My parents have never been one to save money, invest it or really overall have any sort of long-term strategy. Unlike my brother and I, they have been mostly paycheck-to-paycheck for as long as I have been born, and for the most part do not have the mentality to look at business/opportunities.
Well, about 2 months ago, my brother and I talked them into going in with my cousins and buying vending machine(s) for a commercial retail establishment my brother has built (A large indoor craft mall with an auction house.)
Well, after some thinking they finally took the plunge and put in $700 for the machine + the cost to fill it with beverages. My cousins also bought a snack vending machine and put it beside them in order to (hopefully) build a small snack area in an area where there's higher traffic in the craft mall.
Initial capital outlay - $700
COGS through today - $70 in beverages + $10 electricity payment for 2 months
Net income after all expenses $130
ROI on investment - 114% per year
I realize it's one machine, however it does give you all something to think about. The machine sees very little depreciation. It's from the early 90s that was re-built by a local vending company, the machine initially cost around the same as today. So should there be a need to ever liquidate it, even quickly I imagine they could get $500-$600 out of it, and full price if they would wait a typical marketing time.
My cousins have seen the same results from their snack machine - Around $15 or so net income per week off the machine in one single location. Unlike my parents, they're so happy with the results they intend to buy several more machines and place them throughout town. My parents though are not eager to buy another one. Their total time investment has been I would say less than 2 hours in cleaning the machine when they first got it. My brother and I volunteer to restock it once a week just for fun and the joy of getting to carry around a bag of quarters. The total time it costs to stock and take out earnings from the machine I would say is around 5 minutes per time or less. Initially it was a bit higher simply because my parents didn't want to take my advice on what pop to sell. For some reason they thought Mt Dew would be unpopular while diet pepsi and diet coke would be top sellers. In the past 2 months they've learned that I wasn't completely off base with my suggestions
Well, about 2 months ago, my brother and I talked them into going in with my cousins and buying vending machine(s) for a commercial retail establishment my brother has built (A large indoor craft mall with an auction house.)
Well, after some thinking they finally took the plunge and put in $700 for the machine + the cost to fill it with beverages. My cousins also bought a snack vending machine and put it beside them in order to (hopefully) build a small snack area in an area where there's higher traffic in the craft mall.
Initial capital outlay - $700
COGS through today - $70 in beverages + $10 electricity payment for 2 months
Net income after all expenses $130
ROI on investment - 114% per year
I realize it's one machine, however it does give you all something to think about. The machine sees very little depreciation. It's from the early 90s that was re-built by a local vending company, the machine initially cost around the same as today. So should there be a need to ever liquidate it, even quickly I imagine they could get $500-$600 out of it, and full price if they would wait a typical marketing time.
My cousins have seen the same results from their snack machine - Around $15 or so net income per week off the machine in one single location. Unlike my parents, they're so happy with the results they intend to buy several more machines and place them throughout town. My parents though are not eager to buy another one. Their total time investment has been I would say less than 2 hours in cleaning the machine when they first got it. My brother and I volunteer to restock it once a week just for fun and the joy of getting to carry around a bag of quarters. The total time it costs to stock and take out earnings from the machine I would say is around 5 minutes per time or less. Initially it was a bit higher simply because my parents didn't want to take my advice on what pop to sell. For some reason they thought Mt Dew would be unpopular while diet pepsi and diet coke would be top sellers. In the past 2 months they've learned that I wasn't completely off base with my suggestions
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