Has anyone one out there heard of the Red Bull Vending machines? If so, how are they doing? If not, what do you think the potential for them to be a success is? I am obviously considering investing in a few of these machines, and I am looking for any advice I can possibly get. Thank you.

Red Bull has a vending program, not sure how they are doing with it as we didn't sign on. We chose in stead to sell Red Bull out of our own carousel style machine, Red Bull sells fairly well out of them but mostly we put them in as filler since they have a long shelf life.

Any way Red Bull will loan you the machine for free but only if the location has an acceptable employee/people count.

[ 09-05-2005, 07:46 PM: Message edited by: ithastabeshasta ]

Just a couple of questions.

Will the distributors of Red Bull offer a per case allotment due to the high traffic location of the "free" vending machine?

Will they pay vendors a slotting fee for placement of the vending machine?

Will they provide prompt service/repair of the vending machine. (Even some of the new machines can be temperamental.)

Will a vending machine be a way to increase your profit and sales as those compared to your cooler?

High traffic vending machines that sell impulse items like Red Bull tend to sell better than a non exclusive cooler. There is a certain of amount of "curb appeal" that gets the attention of your customers. Some customers may not know if you even carry Red Bull products.

If these questions are answered yes, then a vending machine appears to be a higher profit opportunity than the cooler.

Just my thoughts.

[ 09-05-2005, 08:43 PM: Message edited by: Mr Zabe ]

Actually, from my understanding, these aren't for retail locations such as 7-11, AM/PM, Mom and Pop's, etc. These are designed more for other high traffic areas such as airports, bowling alleys, gyms, colleges, etc., etc.

The only vending machine I have seen out here in the Bay Area was placed in the Oakland Airport in the Southwest Airlines employees lounge. Southwest occupies all of terminal 1, while pretty much that only place to get Red Bull is all the way over in terminal 2.

Ron, do you have any idea how it does in the lounge?

A little bird from BooKoo told me they are testing some of their own in Dallas.

that's nice. who is going to service and maintain thier vending program? their third tier distributors? I don't think so.

from what I heard, Red Bull pays a company to service them. But thats what I heard, does not make it true.

i almost bought red bull vending machines from a company called creative concepts. i wound up not doing it, it seemed pretty expensive.