Vending Basics for New Operators
Stocking strategies for new vending operators.
What you stock, and when you restock, shapes what every machine earns. Here are the habits that keep machines full of what sells without paying for stock that sits.
Start with a proven mix for the location.
Begin with products people already know, then fit the mix to who walks past the machine. An office break room, a gym, a factory floor, and an apartment lobby each buy differently, so ask the location what people would like to see before your first fill.
Let sales decide the rest.
After a few weeks, sales show which products earn their coil. Give a best seller a second coil, drop a product that has not moved, and try something new in its place. Keep one or two coils for testing new items at every location.
Fill to par, not to the brim.
Set a par for each selection and fill to it on every visit. A slow seller filled to capacity ties up money in stock that ages in the coil, while a fast seller below its par sells out before you return. The planogram guide explains capacity and par.
Rotate stock and watch the dates.
Load fresh product behind older product so the oldest sells first, and pull anything past its date on every visit. Write down what you throw away: a product that keeps expiring is telling you to carry less of it.
Restock the machines that need it.
A fixed weekly loop spends trips on machines that are still full. Visit the machines that are running low, bring only what each one needs, and keep a small backstock that covers your next few visits rather than a season.
How Dryline helps you stock.
Pick list
What to bring to each machine, coil by coil, with a total to pull by product.
Expiry dates
A best-by date on each restock, with expired and soon-to-expire stock flagged on the machine front.
Daily attention digest
A once-a-day email listing low and empty selections, plus an alert when a machine goes offline.
See which selections will sell out first.
Forecasting on DrylineVMS Pro tracks every selection and shows what is sold out, what is at risk, and how many days each one has left.
Questions about stocking
- How often should I restock a new machine?
- Check a new machine often while you learn how fast the location sells. Once you know, let its sales set the visits: a busy machine needs more of them, a quiet one fewer.
- What should I do with products that do not sell?
- Give each one a fair trial, then pull it and try something new in that coil. Move leftovers to a location where they sell, or mark them down before their date.
- Where should a new operator buy stock?
- Wholesale clubs work well while you run a few machines. A vending distributor makes sense once you buy by the case for a whole route.
More vending basics.
Why offer cashless
What card and phone payments add for customers and for you, and what a machine needs to take them.
Tap to Start, Select First, and Multivend
Pay first, choose first, or buy several items with one tap, and why your machine has a say.
How MDB works
How the controller runs the coin mechanism, bill validator, and card reader on one connection.
Planograms
The map of a machine: what goes in each slot, at what price, and how full to fill it.
Starting a vending business
Licenses, sales tax, insurance, machines, locations, commissions, pricing, and routes.
Restock from data, not from a calendar.
Book a 20-minute demo and see the pick list, expiry dates, and forecasting on real screens.