It has been a while since I sought comments on our vending machine so I figured I would start a thread to get some more comments and questions. I have another take on firewood sales and while I understand that cord prices vary greatly depending on availability, here in the great Republic of Texas cords go for a bit more but, we sell by "the stick" and get a lot more...between $1000-$1200 a cord How? by being the only seller in camp grounds. We have developed and built a large item, outdoor, cashless vending machine that is specifically targeted at selling Firewood at camping areas. I have 14 machines at State parks in and around Fort Worth and owe them another 10 before we start selling them to others Here is a youtube video of the machine Wood Shax Movie YouTube www.youtube.com Operations and owner diagnostics and programming preview This is a modular system that can have as many 8 compartment modules as required....we have found that given available space, that a 6 module system is about as large at it should go and if there is more demand, we just place another machine at another location within the park. Our contracts with Texas Parks and Wildlife require us to give 10% of gross sales (before tax) to the parks every month. We make, set, and maintain the machines, and provide product for all the machines. The production models have outdoor rated touch screens and a 3G cell phone based telemetry system that goes directly to the bank for credit card/ debit card verification and sales...it takes all forms of credit and debit along with apple pay, android pay, contactless, etc.....NO CASH (and in over a year we have had no vandalism). It is very simple...make a selection....swipe your card and a door opens up...they take the product and shut the door...that compartment will not vend again until we refill. In addition to firewood (1 cuft or 2 cuft bag, although you can't fit 2 cuft of wood in a 2cuft bag) we sell cases of water, charcoal, wood chips for smoking, small covered grills, and anything else that campers are interested in and do not want to leave the camp ground to purchase. We have real time sales data through the credit card processing company so we know when we need to go and restock. So rip it apart...after 25 years in the Army I have thick skin
That's just sick!! What a smacking good idea!! Just sit back and count the profit...I see no problem with that fantastic idea other than you thought of it first!
This is a great idea! We have a couple up on Lake Erie that have ice vending machines near the boat ramps to fill coolers of the fishermen. They seem to do pretty well with it.
What types of firewood do you sell in them? This is sold just for campfires. Correct? How long is the wood seasoned for? Approximately.
Ok, not enough time to fix popcorn for the movie..... Man that set up is SLICKER THAN A MINNOW's .... Brilliant radiant awesomeness BUT- hope no one figures out a "Open All" hack So on a decent holiday with consistent traffic, how often could you expect to run/refill? Do y'all face the burn bans that a lot of states seem to get nailed with because of drought? That could put a hurtin on business? Overall, a truly ingenious and well executed machine
Thanks for all the positive feedback.....I appreciate them and don't be afraid to address any and all detractors that you think might be obstacles. The State Park model has worked well so far.....Once I get a park Superintendent to realize how much actual work and time and money they spend on firewood sales, they see that they come out on the short end and with our machine they do nothing except take the monthly 10% check. This allows the park staff to concentrate on more important tasks to keep the parks going. The first couple of machines were a bit tough to sell them on, but once they got them the Supers started bragging to other parks and now I have more who want them than I can service (there are 6 parks in East Texas who want them but they are too far away for me to service) Right now I am just filling in holes in our routes to make them more profitable and in a couple of weeks will set machines in 3 more parks to that end. The next batch of five will go to rotating out our original 4 prototypes so I can bring them in to refurbish and upgrade and then back out.......So 2 or 3 of those 5 new ones will be for outside sales. We use locally sourced seasoned (at least a year) oak and supplement with kiln dried and the 3 year goal to to source within 25 miles of each park and use as much kiln dried wood as we can make to help Texas start down the road of curbing invasive insects and tree disease. Burn bans are a pain but part of life in Texas....Some parks are exempt and at the others we substitute in Charcoal, charcoal grills, Propane grills, propane camping bottles, cases of water and anything else the campers want....One park sells fishing poles and tackle and hammocks. We have real time sales data on all sales so I know exactly when to resupply. Thanksgiving week was our busiest week to date and we sold $5000 worth of fire wood....we were refilling every 2 days on the bigger parks but we never ran out!. 4th Quarter 2016 was when we added the 10 production model machines and Revenue was $35000 using about 32 cords. As for the "hack"...that would be bad, but we use proprietary software written in ladder logic on industrial grade PLCs so it would take them a while to figure out the hack Our Four Module 31 vending compartment machine is what we consider the "basic package" and ready to vend with card reader and telemetry is $8900 plus freight and Tax (if in state)....each add on module would be another $1900 So far they have been working great and are very sturdy....... steel construction, galvanized and then powder coated.
Cool man! Are you thinking because of the distance problems that some good money might be made in selling your machines to others all over the U.S.? Do you have a patent or start that?
The machine is patented and we have 3 more patents pending on the upgrades we have made since our original prototype. Our local wood sales were just to build the sales metrics to show others the potential and that selling by the stick to a captive crowd is much more profitable than by the cord, and to have the sales pay all our overhead and then start selling to those who see the potential. I don't really believe in franchising and think a better (more fair to the buyers) model is just assigning exclusive territories based on the number of machines purchased so that the purchaser knows that no one else can encroach on their business using this machine......and the other machines out there (there are a couple of conveyor belt driven types out there) are more expensive and not nearly as versatile
Looks like you could use a "service specialist" to maintain those "too far away" units----are you hiring?
25 years in the army? in which foxhole did you develop this idea and was it your intention to become a business owner when you got out?
I was a Helicopter pilot so I am allergic to Foxholes...they also make my white scarf dirty. When I retired I did not want to do the contractor thing with the Military and did not want to do a 9 to 5 so collaborated with my now business partner and he had an idea for a firewood dispenser and it morphed from there. We are almost through UL testing for Hazardous Location certification for an automated propane bottle exchange system based on the firewood machine....but much more complicated
Awesome!.. How hard is it to convince (sell) the parks on the concept if they have been selling firewood all along and think they can make more money using their current methods? I would think it's a lot of work to source, package and deliver the wood? Really nice you can see when to replenish. Great concept to make it more versatile with vending things other than firewood. Should add to profits.
I just asked them if they were short on park staff and how much time they think they spend getting the firewood, stacking, protecting and accounting for sales....If they have an after hours box for firewood sales then every morning 2 rangers must go out and count and then count again and then they bring the money inside and do the same thing with the person entering it into the register......and there is always "shrinkage"......if they don't have after hours sales then they are losing out on those sales....when you want firewood, you want it now...not 12 hours from now. Also, my first couple of parks did not have existing firewood sales so they were up for it...and when they talked to the other parks they told them how easy it was...and it snowballed from there
I think it is a great idea. I wish we got the $/cord you guys get down there. I would quit selling logs and cut everything into firewood.
Looks fantastic. Have you considered different sized doors for smaller products...firestarters, matches, etc.? It could be a great side business if I could afford the up-front investment
