Planet Antares Incorporated | Planet Antares Vending | Planet Antares

A blog for people to know about how to manage and find information on vending business.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Healthy Vending Trends In Schools.

With growing concerns about obesity among children; parents and schools are encouraging consumption of healthy foods. As more and more children are prone to obesity, school vending programs are being kept under close scrutiny. Gradually soft drinks have been replaced with water and fruit juices. Healthy snacks and foods are replacing traditional junk food items.

School vending was associated with junk food earlier but now, the trend is towards providing healthy refreshment solutions in schools. In order to accommodate changing trends, healthy snacks and food items are being offered for sales in schools.

What is new in the world of healthy vending?

If you own or operate a vending business then you can enjoy some incredible choices for your snack vending machines. Apart from the regular pretzels, veggie crisps, bagel chips, wide assortment of nuts, dried fruit, trail mixes, nutrition bars, yogurt bars, and meal replacement bars, several new introductions are being made every month. Low calorie cookies, candy bars and baked black bean chips are also offered for sale through vending machines in schools.

Cold food vending machines also feature a wide variety of food items like healthy cereal, corn flakes, salads and combo meals. Vending operators are also introducing soymilk and juice vending machines.

Most of these items are low carb, low fat/fat free, sugar free/no sugar added. Hence they do not have any adverse effects on health. With more and more customers switching to healthy foods, vending machine operators are boldly offering increased varieties of healthy items in their vending machines.

To vend healthy food products, as a vending operator, you will have to maintain proper temperatures and moisture level in vending machine. For this you will need to purchase the best quality vending machines. Planet Antares manufactures vending machines that are robust and reliable in performance. State-of-the-art vending machines manufactured by Planet Antares are equipped with latest gadgets to make sure that children get fresh and nutritious food at all times.

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Saving Fuel and Maintaining Vehicles

Gas prices keep rising periodically and this adds to the expenses of vending business. Vending business owners need route drivers for filling and maintaining the machines. Divers tend to misuse the vehicle provided by vending business owners for their personal use and this can lead to wastage of fuel. To avoid this type of wastage, vending business owners need to take strict measures and should monitor fuel economy to stop this type of wastage.

Maintenance of vehicle would also help in saving fuel as well maintained vehicles will operate with greater efficiency. Spark plugs should be cleaned regularly and fuel filter should not be clogged to increase fuel efficiency. Keep the tyres properly inflated as this will help in increasing fuel efficiency. As said by experts, the fuel efficiency can be raised by more than 3 percent if the tyres are properly inflated.

Another good idea for saving fuel costs is to change from conventional fuel to other fuels for your Planet Antares vending operations. Propane is less pricey than either diesel or gasoline. A gallon of propane gas costs less than half the price of gasoline. Route drivers should drive the vehicle within the appropriate speed limit. Driving steadily and smoothly ensures less fuel wastage. Putting on the brakes hard and speeding adds to the decreased fuel economy.

Switch off your vehicle on signals and avoid idling of your engine. An efficient route driver should turn the engine off, if they are delayed for more than a couple of minutes. Technology has long term solutions for fuel wastage. A vending business owner can invest in GPS (Global Positioning System) and improve operating efficiency and employee accountability.

Planning out the use of your vehicle can makes a big difference in fuel economy. Hire alert, honest and educated drivers for your Planet Antares vending route.

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Customers Influence On Vending Business

The existence of vending machines could be traced in 215 BC. Initially they were used to vend holy water in temples. Once people started realising its benefits, slowly these machines were used to vend a wide range of products and services. In today’s world people resort to vending machine for a cup of coffee, newspaper, snacks, drinks, ice creams, sodas and what not. You name it and vending machine is ready to serve you with it.

“KYC” or Know your customers is modern mantra of present business world. This is crucial for running any business successfully. Customers are attracted towards vending machine because of the convenience it offers both in terms of saving time and effort. Since its inception, more and more people are relying on vending machines for various reasons. This multi billion dollar industry is successful in catering to the needs of millions of customers across the globe. These machines are able to supply their customers with just about anything they need.

For any business to be successful, customers should be their prime focus. Before you start your vending business, try to know your customers and understand their requirements. Ask your self a few questions like what would be the right location for your machine? Who are your target customers and target market? What is that a customer would be interested in purchasing? Products such as candy and cool drinks target children of all age groups. While energy drinks and snacks are more appealing to youth? Working men and women would be more interested in healthy snacks or some other kinds of refreshments. Accessibility is one important factor that needs to be considered while locating a vending machine.

Your customers could be anyone ranging from children, employees, teenagers, housewives etc. If proper planning is not done while locating your machine, it might not generate great profits. Never compromise on the quality of products and always purchase a new vending machine whenever you start a new business or expand your existing business. Ensure that a customer never returns empty handed after visiting your machine. Stock your machine with required quantity of stock and ensure there are no repairs and break downs. This will prevent inconvenience to customers and make them happy.

Happy customers are loyal and can be retained for a life time. For more on vending strategies, and tips on how to generate extra profits out of vending business, contact Planet Antares. Their remarkable vending program is designed to make sure people benefit from vending business.

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Choosing the right Vending Machine Company

Once you’ve decided upon starting a vending business, you should be ready to research upon the vending company that you can trust on providing you with the right kind of vending equipment to start your vending business.

Being new to the business, it is understandable that you will not know all the tricks of the trade. However, most companies would like to lure you by offering cheap vending machines. There will be some offering used or refurbished machines to start your business as well. Do not buy into these deals just because of price as these may cost you much more in the long run.

Planet Antares Inc. is one of the most trusted names in the vending machines and they don’t only offer excellent vending machines and service but also provide you with all the information that you will need to start your vending business on the right node. Planet Antares staff will guide you through all the processes involved in starting a vending business.

A good business man will always research about the company he is going to deal with. As a matter of fact, company can be judged not by the sales it has but by the number of satisfied customers it has. Planet Antares stands tall at this stand as well as it has hundreds of satisfied vendors.

With Planet Antares as your choice, you can be sure about getting the most stylish and most reliable vending machines to start your business with. Support from the industry experts will be your bonus. Planet Antares will surely make your ride towards financial freedom smoother and shorter with its brand presence, quality and training.

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Friday, September 4, 2009

Marketing Your Vending Business

Vending is a self sustaining business. Once set up on the right note, the business rolls on its own. Just like any other business, if you plan a little for your vending operations, it can do wonders for you.

Vending business starts from purchasing a vending machine. While selecting a machine, you should buy the one that is attractive and would look good at the location. Glass front vending machines can prove to be more eye-catching to customers as they can view the products stored in the vending machine. Customers can relate themselves with the branded machines like the ones from Planet Antares and we should buy vending machine from reliable

As a vending operator, you can plan a customer feedback campaign or survey at your vending location. This will not only show customers that you care about their feedback but will also show your commitment towards providing the best of services. You can also put up signs for products that you plan to introduce in your vending machine. This will let customers know which products would be stocked in the machine in coming days.

You should stock your machine with products from reputed companies who have aggressive national and international marketing campaigns. This will prove to be marketing for your vending business at no cost to you. You can also plan a small promotional campaign to promote your vending business.

Vending is a $40 Billion industry and is growing exponentially. With little planning you can get your vending business reach new heights. If you are planning to buy a new vending machine, just contact sales staff from Planet Antares, they have wide range of vending solutions to choose from. They also provide necessary guidance to set up vending business from scratch.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Managing Multiple Vending Locations

Vending business is one of the most lucrative business opportunities around today. Most of the people who ventured in the business with couple of vending machines have grown into chain of multiple vending machines. With growing profits, the number of vending machines is also growing up pretty fast. With multiple vending machines to take care of a little planning has to be done for effective management of vending business.

With increase in number of vending machines, operators encounter the issues like, refilling of vending machines on time, regular servicing of machines, planning out locations, getting data from vending machines, tracking sales performance etc. To tackle these situations, you need to plan and change a little the way you were doing business. Companies like Planet Antares provide necessary support to customers and educate them about managing the business.

With increase in number of vending machines, you will need to plan a route for refilling of vending machines. You will have to create a road map about different locations where you have placed vending machines. To refill the vending machines, you may find it convenient and profitable to hire a vending route professional who not only refills, but also extracts data from vending machines. Normally sales and cash collection data is collected on a handheld by route driver and is latter on transferred to office computer. Service schedules of vending machines can also be taken care of by vending route professional. Vending machines are so easy to operate, refill and service that part-time employees can also take care of it easily.

While planning a new location, it would be profitable and easy to choose a location that fits in an existing vending route. You can re-plan your vending route too to accommodate addition of new vending machines.

For complete guidance about setting up multiple vending machine business, contact Planet Antares support staff.

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