About six months ago, an aspiring entrepreneur decided to jump into the vending machine business after seeing it discussed frequently on the internet.
They shared on Reddit’s r/passive_income recently how they spent $3,200 on two refurbished machines and another $400 to stock them with drinks and snacks.
They placed one machine in an office building with about 50 employees, and another in an auto repair shop. The location of the office building works steadily, and draws $280 to $350 per month. The auto repair shop, however, fetches only $120 to $180 and is described as “hit or miss.”
Don’t miss:
After they figure in gas, inventory, and occasional maintenance, the side hustle is generating about $130 to $150 in profit per month. “It’s not life changing, but it covers my car payment so I’m not complaining,” they said.
But they quickly realized that the work was not as hands-off as expected. “It’s not as passive as people make it out to be,” they admitted, noting that they have to fire every two weeks to restock and deal with unexpected issues, such as a jammed bill acceptor or a login attempt.
Other Redditors jumped in to agree. “A lot of what I see here is the opposite of passive,” one person commented. “It would only be if you had something like 30+ machines and hired a guy to store/fix them for you.”
Many commenters shared their own experiences. One said their body shop location was among their top performers, but had over 30 employees on site. Another mentioned that he made $30,000 last year on six machines and emphasized that success came down to finding high traffic locations such as warehouses and schools.
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And that was a recurring theme: location matters more than anything. “If I only had the one repair shop, I’d probably be broke or lose money,” said the original poster. “I’m learning location is really the whole game here.”
There were creative suggestions, too. Some recommended placing machines in bars with novelty products such as makeup, glow sticks or mini phone chargers. Others suggested targeting apartment complexes, hotels, or homeowner associations with community centers and swimming pools.