The loss of vended items

[fbhjr]

For reasons that are mostly my unwillingness to turn down projects at work,
I am the go to person for the building we’re renting.  I’m hoping it won’t
be when we move into our final building in a year or so, but right now if
something breaks, needs to be installed or improved, I’m the one who has to
deal with the landlord or whomever.

So, I was the one who got the call from the company that manages our
vending machine.

“I’m taking my machines out,” the guy told me.  “They don’t sell enough to
be worth it.”
“I’m not surprised,” I told him.  “The breaker trips on that outlet about
once a day.  If it does, then the machine freezes and won’t work again
until you come in and reset it.  Since you only come in twice a month, that
means that usually for 2 weeks no one can buy things even if they wanted to.
“And, on the candy machine, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed that all of
the chocolate items always sell out, even though the machine is usually
only on for 2 days a month, yet you only put in one row of chocolate candy.”
“See!  I told you it wasn’t worth it to deal with you people!”

So now, the machines are gone.

In 26 years I’ve never worked at a place without at least a soda machine.
(I’m not counting that 1 day at the mold company in 1988 that only had a
coffee maker.)

I wonder, is there some sort of social stigma about not being able to
support a soda machine economically?
Will the soda machine have to get welfare?
Will the candy machine be selling itself on street corners to support its
little ones?

Or, is a vending company that can’t make money of soda and candy in a
office with 35 engineers doing something wrong?

The truth is out there…

Comments

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

Or, is a vending company that can’t make money of soda and candy in a office with 35 engineers doing something wrong?

I vote for this.

[temperlj.livejournal.com]

I think we could make a mint with a cookie concession....

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

Your cookies, my brownies. We could power the world.;)

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I had already suggested this to the guy who sits across from the lunchroom...

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

I say the vendor is doing something wrong. You could always call another vendor. Chocolate, salt and caffeine are office necessities.

[kismets-kiss.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the vender is an idiot. He on;y checks on it twice a month and you explained the problem, and his answer is to remove them? How about checking on them more often, or asking if there is another place they could be placed that might not trip the breaker.
And chocolate almost always sells best. How lazy to only do one row of it.
He obviously doesn't want to make money.

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

I agree with the others - he isn't a good vendor at all if he doesn't make at least weekly checks of the machines, AND, adjust the inventory based on things that sell & don't sell well. Better off without him.

A couple companies that I've worked with are sorta health-conscious, and they use some of the $$ that would otherwise go to vending machine contractor to purchase fresh fruit and things like carrots, celery, pretzels for snacks in the cafeteria, which are free for anyone to have. They also do have 1 vending machine for when you absolutely must have a chocolate/high sugar "fix".

[blue-micha.livejournal.com]

There is a retired gentleman who has a small business consisting of a box of snacks in our break room with a can. He works on the honor system that if you take something, you leave the right $ for it. He seems to be doing well too, comes in twice a month to refill/check on us and has now given us the option of ice cream (kept in our fridge) to purchase. He doesn't do drinks,(at least not for us) but if you want his info, it's on the snack box and I can get it to you...

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I have read that for many vending machine companies, it's Policy NOT to stock more of the things that sell really well. The argument is that then the machine might look EMPTY and that would make them look like failures! or some such. So, they would rather stock stuff that no one wants, because then the machine stays full-looking, and they make substantially less money. *blink*

Someone tried to point out the basic flaw here, but no. "If we stock only stuff people like, they'll buy it, and the MACHINES WILL BE **EMPTY**!!!!" seemed to be the counter-argument.

I expect the overall companies are not judging them on revenues, but on how frequently the machines need to be re-stocked- so if they stock with crap no one wants, they have to re-stock a LOT less often which = SUCCESS! Gemerally, this sort of idiocy is a result of poor parameter design for what does and does not equal SUCCESS.

(Like in the old Soviet Union- factories were judged on the weight of the iron pipe they produced. It was obviously much more successful to produce really heavy pipe that no one had a use for, rather than lighter-weight (thus more work) pipe that could actually be used. And so...)