Found in public restrooms, gas stations, convenience stores, motels, outdoor recreation areas and many other places, medical supply vending machines offer a convenient, low-cost alternative to hunting down an all-night pharmacy. Packing single-use over-the-counter medicines, contraceptives and first aid products, these machines provide an essential service to customers as well as steady income for their operators.

The most basic medical vending machines offer 4 to 8 selection chambers, and are typically either wall-mount units or furnished with a space-saving stand. Elaborate, bulky units are generally not used to sell medical supplies; rather, the cabinet of a typical medical vending machine averages about 24 inches in length by 18 inches in width. Units are usually only a few inches in depth, depending on how many selection chambers there are, and how many products each individual chamber holds. As with vending machines designed for other products, medical vending machines can be configured to accept coins or card payments. You can also find units that accept bills and make change (which tend to cost more) or ones that don’t.

When shopping for a medical vending machine unit, keep in mind that manufacturers often charge for a unit’s individual components, rather than a single base price for a complete model. The cabinet itself is frequently sold at a fixed rate, with wall mounts or stands available for an extra charge. All reputable manufacturers offer solid customer warranties with their new products, so you should avoid purchasing medical vending machines that don’t come with at least a standard 12-month warranty on all parts.

Products That Sell in Medical Vending Machines

Once you’ve chosen the unit you want to purchase and have done your homework in finding a marketable, well-traveled area to locate your machine, all that’s left is to decide which products to stock.

Medical vending machine owners consistently report pain killers such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen among the top-selling drugs. These items sell particularly well in places where travelers stop to use the restroom, such as hotels and motels, rest stops and camping and picnic areas. Vendors can purchase single-use packets, containing 2 to 4 pain killing caplets, for individual sale to consumers at significantly higher rates than pharmacies charge. Customers are willing to pay extra for the convenience, and few people looking for immediate pain relief are going to forgo it in the interest of saving a few nickels and dimes.

Antacids and cold symptom treatments, such as nasal decongestants and cough suppressant tablets, also sell particularly well, the latter even more so during cold and flu season (spanning approximately November through March). Most vendors operate their medical vending machines like mini drug stores, offering a selection of products a person might look for in a pharmacy. To cater to a need that will always exist, many operators choose to include contraceptives as part of their product selection.

No matter which products you opt to stock, the industry’s track record shows that brand name products sell better than generic ones, so keep your machine stocked with the familiar names people trust, such as Vicks, Pepto-Bismol and Bayer. Remember, brand recognition is a low-cost form of advertising your vending machine; take advantage of the pre-existing popularity of trusted brands to help your medical vending machine garner more revenue.

Ice cream vending machines are a prime example of the technological improvements that have encouraged the resurgence of the vending machine industry. Today, machines that store brand-name frozen treats at sub-zero temperatures, as well as soft-serve and parlor-style ice cream, service a growing consumer demand. In fact, entrepreneurs can earn big profits by operating branded ice cream vending machine businesses, which typically include vending machines as well as storage freezers and a delivery truck with its own cooling system.

Popular ice cream brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Haagen-Dazs and Mini Melts can sell well enough in vending machines to earn a business owner a primary income stream. Of course, placement is important: experienced business owners encourage start-up entrepreneurs to seek out locations that encourage indulgence but remain underserviced by the sweet treats many people crave. Prime examples include food courts and cafeterias, student centers on college campuses and at high schools, as well as busy, high-traffic areas such as transit stations, recreation centers and shopping malls.

A Case Study of an Ice Cream Vending Machine Business

Building an ice cream vending machine business can even lead to six-figure profits. Consider the following example, drawn from a website featuring a Mini Melts vending machine business up for sale.

The owner was asking $350,000 for a fully operational, mid-sized ice cream vending machine business. Included in the sale were 20 individual Mini Melts vending machine units as well as a half-dozen delivery cases, eight sub-zero freezers and a delivery van. Also included was a licensing agreement with Mini Melts, Inc. that permitted the ongoing use of the brand name.

The business sale advertised a cash flow of $50,000 per year and a gross income three times that level. Inventory cost an average of $15,000 a year, and maintenance costs, while not factored into the purchase price, were easily manageable with the generated cash flow. The business employed a grand total of three employees. Perhaps most remarkable is that this successful business was built in just five years, beginning with a single vending machine and a shrewd businessman who reinvested his profits.

Types of Ice Cream Vending Machines to Consider

Relatively simple units offering pre-packaged ice cream treats make up a significant share of the market. However, newer technologies like soft-serve ice cream vending machines are poised to make big gains in the near future. These machines contain cones which are released and filled with the customer’s choice of soft-serve ice cream flavors once payment has been entered. Forward-thinking vendors are also taking advantage of growth in the fat-free sweets market by offering generic low-fat ice cream and frozen yogurt. These machines typically allow customers to buy a pre-set number of scoops, which are distributed in Styrofoam or plastic containers.

However, those interested in getting involved in the ice cream vending machine business should be prepared to face costs that are significantly higher than those associated with more traditional vending machines, such as those that sell snacks or drinks. The patented technology used to make ice cream vending machines work is costly and complex, so it’s highly recommended that you have a financing plan in place if the manufacturer doesn’t offer one.

Prior to improvements in heating technology, hot food vending machines simply weren’t feasible due to concerns over food spoilage. However, vending machines with coin- or card-activated individual slots or carousel-style hot food vending machines are becoming increasingly common. The monetary and time investment demanded of an operator tends to be higher with hot food vending machines; however, because these machines stock higher-priced items, they also have the potential to bring in bigger profits.

Typical Offerings from Hot Food Vending Machines

Though the types of foods available from hot food vending machines will vary significantly, depending on the design of the specific machine you’re using, they generally include:

• hamburgers
• hot dogs
• panini sandwiches
• mini pizzas
• macaroni & cheese
• grilled cheese sandwiches
• chicken fingers
• french fries

Prepared Hot Food and Heat-It-Yourself Vending Machines

Typically, vending machines which contain ready-to-eat hot food items are found in stores where the facilities to prepare the food ahead of time are easily accessible, with convenience stores and gas station food marts being two of the most common locations. Operation of these vending machines can be more costly, not only because of the higher price of the sophisticated heating units that the food is sold from, but also due to the additional personnel required to maintain them. Typically, hot food vending machine operators are expected to at least subsidize the cost of the employee whose job it is to ensure the machine is properly stocked with the right items.

More common are refrigerated units that stock food items for sale coupled with a microwave oven provided so customers can heat their own food on site. These vending machines are usually comprised of a selector plate mounted on an axle or other mobile mechanism which responds to customer input when a selection is made. After the correct amount of money is inserted in the machine, the purchased items is sent down a chute and delivered to the customer, who then heats it using easy-to-follow instructions on the accompanying oven.

While that might seem to be a complex operation to maintain, the fact is that most locations that can support a hot food vending machine can support heat-your-own machines as well. Normally, both the vending machine and the microwave oven can be run off a single power outlet. Operators are simply responsible for ensuring that the refrigerated storage area beneath the unit is stocked, and that new products are rotated into the display case once current supplies have sold out.

The same payment technology which breathed new life into the vending machine industry as a whole is also available with hot food vending machines. Operators who wish to offer their customers the convenient option of paying using a bank or credit card can do so, and can offset the higher cost of electronic payment by padding the prices of their products. However, as with any business, location, location, location is the key to success. Most hot food vending machine operators have enjoyed the greatest success by cooperating and sharing revenues with store owners who want the ability to offer their customers access to hot food without installing the cumbersome facilities needed to prepare it on site. Finding a partnership is, in fact, often the first step to success in the hot food vending machine business.