Monday, March 26, 2007

Opportunities Created by Vending

Having a vending business is one of the best business opportunities available today. To start off your vending business, all you have to do is to buy, rent or lease vending machines and the machines will do the rest for you. Of course you have to do your part of making sure that your vending machines are always serviced on time. Vending is a big opportunity for you to make some money while still keeping your regular job.

Planet Antares offers unique vending opportunities that can start you off on the right foot. This is an opportunity that can work so long as you make it work. This is an opportunity where the vending machines are the ones that sell for you. For this to happen successfully, there are some factors that need to come into play.

The first and most important thing would be for you to buy quality vending machines like those that are provided by Planet Antares Inc. Since you will not be sitting with your vending machine to watch people buying from it, your machines has to able to function properly 24 hours, seven days a week. The location owner can call you if there is any mechanical problem with the machine, but of course this is not something that you want to see happening all the time. You might have a vending machine in a location that has no supervision throughout the whole time, so if the machine breaks down, you may not get to immediately know about it. This will result in lost sales.

Planet Antares vending machines are money making machines, as long as you service and maintain them on a regular basis. This will keep them in top notch condition.

If you are looking to make an additional income, then vending machines can make this happen. The important thing is to place these vending machines in strategic locations. These locations should be easy for you to reach and they should have high traffic. If the location is far from where you are based, you will need to spend extra time and money on fuel, just to service the vending machines there. This would be extremely hard to carry out especially if you make several trips in a week to your locations. An ideal location is one that is close to where you are based.

Vending has provided the right kind of opportunities to many people. If you have a Planet Antares vending business all that you have to do is rub the business in an efficient way. Maintaining and servicing the vending machines will need your dedication and time. Vending opportunities are what you make them.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The Expansion of Cashless Payment Options

The advances in vending machine technology have begun to revolutionize the vending business as a whole. The expansion of cashless payment options in snack and beverage vending machines has seen rapid growth and support in recent years. As a Planet Antares vending operator, you should take advantage of the increasing cashless consumer base.

Research has shown that installing a cashless payment option in your Planet Antares vending machines will benefit you as the vending operator as well as the locations where the vending machines have been placed. Major credit card companies have been teaming up with large vending machine companies to release vending machines that are already equipped with the new technology. If you install the system in your Planet Antares vending machine, they will be configured to accept conventional, magnetic-strip credit and debit cards. In order to make a quick purchase, customers will just have to insert their cards in the vending machines and the product will exit from the vending machine.

The installation of a cashless payment option in vending machines will mean that both credit card companies and vending operators will expand their customer base and increase their revenue. A cashless payment option would mean that the customers of your Planet Antares vending machines will experience a faster and more efficient service. Increased convenience to customers will mean increased sales. No longer do your customers have to struggle with crumpled bills or waste time looking for change. Not everybody walks with spare change in their pockets. This is something that has stopped many people from making purchases from vending machines before, but that can all change with a cashless payment option.

Consumers are growing more accustomed to cashless payment options in vending machines. This form of payment is already being widely used in other markets; it is just the vending sector that has to catch up with the rest of the market.

If you invest in this technology for your vending machines, it will be able to pay itself off within a short period of time due to increased vending machine sales. Moreover, customers will continue growing accustomed to this new form of payment that it will soon become commonplace. Consumers will get used to seeing it in vending machines and they will seek out vending machines that have the technology. Apart from that, contact less payment option will soon become the next major breakthrough in the vending industry.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Healthy Vending Campaign

A few years back, the vending industry launched its “Balanced for Life” campaign, which was introduced to encourage healthier menus in vending machines, as well as change the negative stigma associated with vending machines. Vending machines have always been viewed as a source of junk food. This is something that has changed over the years, ever since the public has become more health conscious. The Balanced for Life campaign has brought attention to the efforts that are being made by the vending industry to promote a healthier image. As a Planet Antares vending operator you can easily decide to place health snacks and beverages in your vending machines in order to cater to the health conscious public.

The healthy vending campaign has been successful in schools where vending operators have joint forces with school authorities to create wellness programs. If you have healthy products in your Planet Antares vending machines, one of the best kinds of locations to cater to would be schools. Today, most schools all over the country have only healthy products in their vending machines. This is all done in an effort to promote student health. This is the reason why they make good locations for health products. The vending industry has made a host of resources available to vending operators. These include:

• Health Information Transparencies on vending machines
• Vending machine menus to be designed in alliance with dieticians
• Posters that inform the public about vending wellness programs

Having a successful Planet Antares healthy vending business is very possible, if you choose the right products as well as the right locations. Healthy snacks don’t have to be boring or plain. All that you need to do is find the right supplier who can supply with interesting and tasty healthy snacks and beverages. Always keep in mind that the health conscious public will not mind paying extra money for a health snack or beverage, since they know the importance of the product.

The Balanced for Life campaign has spread beyond schools. You can now have Planet Antares vending machines that vend health products as well as other products in work places. New transparencies have been designed for the workplace vending machines. In addition to this, there is information available that will help vending operators design healthy programs for adults.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Vending During the summer

During the summer, vending machine operators usually struggle to maintain vending machine sales. This does not apply to snack and beverage vending operators. If anything, the sale of cold beverages increases in the summer while the sale of snacks usually remains more or less the same. If you have the right product mix in your vending machine, your sales will definitely be maximized during the summer.

Hot weather affects consumer preferences
During the summer people want like to have food that cool, fresh and light. This is the main reason why a Planet Antares vending business would only thrive during the hot season. Planet Antares vending machines usually offer all kinds of snacks and beverages. These beverages are cold and anyone would prefer to have a cool drink on any given hot day rather than to have coffee or soup. Snacks found in these vending machines are usually light, so no one will hesitate when it comes to buying a snack.

Keep the snack and beverages fresh
If you have a Planet Antares vending machine in a hot location make sure that you keep the vending machine in a cool spot, away from direct sunlight. If the vending machine is in direct sunlight, things like chocolate will melt and the other snacks can easily lose taste. This would a loss to you, since if customers see this; they will in future avoid your vending machine

Increase in cold beverage sales
July and August are very profitable months for cold beverage vending. This is despite the general decrease in sales of traditional high sugar sodas. Health concerns have changed many peoples attitude towards high sugar sodas. People would prefer to grab a diet soda or energy and sports drinks from vending machines than other beverage. To continue making a profit, keep diet sodas and health drink in your vending machines. This will ensure that during the summer you will have maximum sales since this is the time that people need something cold to drink. These health drinks cost much more than regular drinks, however customers are always willing to pay more for beverages that contain health benefits like vitamins and antioxidants. All in all, having these products in your vending machine will be profitable, especially during the summer.

Snack and beverage vending has the advantage of not being affected by seasonal changes. These are products that have a long shelf life, so you don’t have to experience the kind of loses that fresh food vendors go through. The sales of snacks will always remain constant and the sales of beverage will increase in the summer, so long as you use the right strategies in your Planet Antares vending business.