Most dealers ask about the customer lounge. The volume is usually in the shop, and the right structure often is not a commission deal at all.
What it costs you
Nothing, in the normal arrangement. The operator buys the machine — roughly $3,000–$8,000 new for a glass-front combo with a card reader, $1,200–$3,500 refurbished — pays to move and install it, buys every case of product, and absorbs spoilage and theft. You supply floor space and a power outlet.
Their money comes out of the spread. Product runs 45–55% of the shelf price in the machine. On $600 a month in sales that is $270–$330 of gross profit, and out of that comes card processing (5–7% of cashless sales), fuel and drive time, the machine amortized over five to seven years, service labor of roughly 45–75 minutes per visit including the drive, and whatever commission they pay you.
That arithmetic is the entire reason thresholds exist. Below a certain sales volume the visit costs more than the margin it collects, and no amount of enthusiasm on your side changes it. When an operator declines a small property, they are usually not negotiating.
What you actually pay is the electricity. A modern LED glass-front cooler draws roughly 6–10 kWh a day, about $20–$40 a month at typical commercial rates. An older non-LED machine can run two to three times that. It is a small number, but it is a real one, and it is worth knowing before you agree to supply power to three machines.
One more honest note on the phrase itself: free vending machine means free to the property, not free product. Vending prices run roughly 40–80% above grocery, which pays for single-unit purchasing, the drive, the labor, and the spoilage. Telling your guests and technicians that number before the machine arrives is a much better conversation than explaining it after.
Does your dealership qualify?
The practical floor is about 8 service bays, or roughly 25 repair orders a day. Below that, most operators decline — and the reason is arithmetic, not attitude.
You have two buyers. The service guest sits for 60 to 120 minutes with nothing to do, and converts at roughly 10 to 20% of waiters — a very high rate, driven entirely by the length of the wait. The technicians buy at warehouse-like rates, 0.4 to 0.8 items a day each, because they cannot leave the shop mid-RO.
A ten-bay store writing 30 repair orders a day with 15 technicians runs roughly 15 to 30 vends a day, or $900 to $2,000 a month gross across two placements.
The counterintuitive part: at most stores the technicians are the majority of the volume, not the customers. And they buy in two distinct waves — energy drinks in the first hour of the shift and again around 2pm. A single lounge machine misses all of it.
| Your dealership | What operators typically say |
|---|---|
| Under 5 bays | No. A countertop coffee and water setup in the lounge is the better spend. |
| 5–8 bays | Maybe, and if so a tech-focused machine in the shop rather than a lounge machine. |
| 8–15 bays | Yes, usually two placements: customer lounge and shop floor, with different planograms. |
| 15+ bays | Two to four placements. Unattended market in the lounge becomes viable. |
| Multi-rooftop group | Group-level agreement worth negotiating, including free-vend for lounges and commission on shop machines. |
These are working ranges, not guarantees. Route density beats every one of them: a property that sits ten minutes from a machine an operator already services can get a yes at numbers that would otherwise be a no.
How commission actually works
The typical structure is 5–15% of gross sales excluding sales tax, paid monthly or quarterly. What moves the number is volume, exclusivity, how many machines you host, and whether you are asking for premium or branded product that costs the operator more.
Many small accounts get 0%, and that is normal and honest to say. On $400 a month in sales, 10% is $40 — and the operator’s own take-home at that volume is often under $100 after product, fuel, and processing. A commission at that level either does not get paid, or it gets paid by raising the shelf price, which your own people then complain to you about.
That is the tradeoff nobody says out loud: commission comes out of price. Fifteen percent on a $2.00 item is thirty cents, and it does not come from nowhere. If the people buying from the machine are your staff, your residents, or your guests, a high commission is a tax you are levying on them and collecting a fraction of.
Structures worth asking about instead, especially under about $800 a month in machine sales:
- A flat monthly fee per machine ($15–$50). Predictable, and it does not distort pricing.
- Lower shelf prices instead of a commission. Often the better deal when the buyers are your own people.
- Free product for a break room, an event, or a staff allowance. Frequently worth more than the cash.
- Free-vend — you buy the product at wholesale and the machine dispenses at $0.00. No sales, so no commission. This is the right answer more often than people expect.
Whatever you agree, ask for the sales statement. Machines report per-item sales through telemetry, so a monthly statement is a reasonable ask. A commission percentage on a number you cannot see is a number you are taking on faith.
What is different about a dealership
What to require in the placement agreement
This is the part almost nobody writes down, and it is where the next two years of this arrangement are actually decided. Most placement agreements handed to property managers are one page and protect the operator. None of the clauses below are unusual asks; a good operator will agree to most of them in the first conversation.
Also specific to a dealership
- Two planograms, named separately for the lounge and the shop, attached as exhibits.
- If you go free-vend: the wholesale pricing basis, how the product is invoiced, and who owns unsold stock. This is a supply agreement, not a commission agreement, and it should read like one.
- Ambient rating and a condenser cleaning schedule for any shop-floor machine.
- Service timing that avoids your write-up rush, since a route driver rolling a hand truck through the drive at 7:30am is a problem.
This is a checklist, not legal advice. Have your own counsel review anything you sign — particularly the insurance, indemnity, and exclusivity language.
Ask for a machine for your dealership
VendBuddy makes software for vending operators, and we pass property requests to operators working in your area. There is no cost to the property; operators pay VendBuddy when we refer a location, which is how this is funded. We do not own machines and we are not the operator — the placement agreement is between you and whoever takes the account. If no operator near you is taking new placements, we would rather tell you that than leave you waiting.
Request a machine for a dealership →When a vending machine is not worth it for your dealership
Say no if any of these are true
- Under about 5 service bays. Put the money into lounge coffee and bottled water instead.
- A store that already provides complimentary refreshments in the lounge. A paid machine beside a free counter sells nothing and reads badly on a survey.
- Express-service-only stores where nobody waits more than 20 minutes. The wait is the whole mechanism.
- Sales-floor-only placement with no service department. Buyers on a test drive are not a vending audience.
Nobody else in this business will tell you that, because everyone else on this search result is paid when you fill in a form. A machine that sits half-empty in the wrong spot is worse than no machine: it generates complaints, it uses your electricity, and it is oddly hard to get removed once it is there.
Questions
Other property types
The model is the same everywhere; the thresholds and the operational details are not. If you manage more than one kind of property, these are the other breakdowns:
Request a machine for your dealership
VendBuddy makes software for vending operators, and we pass property requests to operators working in your area. There is no cost to the property; operators pay VendBuddy when we refer a location, which is how this is funded. We do not own machines and we are not the operator — the placement agreement is between you and whoever takes the account. If no operator near you is taking new placements, we would rather tell you that than leave you waiting.
Request a machine for a dealership →