries answered in the email and the one-page agreement. Change the site mix to your area: a college town has dorms, and a resort town has hotels. Know your numbers before you place. If a site would sell fewer than about 8 items a day, decline politely and ask if they know a neighbor who has more traffic.

Thirty hosts and a follow-up call is a pile of small tasks. Rocketship finds property and operations managers by name, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the site visit on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. See the AI workers. For more on the property side, read property management.