Starting A Vending Business - How To Approach A Big Box Store & Get Your Vending Machines Placed!

Every chain store has their own sort of entity. What you are going to find to be the best way is to go in and talk with the local manager of the store. You want to actually set it up this way because that is the best way to find out and get your information right.

One thing to consider is that some of these bigger chain stores might have a contract with a company already. What happens is that some bigger companies in cities will put bids out. What a bid is, basically like an application, or you have to fill out an application to bid on putting in vending machines in this facility.

You wouldn't just be providing vending machines for that store, you would be providing vending machines for a bunch of stores in that area, like their chain of stores.

But your first source of contact would be to contact the management first, and simply ask them, What is your vending situation like here? Do you have any vending machines? How is the service? I have a couple of machines that I would like to place here.

If you are going to go full line vending, like coffee, food, pop, and snacks kind then you can just ask them what the process is of submitting a proposal. At the end of the day, whether you are bidding on it to the franchise store, you are going to be presenting some sort of proposal to them, which is going to outline your company name, who you are, what you do, the service that you provide, and what you're offering, along with your contact info in a formal kind of way.

I would say the best thing is; instead of going right to the corporate office, go to the local management and ask what they feel is the best route to take with that. Once you get into the corporate end of things, like corporate management, you could be chasing most people all day long for months and months. There are some websites out there that actually you can go to where you can be a member of their site and see what bids are coming up in your area.

It will tell you what company's and organizations in bigger city's and towns, what bids are coming out for vending services in your area. Then you can bid on those accounts. You can type in on Google in your area, "bids for vending services" or "confectionary services" or something like that.

At the end of the day once you make an attempt to close a deal on one of the big box stores be prepared for a time consuming process to get your vending machines placed. But on the other hand who knows you may just get lucky and be able to work out a deal with the store branch manager and get your machines placed.

But before you have your machines placed make sure that you try and get the store to agree to some sort of contract where maybe you can lock in your vending machine services for a year or two.

Then just make sure that you hold up to your end of the agreement and make sure you machines are taken care of and restocked on a regular basis.

This will ensure longevity in your vending machine business.