Healthy Snacks And Sales

Healthy snacks can be a profitable item for vending machines and let’s talk about the different ways. If they are profitable why not fill your machines with healthy items and help us overweight people eat healthier?

Here is the answer: we don’t always feel like a healthy snack. Sometimes we just plain and simply want a bag of potato chips or maybe a candy bar.

A doctors son that was the plant manager at my largest vending account once told me his fathers favorite phrase was: You can eat anything and everything in moderation.

How Does It Affect Sales

Many venders tell me that the healthy items are hurting their sales and are the cause of too many stales. I would agree with the statement that it could hurt if you are not careful on the stales side of the equation.

So how can you service the healthy snack food people without cutting into your profits? I think that most people will purchase a healthy item from time to time even if it is only one time in a month when they are feeling like they need to lose weight.

In a large facility there are always some people that are eating healthy even though that is not a large number. So, how do we take care of them and still make a profit?

Offering Healthy Snacks And Stales

If you are worried about stales and the account is not a large account that can handle a full column of snacks cut your par level down to half a column per healthy snack.

If you want to make sure your drivers know how full to fill the column take some masking tape and place it at the desired level. This way your driver knows not to go beyond that point when filling the healthy snack.

How many healthy snacks should be available in a snack machine is a question some venders ask. That really depends on the account. I think that a few items should be offered in every machine. To hold down on stales, (as major manufactures are raising the point that they want healthier employees) come up with a game plan.

The Game Plan

Use the healthy items to land more of the large accounts that are rightfully yours. Take the right or left side of your snack machine and offer the employee a choice of healthy or regular snacks in each machine.

A snack column is usually twice as wide as a candy column. So give the account from the top of the machine to the bottom of the machine on the left or right side one snack column wide filled with healthy snacks.

When you get to the candy column you will give them two columns on that side of the machine. This makes a nice look to the machine especially if you mark the healthy items with a green pusher or label.

Now you have given up 16% to 18% of your machine to healthy choices and by limiting the par levels you should be able to keep stales under control.

Summary

Take the initiative and keep healthy snacks under control. Pick up new business by being able to say your machines have a healthy blend of items. Who knows, there could come a day when healthy items are the larger selling items in your machines.

I remember when the seat belt law came in to effect, at first I resisted buckling up, but now it is just the norm. As with the seat belt law, choosing a healthy snack could also become the norm.