Vending Machine Profit Per Location: An Example

Sales tell you a machine is busy. Profit tells you whether it is worth the stop. Plenty of machines that look good on the sales report lose money once you take out the host's cut, the card fees, the product, and the gas it took to get there. This guide walks through one machine over one month so you can run the same steps on your own locations.

Every number below is an example made up for the walkthrough. Your costs will differ.

The example machine

Picture one combo snack and drink machine at a small office building. You visit it every week, so four visits in the month. The host gets 10 percent of gross sales, per the agreement.

Step 1: Sales

Add up what was collected at all visits in the month, cash and card.

• Cash collected: $520
• Cashless collected: $380
• Gross sales: $900

Step 2: Host commission

At 10 percent of gross, commission is $90. If your agreement uses a different base, use that one instead. The commission guide lays out the options.

Step 3: Product cost

Add up what you paid for the product that went into the machine. This is where the fill log matters, because it is the record of what you actually put in.

• Product added across four visits, at cost: $405

A caution here. Product added is not exactly product sold. Some of what you put in is still sitting in the machine at month end, and some was thrown out. For a single month, many operators use cost of product added as a working number and accept some noise. Over a few months the noise evens out. If you want it tighter, count what is in the machine at the start and end of the month and adjust.

Step 4: Cashless fees

Take the fees your processor charged on the $380 of card sales. Say the combined fees come to $13 in this example. Include any monthly device fee you pay for that machine. Say that is $10.

• Transaction fees: $13
• Monthly device fee: $10
• Total cashless cost: $23

The cashless fees guide explains what these fee types are and how to check them.

Step 5: Machine profit before your own costs

Line	Example amount
Gross sales	$900
Host commission	-$90
Product cost	-$405
Cashless fees	-$23
Profit before travel and time	$382

$382 looks decent on a $900 machine. But we are not done.

Step 6: The costs people forget

Now take out the things that do not show up on a receipt from a supplier.

• Fuel and vehicle wear. If the location is 10 miles from your route's main loop and you make 4 visits, that is extra driving. Use your own per-mile cost. Say it comes to $20 for the month in this example.
• Your time. Say each visit takes 30 minutes including parking, restocking and counting cash. Four visits is 2 hours. If you value your time at $20 an hour, that is $40.
• Spoilage. Product that expired or got thrown out. Say $15 in this example, if it is not already reflected in your product cost.
• Repairs and supplies. A new coil, cleaning supplies, a share of the card reader replacement.

With fuel at $20, time at $40 and spoilage at $15, the example machine's profit drops from $382 to $307. It is still positive. That is the number to compare against other locations.

Profit per visit and per hour

Two more ways to look at the same month:

• Profit per visit: $307 divided by 4 visits is about $77 a visit.
• Profit per hour of work: since this machine takes 2 hours a month, the true profit before valuing your time was $347 over 2 hours, about $173 an hour.

Per-hour is a good way to compare a distant machine against a close one. A machine that makes $300 in 30 minutes beats one that makes $350 in two hours.

How to decide whether to pull a machine

One slow month is not enough. Look at three or four months in a row, and ask these questions.

1. Is profit positive after travel and time? If it is negative for several months, the machine is costing you money.
2. Is the trend going down? A location that earned $400 a month and now earns $150 is telling you something changed, like staff leaving or a new competing machine.
3. Can you fix it cheaply? Try a different product mix, a price change, or fewer visits. Check the slot-level inventory to see which products are actually moving.
4. Could the machine earn more somewhere else? Moving one machine to a better spot is often the best answer. Compare its profit per hour against your other locations.
5. Does the agreement make it hard to leave? Read the notice period before you decide.

A simple rule some operators use: if a machine is below a profit-per-visit number you set for yourself for three months in a row, either fix it or move it. The number is yours to pick, based on what your time is worth.

Keep the notes you took on the visits. A comment like "construction next door ended in September" explains a drop better than any spreadsheet.

SnackRouteTracker reports profit per machine from the visits you log, with commission already worked out, and lets you export it as a CSV. Take a look if you want to skip the manual math.