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SMALL Price points at the point of sale If not already doing so, operators must simplify the vending machine and create the five price points out on the street. For instance, let's take a machine with five shelves each with 35 slots, including five for gum and mints. In our example, an operator could divide the slots this way: eight spirals for chips, seven spirals for long life, five for fresh pastries, five for gum and mints and 10 for the candy category, which includes crackers. Have each category filled to capacity. Also, don't neglect the changer fund. Create an inventory for that in each machine as well. At each service, the changer should get filled to that pre-determined level. Creating a service card At this point, I recommend using a service card. It should have six columns, one where the driver can write the date the machine was serviced and then one for each of the different price point categories along with the inventory for that price point in that machine. When the machine is serviced, the driver will fill in the date and how much of each product (based on the price point category) was placed into the machine to completely fill it. These numbers are considered the sales for that service. The money collected should equal those sales figures. In order to make sure that the sales figure equals the cash collected, the driver needs to put money back into the coin box for any slots left empty so it will equal the selling price of that product. CREATE a culture of accountability for employees. Operators will be able to easily checkout the routes. Start with the truck inventory, add the product requisitioned during the week, next subtract the ending inventory and finally, multiply the amounts used by the price points to match against cash collected. It also makes it easier to check the machines behind the drivers to see if they are filling the machines correctly and if the cash in the machine, at the time it's checked, matches the sales. Adhering to this method will produce not only better control of product inventory, but also create a culture of accountability for employees. Vending management software certainly has a place in the vending operation, but even without it, it's possible to have tight asset control. Categorizing products by price is an essential piece to keeping a well-run stockroom and vending machine, as well as making sure there's cash accountability at the point of sale. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dominic Finelli is a 43-year veteran vending operator in the Washington D.C area. Finelli can be reached at dom@askfinelli.com. Peak flavor you can count on, every day. Ask about our gourmet portion pack, filter pack, single-serve and vend coffee programs. You'll enjoy consistent gourmet quality coffees and competitive pricing. You'll be glad you've made the change — every day. © 2011 F. Gaviña & Sons, Inc. crackers in this category) are another price, all same-size chips are a price, all long shelf life snacks like cookies are one price, and all fresh pastries with a short shelf life are one price. That's a total of five different price points. When buying new products, operators can chose those that fit into these price point categories. OP SAVE WITH OUR INTRODUCTORY OFFER 1• 800 • 428 • 4627 www.gavina.com/vend February 2013 VendingMarketWatch.com Automatic Merchandiser 19