Those darn honesty boxes!

[PabloV8]

Have had a good sift through all of the information in relation to honesty boxes.

To be honest (no pun intended) I am still open on whether to venture into this area and to use said boxes to complete the towers I have so that I can deter other charity boxes competing in my sites.

As I understand, if you take the plunge, you have to purchase approximately 300 boxes plus associated stock. Does anyone know how realistic a time factor would be to site 300 boxes using the site providing service offered by the company you purchase the boxes from.

If the site finding that I have encountered with towers is anything to go by - it would take a long time!

Can anyone offer an insight?

Cheers

Pablo.

[Style]

I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole. I havent tried them but have been a customer on the other side and my experience says, month 1 everything is paid for, month 2 about 70% paid for, month 3 maybe 20% so the box is removed or kicked out because of embarrassment. By the time you pay for a site you will break even at best. Granted we all probably have a couple of sites where it would work but I don't think its worth the hassle. Unfortunately for every franchisee that leaves the business because it doesnt work someone new will buy a franchise and be enthusiastically siting boxes for a couple of months.

[Mark@YorVend]

I was considering it a while back (and still flirt with the idea every now and then), but I would prefer to go as far as I can with the towers first, and then re-assess the area. I have seen that Hurley's will offer the boxes in much smaller quantities, so perhaps you should give them a call before dismissing it!

TBH I have also been flirting with the idea of other types of vending machines, such as cold drinks, snacks, toys, and possibly hot drinks too. I'm looking at getting a website done in the new year advertising all types of vending machines, hopefully it will generate a couple of leads in my area, and help me diversify.

Her indoors wants a holiday, but I'm thinking vending machines...

[choice vending]

Happy new year all.

I set up and ran a honesty box business alongside my vending business a couple of years ago. I ran it for about 14 months before wrapping it up. I put towers in my best honesty box sites then.

So why did i wrap it up?

1 if you have 100 boxes out 12 months later this will dwindle down to about 50. These sites need to be replaced.
2 Theft is an issue. we did get it bellow 10% but it was hard work often the site used to pay through embarrassment.
3 it was bloody hard work. We found most of our sites ourselves through cold calling. Get some loose some a constant grind.

We did make a profit though and its a viable business. we used hurleys childline boxes which were fine.

Its good for someone with limited money to set up a business who is prepared to work there nuts off.

Brian ( Choice Vending Services Ltd)

[PabloV8]

I went to a site I had not been to for two months - machine was virtually empty, reason I had left it that late was because I was annoyed and fed up with the charity boxes at this site.

They were very pleased to see me and asked if I could fill up the machine, I gladly obliged.

They then told me that they had got rid of the charity boxes - I asked why?

They told me that one of the charity girls had demanded several pounds as one box was short etc, they told the girl tough as it was not the shops responsibility to monitor any purchases made from the charity box.

They went on to express that my tower was far better as it was unlikely to encounter any shortages - besides, they enjoy the 20% commision that I always leave. She said the charity girl leaves nothing except hassle.

With a bit of luck, this will continue with all the other sites that the boxes have materialised at.

[PabloV8]

Forgot to add, they told the girls to remove all charity boxes

[Style]

If I can get into a conversation at the site I always point out the small print on the charity box that normally says something like. 60% of net profit, I then ask what they think the net profit is. Remember most of these are business owners who understand how net can be manipulated, the box usually goes pretty quickly.

[choice vending]

The Charity box business was a useful thing to do as it opened my eyes to new and different type of sites. I now have several old towers that i cut the rod down to make the machine 6 rings high (tower capacity 54) These go in lower turnover sites within 5 miles of my house on a charity basis.

[dustyboy]

Hi Pablo

Like you I thought it might be a good idea to use honesty boxes as well as towers. I decided not too because Style is right in saying that the losses increase dramatically as the weeks go by and most sites ask for them to be removed. They appear all the time in my area, I jusyt ignore them and they go away!!I also use the "dishonesty box" as a positive when persuading sites to take my tower.

Dusty