Mechanical Snack & Soda Combos
Guess what? There is more than 1 type of snack and soda combo vending machine, and each of them are suitable for a specific use. We are all familiar with the more complex electrical combos that are found in more high traffic locations such as hospital waiting rooms and breakrooms of larger firms. These electrical units have a pretty large selection, and have dollar bill validators integrated into the machine that take in larger bills and give back change.
Less well known, but equally as useful, is the compact mechanical combo. This kind of combo is suitable for smaller, indoor office locations, such as a “white collar” office of up to 50 employees or maybe 20 ‘blue collar” employees. There are many reasons for this, but the main reason is that the machines have a lower capacity- they hold less product but that’s fine in a place with less traffic- your goal is to sell as much out of the machine as possible to reduce product/profit loss. So you may have to refill the machine a tad more often but that would be worth it, if all or most of your product sold.
Mechanical Snack & Soda Vending Machine
The mechanical combos are less expensive for the start-up vendor, and are readily available on both the used and new market. Depending on how much you want to spend, you can find a mechanical combo for between $800 – $2,000- sometimes even much lower on the used market.
So if it’s a mechanical machine, does this mean it doesn’t use electricity? No. It’s called “mechanical” because, instead of a dollar bill changer and buttons to choose a selection, it has manual coin mechanisms. (Sometimes the machines are also called “manual”.)
These manual coin mechanisms, (which somewhat resemble the coin mechanisms found on bulk candy vending machines), require that the user put in correct change- there is no dollar bill validator to suck it up and give back change. Each product in the machine has it’s own coin mech, and turn knob. Turning this knob turns the spiral, allowing the product to drop into the delivery box. Many mechanical machines are multi-priced up to $2.00. This means you can set the price differently for each selection. You can have your can sodas set to .50, your chips set at .60, your honey buns set at $1.00 and so on.
American Changer Dollar Bill Changer
Okay, so what if the business does not have a cash register available for the employee / customer traffic to get correct change to put in your machine? Not a problem, if you have a dollar bill changer. You’ve seen dollar bill changers before in laundromats and arcades. The dollar bill changer is a separate unit, which plugs into an outlet. It can be mounted on the wall or on a stand, but usually is found mounted to the combo itself. The customer can put their paper money into the changer, getting the correct coinage for spending in your machine. There are lots of different dollar bill changers on the market- the main difference is the capacity of bills it can hold.
So if it’s a mechanical machine, does this mean it doesn’t use electricity? No. The soda portion of the machine has a compressor, just like a refrigerator, and It must plug in as such. It is true that mechanical machines use less electricity. With most mechanical combos, the units can be used together or separately. That means you can have just the snack unit (which requires no electricity at all) in use or just the soda unit. Mechanical combos also take up much less space than electrical machines, which is a plus for locations who are concerned with size.
One very popular type of mechanical vending machine is combo is the Antares Refreshment Center. It takes up about as much square footage as a large file cabinet. Usually a dollar bill changer is included with the Antares combos, and they are readily available on the pre-owned market at a discount price. They are also super easy to maintain.
Here is a very detailed video walk through of an Antares combo that you might find interesting.
If you’re looking to get into the snack and soda vending business, but you don’t know a lot about machines and getting large locations, the mechanical / manual vending machine combos are just the ticket.