Where Vending Locations Are: 2026 Location Index

Where do vending operators actually look for locations, and what do those places look like? This index adds up the 36,069 operating businesses that VendBuddy users looked up between April 30, 2026 to October 8, 2026, by location type, state, rating, opening hours and review count. It is the sample our users searched, not a census, and every number carries its sample size.

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Which location types turn up most

Every Lead Finder search starts with a ZIP code and usually a type of place. We grouped the operating businesses those searches returned by their Google category. The biggest single bucket, 38.6%, is listings Google tags only as a generic business, mostly offices and small companies. Among named types, contractors, storage and trade businesses (10.5%), healthcare and medical offices (10.2%), retail stores (8%), restaurants, cafes and bars (6.2%) lead.

Which locations stay open late

A machine sells when people are there and nothing else is open. For listings with posted opening hours (7,484 of 36,069), we counted the ones that stay open past 9 PM on at least one day, roll past midnight, or never close. Groups with fewer than 20 listings with hours are left out rather than shown on a thin base.

How these places are rated

A Google rating is a rough read on how a place is run and how its visitors feel about it. Across 33,194 rated listings the median Google rating is 4.4 stars. The spread by type is wider than the medians suggest, so the chart shows each type's star bands.

Review counts as a foot-traffic proxy

Nobody publishes visitor counts for most businesses, but Google review counts move with how many people walk through the door. Treat this as a proxy: a 30-year-old diner collects more reviews than a busy warehouse that the public never visits, so review counts flatter consumer-facing places and understate staff-only sites like offices, plants and depots.

Location mix by state

49 states (counting the District of Columbia) appear with at least 5 listings (Maine and Nebraska had fewer and are not reported). State totals mostly reflect where VendBuddy users searched, so read the mix within a state, not the ranking between states, as the finding.

Top cities for each location type

The cities with the most listings of each type in the sample. A city only appears with 5 or more listings of that type. These lists follow search activity: Houston leads many of them because it is the city our users searched most, not because it has the most gyms in America.

Methodology

• What this is. An aggregate of the Google Places listings that VendBuddy's Lead Finder looked up for its users between April 30, 2026 to October 8, 2026. It is the sample of places vending operators actually searched, not a census of every business in the United States. Large metros where our users search a lot are over-represented.
• Cleaning. One row per Google place ID (the details record wins over the search record when both exist). Only listings Google marks as operating are kept. City and state come from the formatted address; listings without a US street address are dropped.
• Location types. Each listing is put in one group by its Google types, first match wins, in this order: Schools and universities (school, primary_school, secondary_school, university); Gyms and fitness centers (gym); Salons and spas (spa, beauty_salon, hair_care); Healthcare and medical offices (hospital, doctor, dentist, physiotherapist, veterinary_care, health); Hotels, lodging and campgrounds (lodging, rv_park, campground); Government and public buildings (local_government_office, city_hall, courthouse, post_office, police, fire_station, library, embassy); Churches and places of worship (church, place_of_worship, synagogue, mosque, hindu_temple); Entertainment venues (bowling_alley, amusement_park, movie_theater, casino, stadium, museum, zoo, aquarium, art_gallery); Airports and transit stations (airport, transit_station, bus_station, train_station, subway_station); Laundromats and dry cleaners (laundry); Gas stations and convenience stores (gas_station, convenience_store); Auto repair, dealers, car washes and rentals (car_repair, car_dealer, car_wash, car_rental); Restaurants, cafes and bars (restaurant, cafe, bar, bakery, meal_takeaway, meal_delivery, night_club); Real estate offices and property managers (real_estate_agency); Banks, insurance, legal and accounting (finance, bank, insurance_agency, accounting, lawyer, atm, travel_agency); Contractors, storage and trade businesses (general_contractor, storage, moving_company, electrician, plumber, roofing_contractor, painter, locksmith); Retail stores (store, shopping_mall, supermarket, grocery_or_supermarket, pharmacy, drugstore, florist, liquor_store, home_goods_store, clothing_store, furniture_store, electronics_store, hardware_store); a bare "food" type without "store" also counts as restaurants. Anything else is "Offices and companies with no specific category".
• Ratings. Google star ratings on listings with at least one review. Medians and quartiles are computed per group.
• Open late. From the posted weekly opening hours. A listing counts if any day closes at 9 PM or later, runs past midnight, or has no closing time. Only 7,484 listings had full hours, so a group is only reported when 20 or more of its listings have them.
• Foot-traffic proxy. Google review counts, which track public visits loosely and miss staff-only sites. It is labelled as a proxy everywhere it appears.
• Suppression. Aggregates only: no business names, addresses, phones or emails are published. Any row backed by fewer than 5 listings (a type, a state, a city or a state-by-type cell) is shown as "<5" and never charted. A share that comes out at exactly 0% or 100% on 20 or more listings would be marked "under review" and kept out of the headlines.
• Snapshot. Queried October 8, 2026 from VendBuddy's own cache. No new Google Places requests were made for this report. Percentages are rounded.

Using this for your own route

These are national patterns. For the places around your own ZIP, VendBuddy's Lead Finder runs the same search these numbers come from. For what to pay a location once you find one, see what public vending contracts show about commission rates.

More research: all VendBuddy reports, State of Vending Operators and vending machine profit margins.