Middle Cost Investment With Good ROI in Real Life

This method in question is Vending Machines.

You've definitely used one or more of these before. You put in $1-$2 in return for a snack or drink. It doesn't seem like much profit at first glance, but you are highly mistaken.

Most vending machines you see at the mall, store, etc, are owned by companies that operate on their own terms and machines, and in turn, pay the property owners either a small rent or % of sales cut.
~However, if you're able to install your own vending machine, you've struck a gold mine.
(The only downside is operating the machine + contents by yourself)
I've personally seen just how much a vending machine can make in a single location. They basically pay for themselves multiple times over.

Here is the rough costs/profits of operating 1 vending machine:

Each item is $1, = $1.00 to $0.50 profit per sale.
Let's just say ever sale profits you $0.50.
Depending on popularity,
10 sales = $5 profit
25 sales = $12.5 profit
100 sales = $50 profit

Say per machine, per day, makes $40 in profits.
$40.00 * 7 days = $280.00
$40.00 * 31 days = $1,240.00
$40.00 * 365 days = $14,600.00

However, this is only one machine.
If you manage a vending machine empire, you may have multiple machines in a given area.

$14,600 * 10 = $146,000 /Year
$14,600 * 100 = $1,460,000 /Year
$14,600 * 1000 = $14,600,000 /Year

Even if you incorporate fees such as restocking, maintenance, etc, you would still be making bank off of your vending machines.

However,

If you're able to legally maintain a single vending machine in a populated area with your own labor, you'll make easy (almost) passive income.

This is a difficult yet highly-profitable field of competition that many of you have not considered, and many of you may actually have the opportunities to invest into a licensed vending machine.
Or, you can rent out another company's vending machine on your business' property.

sadly this thing will never work in 3rd world countries, where even ATM machine is not safe.

How much do the machines themselves cost? And what about maintenance. Lifespan. Etc.

Your main issue with vending machines in third party premises is because they are so lucrative you will never get a contract to put them there because some gangster will be your competitor.

iaskquestions said:

sadly this thing will never work in 3rd world countries, where even ATM machine is not safe.

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with that earnign you hire someone to guard the machine, secuirty is not that expensive to.
now it's still cheaper compared to hire people to open a shop

This might work in first world countries and only if you have a lot of capital investment.

In my country, vending machines don't make it through the night. I wish I was joking.

iaskquestions said:

sadly this thing will never work in 3rd world countries, where even ATM machine is not safe.

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Depends where you put them, on street = yup not safe, but in some mall, shopping center where there is security and cameras then it's safe.

davids355 said:

How much do the machines themselves cost? And what about maintenance. Lifespan. Etc.

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1k$-5k$ for 2nd hand ones and can go up to 15k$ if you are buying new ones. If you got like 30k$ you could easily buy 6-7 pretty solid ones.

davids355 said:

How much do the machines themselves cost? And what about maintenance. Lifespan. Etc.

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ON Alibaba you can find them for 200-1000$ brand new

I had a few of them and It is not so easy as you say. You need a very good place with a lot of people walking in front of the machines and without competence.

You also have machines to sell hamburgues, pizzas, fishing baits, ices, flowers, ice cream...

For me, the better is create a good automatic 24/7 shop with this machines, mixing types of machines i said before.

You can also sell other types of products, you only need to be creative, you need to know what types of products The people need or want to buy in this place, example: airport you can sell headphones, battery charges, flowers...

Tips:
better if you buy second hand machines, they are very expensive. I dont know the Alibaba machines quality.
The better products are all related sex (condoms, etc).

rodmarb2b said:

I had a few of them and It is not so easy as you say. You need a very good place with a lot of people walking in front of the machines and without competence.

You also have machines to sell hamburgues, pizzas, fishing baits, ices, flowers, ice cream...

For me, the better is create a good automatic 24/7 shop with this machines, mixing types of machines i said before.

You can also sell other types of products, you only need to be creative, you need to know what types of products The people need or want to buy in this place, example: airport you can sell headphones, battery charges, flowers...

Tips:
better if you buy second hand machines, they are very expensive. I dont know the Alibaba machines quality.
The better products are all related sex (condoms, etc).

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Well i know a friend who putted hos machines near a cinema in shopping mall and they had snacks and drinks, 5 machines are making him 4000$ a month

sscaz said:

Well i know a friend who putted hos machines near a cinema in shopping mall and they had snacks and drinks, 5 machines are making him 4000$ a month

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One person is not enough to be a good example, I know one person with good business but nine people need to close the business and sell the machines, a lot of people in my country buy vending machines in the last years and the 80% need to sell the machines.

Buy second hand machines, be creative with the products you sell and very very very good place are the secret for me.

rodmarb2b said:

One person is not enough to be a good example, I know one person with good business but nine people need to close the business and sell the machines, a lot of people in my country buy vending machines in the last years and the 80% need to sell the machines.

Buy second hand machines, be creative with the products you sell and very very very good place are the secret for me.

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Most people go with first hand machines. They also do not control other costs.

Seems like a decent enough model, just the logistics and overhead is offputting. Maybe a service to streamline this is what's needed

rodmarb2b said:

One person is not enough to be a good example, I know one person with good business but nine people need to close the business and sell the machines, a lot of people in my country buy vending machines in the last years and the 80% need to sell the machines.

Buy second hand machines, be creative with the products you sell and very very very good place are the secret for me.

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Because they don't know what they're doing and how to do it. Even though you get easy money after good set up you need the good set up. I plan to open an protein snack vending machine + water & energy and such drinks near an gym in a shopping mall. There are over 1-2k people going to that gym every day and we are noteven including the people who pass by, prices will be cheaper than the gym shops etc as well.

sscaz said:

Because they don't know what they're doing and how to do it. Even though you get easy money after good set up you need the good set up. I plan to open an protein snack vending machine + water & energy and such drinks near an gym in a shopping mall. There are over 1-2k people going to that gym every day and we are noteven including the people who pass by, prices will be cheaper than the gym shops etc as well.

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It seems a good idea.
You also can sell fruits, sandwichs and always test new products.

My understanding is that in countries where it's not recommended to leave the vending machines on the street, it's better to set them up in shopping malls.

How would you go about connecting with the people who own the mall? What comes to mind is to find an email and ask them, but won't they just ignore your emails?

@rodmarb2b did you put yours in a shopping mall or on the streets?

sscaz said:

I plan to open an protein snack vending machine + water & energy and such drinks near an gym in a shopping mall.

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Does the mall charge you a monthly fixed rate or take fee from each sale?

Vending machines are a ok business. Charge C-store prices on snacks/drinks, collect cash or with ePort/App. Give the location 5% of net earnings. They suggest you dont go with the combo machines when starting out. Dixie Narco and the open face snack machines are what's recommended still by many. Its passive income, but still people will mess with the machines, so its best to have a plan. You can even lease machines to service from like Pepsi Co.

My best friend in middle schools father owned a company and it helped pay for his sons law school.

Tipitip said:

Does the mall charge you a monthly fixed rate or take fee from each sale?

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I contacted a local mall via email and they replied enquiring about the type, look and size of the vending machine, and that there's a monthly rent + electricity price. They also added, that the fixed monthly rent price depends on the size and location inside of the mall, they didn't mention anything about a fee from a sale.

Suggest you just email your local mall or even call them.

I was actually surprised how quickly they responded and explained everything, just need to take some action.

Here in our country still its a loss project.