Sweet Boxes

[mellieha]

I'm looking into buying either a sweet box or tubz vending type franchise. Has anyone any tips?

[Central2vend]

Dont buy the sweet box.
Give me the money.

[mellieha]

Are they that bad?

[Quinch]

Yes. The companies that offer them mostly claim much higher sales than what you will likely achieve and, crucially, much lower losses than is realistic. Please do not think that because the boxes raise money for charity that people will not steal from them, they absolutely will and often those losses can be large.

In most sites you have two options: leave the box on the bar/counter and take your chances on losses (people putting 1p in etc) or leave behind the bar/counter where no one sees the box so sales are lower but you have less chance of people stealing sweets (and you're also basically relying on the staff to sell your sweets for you).

Most companies operating these franchises have no qualms about siting your boxes in businesses which already have sweet boxes and/or vending machines so your box will be in direct competition with other operators which causes a certain amount of animosity to say the least. This obviously works the other way also, if you get a site that does not already sell sweets you should expect at some point someone else to rock up and put their box/tower next to yours and bam! your sales are cut in half or worse immediately. The market for vending generally in most areas is pretty swamped but especially for sweet boxes, I come across sites all the time that have two or three boxes.

Where are you based and what sort of deal have you been offered?

[mellieha]

I've been looking at about four different companies plus tubz vending vending. They all promise the earth though! I got ripped off by Snack in the Box a few years ago with their ridiculous management fees so I'm more wary now!