Vending Machine Business by the Numbers: Machine Payback, Location Commissions, Product Mix, Restock Routes & Cash vs Card

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Compare a new machine on a loan, a used machine bought for cash and a lease on one number – the monthly cost – and work out how many vends a day the cheapest option needs to break even.
• Turn 28 days of sales data into vends and sales per day and per month, then compare location types with AVERAGEIFS and SUMPRODUCT.
• Compare commission and flat-rent offers for six locations, find the sales level where both cost the same and work out the sales a machine needs to cover product cost, commission and its own monthly cost.
• Work out each slot's capacity and weekly margin, find the weakest and second-weakest slot with MIN, SMALL and INDEX/MATCH and test what a swap would earn in a year.
• Find how long each machine's fastest slot lasts, set the days between visits with a safety buffer, count visits per four weeks and the units refilled per visit, and price the write-offs of date-coded items.
• Price five restock routes: hours per run from driving, service and fixed time, the route cost from labour and kilometres, the cost per visit and the profit per route hour – and find the best route.
• Work out card fees and cash-handling costs per location, the payment cost as a share of sales, the card share across all sites and whether going card-only would raise or lower the profit of one location.
• Pull the whole business together: monthly profit per machine and per location type, payback months, the net present value of a ninth machine and a chart that shows which kind of location carries the business.