Rachel Fletcher

The Best Places to Put Vending Machines In Your Business

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Setting up a vending machine in your business can be highly profitable. But knowing where to put your machines to optimize traffic and revenue is key. Keep reading to learn everything about choosing the best locations for vending machines.

What to Consider When Choosing Vending Machine Locations

Consider the factors mentioned below to find the most suitable vending machine locations for your business. Though a location may seem great at first sight, there may be several underlying issues. For example, a place with high traffic may seem perfect, but if the crime rates are also high, it may not be a wise place to put your vending machine.

1. Traffic

Traffic should be one of your top considerations when assessing different locations. Without decent foot traffic, your vending machine will not be effective or lucrative. There are two types of traffic to be aware of — indirect and direct.

Direct traffic includes people who frequent the location consistently. A typical example would be a building lobby that office employees pass through daily. Indirect traffic may not consist of many regulars but still contains potential customers.

For example, placing your vending machine in the lobby or your building will likely mean it sees more indirect traffic while placing machines on specific floors will take advantage of more direct traffic.

2. Security

The more secure your location, the safer your machines will be. Setting up your machines in a risky area may result in theft and vandalism. Indoor vending machines are typically safer than outdoor ones, but outdoor spots can be profitable depending on placement.

Restricting hours of operation and using cages to protect the machines can help keep them safe in more dangerous areas, but those are additional costs. Consider the security risks of each location on your property.

3. Accessibility

While security is important, accessibility is equally important. If your machines are tucked away from sight or inaccessible, they will not make as much money. For example, placing a vending machine on the second floor of a school will likely make it safer than putting it in the outdoor courtyard, but it won’t get as much traffic.

It’s important to balance security with accessibility to keep your machines safe while reaching customers.

Best Locations for Vending Machines

To help you find the ideal location for your vending machine, consider some of the best types of places for vending services below!

1. Lobbies

One of the best places to set up a vending machine is in a lobby, as many people will pass through. Hotel lobbies, apartment building lobbies, hospital lobbies, and office lobbies are all brilliant places for machines.

2. Breakrooms

If your property has a break or snack room, consider putting your vending machine here. Those who did not bring a snack or lunch will likely turn to the vending machines for food and drink.

3. Reception Desk or Waiting Area

Doctor’s offices, spas, and many other places often feature a reception desk, and people frequently have to wait near this desk for their appointments. Having a vending machine near a reception desk or in a waiting area is a great way to take advantage of people’s boredom. Bored people are more likely to opt for a snack to keep themselves busy while they wait.

4. Entryways and Exits

Even if your entryways and exits aren’t lobbies and seem rather desolate, a vending machine can still be profitable here. If someone is in a hurry leaving a hotel or an apartment complex they may grab a quick snack to tide them over. And the same goes for people entering your business.

5. Line and Queue Areas

Similar to reception desks and waiting areas, people often get bored and antsy when waiting in line. Think about how there are rows of candy and other treats at the checkout line in the grocery store. The same concept applies here! People waiting in line may see the machines and grab a snack to pass the time as the line moves.

Choosing the Perfect Location

Select locations for your vending machines carefully, and assess them from all angles before committing. Contact us to discuss adding a vending machine to your business and where an appropriate spot would be!

Supporting Small Business Through Boston Vending Machines

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Our Story

Take 5 Vending first started as one man business back in 1980, founded and run by Ross Almquist, who continues to be the sole owner today. Throughout the last 40 years many things have changed in the vending industry, but one thing has not: Take 5 Vending has remained committed to providing the best vending solutions for businesses and schools around the Greater Boston, South Shore Massachusetts, Fall River, New Bedford and Rhode Island areas. Over the past few decades, we have seen a lot of changes in the vending industry from the emergence of card reader technology to the disappearance of cigarette vending machines. Sadly, we have also seen many of our competitors either go out of business or be bought out by nonlocal businesses.

We pride ourselves on being a family + locally owned and operated business based in Bridgwater, unlike our competitors who are now owned by national conglomerates.

Ross Almquist, Owner of Take 5 Vending

Supporting Small Business Through Boston Vending

If you are thinking about bringing a vending machine service into your business or school, please consider choosing us over other larger national companies. Although there are many more reasons that three, we’ll lay just three of them out right here:

-We aim to bring you the best customer service possible, with a real human answering our phones on the first call (during business hours of course).

-We support our local community through not only hiring local talent, but also through working with and donating to charities around the Bridgewater, Massachusetts area.

-We keep up on the latest beverage and snack food trends, aiming to fill your vending machine or micromarkets with the most popular and tasty treats on the market. We also take requests so that your workers can have exactly what they want in their breakroom.

Want to Install a Vending Machine?

To get started on setting up a breakroom service in your office, warehouse, or school reach out to us for a free consultation so we can see what option would be best for your space! Always feel free to give us a call at 508-697-0800 or reach out to us via our contact form on our website here.

Worker at Take 5 vending located in Bridgewater Massachusetts

This Summer’s Hottest Drinks

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Summer is here!

While the season may conjure up images of sunbathing on a beach or skipping out of the workplace early to cool down with an evening cocktail, you don’t have to wait until after hours to indulge in some of your favorite summer drinks.

A wide selection of cold, refreshing drinks full of tropical flavors will bring the island vibes right up to your desk. We’ve been keeping an eye on what drinks consumers are cracking open this season and which products you should have on hand in your breakrooms.

Well, Well, Wellness

Starting with the definition of what’s on trend, new-age drinks are taking our markets by storm. These drinks are healthier alternatives to the legacy beverages known to dominate the market.

With reduced sugar and added nutrients, these drinks are perfect for a health-conscious public looking for alternatives to high-sugar, carbonated beverages like sodas. Despite the name, new-age beverages aren’t new; they’ve been around for nearly a decade!

The desire for guilt-free indulgence allows these products to stay relevant throughout their tenure. Often made with electrolytes and other nutrients, these drinks are designed to refresh and hydrate without sacrificing delicious flavors.

So Juicy

You don’t have to be ashamed of sneaking a juice box for yourself. These childhood favorites are for adults too. With bold citrusy and fruity flavors, not to mention all the great-for-you vitamins and nutrients, fruit juice is a summer fan favorite.

Citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, and limes are especially great sources of water and vitamin C in the summertime. According to several lifestyle news outlets, they help to reduce body temperature, and vitamin C is a great nutrient to prevent skin damage in hot weather.

A classic glass of OJ, a bottle of grape juice, or an apple juice box will help you stay cool and energized this summer. And you won’t be alone; juice rises in popularity as summer comes around. Stock up and enjoy!

A Bit of the Bubbly

It seems like everywhere you turn there’s a new brand entering the sparkling water or seltzer market. It comes as no surprise given how often people have plucked these fizzy favorites from store shelves.

The number of brands in the sparkling water space is increasing, and so are the innovative flavor combinations. Sparkling water distributors are pairing tropical tastes like pineapple and coconut with the citrus of lemon and lime. Fruit flavors from passionfruit to peach are capturing buyers’ attention.

Alternative sodas are also trending. Carbonated with ingredients like apple cider vinegar, these alternatives are a health-conscious replacement for a classic cola.

Go with Your Gut

Alternative sodas aren’t just a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Often paired with prebiotics and probiotics, they also support gut health!

Probiotics, the healthy bacteria in your gut that aid digestion, are essential to a healthy diet and lifestyle. Fermented tea drinks like kombucha are loaded with these, and their cult following is steadily growing. Kombucha might not be king for long, though. New brands are constantly popping up with probiotics in flavored sparkling and water varieties.

As the summer sun blazes on, everyone will be looking for cold, refreshing drinks. This summer, pack up your cooler and fill your workplace with summertime flavor and hydration-forward beverages. After hours, you can enjoy some happy hour fun, but you’ll have to keep the drinks zero-proof when at work. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

Take 5 Vending keeps all of your team’s favorites in stock all summer long. Get started today to kick off the season in style.

Simple Ways To Get A Vending Machine In Your Office

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Simple Ways To Get A Vending Machine In Your Office

While it may be relatively easy to get a vending machine in your office, it can be significantly more difficult to keep it there—particularly as an effective productivity tool. Here’s what you can do to simplify the process of getting a vending machine, maintaining it, and ensuring it boosts employee effectiveness.

Why Add Vending Machines?

Successful companies add vending machines for the same reasons they add other office tools, such as computers, comfortable seating, and ergonomic desks; It can boost productivity. When considering the simplest ways to get a vending machine, the underlying reason, productivity, serves as the foundation of your strategy.

A vending machine in the office can:

  • Keep employees from leaving your location. You’d be hard-pressed to find an employee that’s both happy and hungry. A vending machine keeps them from satisfying their hunger off-campus. As a result, they stay within a few steps of their work instead of going around the corner for a bite.
  • You provide a quick, easy, and cost-effective solution. Employees love fast, simple, inexpensive solutions and a vending machine checks off all three boxes. You save them both time and money, and that leads to a more content workforce.

Should You Purchase And Self-Fill Or Use A Service?

As mentioned above, getting a vending machine can be less complicated than maintaining it and making sure it helps productivity instead of hindering it. That is why many winning companies choose to use a service to fill and maintain their vending machines, making a provider like Take 5 Vending a simpler solution.

For example, picture the following scenario: Your employees are absolutely loving a hot new energy bar in your vending machine. They’re literally, well, eating it up. It’s a big hit around 10:00 am and 3:00 pm when people need a little boost to stay productive and on-task. But you run out. One by one, your workers start drifting out the front door and to their cars to get that energy bar somewhere else.

You can feel your productivity slipping, so you rush out the door to your local Costco, white-knuckling through the 20-minute drive. Costco has what you want and what feels like an impossibly long line. You finally check out, then drive another 20 minutes back to the office.

You then wrestle with the vending machine, opening it up, and shoving the energy bars in there. You close it up, muscle it back into place, then return, sweaty, to your desk.

How much time did you lose? How many employees left anyway? The opportunity costs of self-managing a vending machine can skyrocket over time.

On the other hand, by using a managed vending machine solution, you don’t have to worry about running out or managing the restocking process. This is because:

  • Your vendor makes sure you have the stock you need
  • Your vendor can use predictive analytics to figure out when an item is likely to run out ahead of time
  • Your vendor handles the resupply process

How To Enhance Your Vending Machine Solution

There’s a lot you can do to optimize the effectiveness of your vending machine solution, making it a flexible resource with a ton of upside potential. For example, you can:

  • Strategize the best possible location for the machine based on foot traffic and space. For instance, while a breakroom may be a strong option, another space, such as your front welcome area, may get even more foot traffic.
  • Provide funds for your employees as a perk. You can give each employee vending machine credits, encouraging them to use the machine while simultaneously showing appreciation for their hard work. The productivity pay-off can more than cover the few bucks you give each employee.
  • Issue a survey regarding the kinds of items employees want in the vending machine. Their top picks may surprise you, and you demonstrate a genuine interest in their opinions.

Getting A Vending Machine The Simple Way – What It Looks Like

With Take 5 Vending, the processes of getting and maintaining your vending machines come with only one action step on your part:

  1. You connect with Take 5, and our professionals handle the rest, including a site survey, installation with a 30-day turnaround, stocking, restocking, and maintenance.

Take 5 Vending’s machines send reports regarding current and projected inventory levels, which are used to automatically schedule resupply trips. Maintenance calls are taken care of via whichever means you prefer: email, chat, or a phone call. To learn more about how simple it is to get a vending machine in your office, connect with Take 5 Vending today.

 

Vending Machine in Warehouse

Subsidized Vending Can Be A Great Cost-Effective Solution For Offices

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An Intro to Subsidized Vending

At Take 5 Vending, we provide healthy snack and beverage delivery to Boston-area companies. But while some of our clients are willing to foot the entire bill for the healthy products their employees consume, others are looking for a more cost-effective solution. And we have one: subsidized vending.

How Does Subsidized Vending Work?

Here’s how it works: we install a vending machine at your company (which can vend both snacks and drinks) and you decide how much of the product cost your company would like to pay. Maybe it’s 30% or 50% or $1.00 off everything in the machine.

Whatever you decide, employees will still be getting access to healthy, delicious products and they’ll be happy to be getting items at a discount.

At the end of each month, we send you an itemized bill with what employees consumed. We do find it’s better to start with a smaller subsidy and increase it later once you see what employee demand is like. That way, you’re not in the position of taking something away from your colleagues that they’ve gotten used to.

Want to Learn More About Vending in the Boston Area?

If you’d like to learn more about our subsidized vending program or about our healthy snack and beverage delivery to offices in the Greater Boston area, please contact us. Wondering why you should care about having vending in the workplace? Checkout this article on the top benefits of having vending machines at the workplace.

 

3 SUMMER BEVERAGE TRENDS TO TRY ON YOUR BOSTON COFFEE BREAK

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Employees love new summer beverage trends. It lets them embrace summer with every sip and discover new flavors. Plus, trendy drinks promote hydration. This helps your team feel their best and beat the heat. Here are three trendy drinks to offer in your Boston break room this summer.

1. ICED COFFEE AS GOOD AS DUNKIN

Hot days are no reason to kick your coffee habit. Iced coffee will keep you cool. It’s also delicious and energizing. Plus, there are tons of summer trends to try. For instance, add some lemon juice to your cold brew. You’ll love the sharp morning burst!

Iced coffee options are available with single-cup office coffee service. But you can also make your own! Simply brew strong coffee or espresso over ice. Then, add creamer, syrup, or sugar. You’re in for a real treat.

2. ICED TEA: A POPULAR SUMMER BEVERAGE

Iced tea and summertime go hand-in-hand. Enjoy this classic drink in the break room. Our Boston office coffee service makes this easy. Brew an iced tea coffee pod in your single-cup brewer over ice. Voila! You can now enjoy a fresh and delicious drink.

Iced tea can also be super healthy. For instance, it has antioxidants. These support brain health. Antioxidants also help your body fight diseases. Additionally, iced tea is good for your heart. It also prevents tooth loss. Just skip the sugar! Instead, try lemon crystals or honey. These make your drink extra special. Yum!

Want more healthy drink options? Call Take 5 Vending today. We have tons of better-for-you options. For example, we carry vitamin water and energy drinks that pack a nutritious punch. We’ll help you find the best products for your needs.

3. SMART SPARKLING WATER

Personalized water is extremely popular. As part of our Boston water filtration services, we offer smart water dispensers. These let you customize your drink. For instance, add a fruity flavor to your water, like blueberry or coconut. It’s perfect for summer! Or try enhancements, like vitamins to help you stay healthy. Don’t forget carbonation. Fizz is always fun!

Smart water supports workplace wellness. Employees will stay hydrated and have more energy. Drinking water also improves your mood and sleep quality. Therefore, employees will stay sharp. This can boost productivity.

CELEBRATE THE SEASON WITH SUMMER BEVERAGE TRENDS

Transform your Boston break room into a beach! Your team will love these summer beverages. Iced coffee keeps ‘em energized. Personalized water is a real treat!

Take 5 Vending carries these trendy drinks and more. We also have seasonal creamers and syrups. We’ll help you find the perfect products for your office. Call us today at 508.697.0800 to learn more. Keep your team cool all summer long!

How to Get Vending Machines in the Office

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Thinking About Getting Vending Machines in Your Office?

Are you considering getting a vending machine in your workplace, but don’t know where to start? Luckily, you’re not alone. Until you are at work, thinking about where to get that next snack or beverage, many people do not have vending machines at the top of their mind. You might have questions like: How much does it cost? Do I have to buy a vending machine? Can I pay for my workers snacks? Do I have to pay for my workers snacks?

We’re going to lay out the answers to all these questions below! And as always, we are more than happy to chat via phone (508-697-0800) or email about any other questions you might have.

How much does a vending machine cost?

Lucky for you, nothing! We supply all of our vending machines to businesses for free. You will never pay a “rental fee”, “setup fee or service fee when you choose to make your breakroom snacking space with Take 5 Vending.

Do I have to buy a vending machine?

Unless you want to start your own vending business, the answer is no! We provide all equipment, whether a coffee setup or vending machine, to businesses free of charge. Our business model works because you provide the space to place the machines in, while we make profit solely on what is sold through those machines.

Can I pay for my workers snacks?

Certainly! While a lot of businesses simply bring in vending machines or micro-markets for workers to purchase product themselves, some business owners want to reward their employees through providing free snacks and beverages. This can be done through a few avenues. You could opt for a pantry service where desired snacks are brought to your place of work and placed in “the pantry” of your office, then you are billed for the cost of the snacks/drinks. Another option that larger businesses opt for is the setup of a micro-market. This basically means we create a “mini store” in an area of your business where employees have access to fresh food, cold drinks, and snacks. The micro-market uses a self-checkout system, where each employee can have a preloaded “spending allowance” provided by the business to use on snacks, drinks, and other items in the market.  The last option would be to bring in a vending machine that doesn’t require payment on the front end to your breakroom, then we would retroactively bill you for the items bought from that machine.

picture of a micro-market
Picture of a Micro-Market

Do I have to pay for my workers snacks?

No, absolutely not! Businesses are doing employees a service through providing a breakroom they can obtain snacks from without having to leave the office. Many businesses opt to bring in vending machines or micro-markets and have employees pay for their own snacks as wanted.

How do I get started?!

Please feel free to visit our website at take5vend.com, visit us on Facebook, email us at tfivevending@gmail.com, or give us a call at 508-697-08000 – whichever works best for you! We are family owned and operated and have been since 1980. We are THE ONLY small vending business left in the Bridgewater/Rhode Island/ South Shore area, and truly appreciate your business.

Coffee Vending Machines in the Breakroom

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Are you a Massachusetts or Rhode Island Based Business That Wants Coffee Vending in the Office?

7 out of every 10 Americans drink coffee. Most of those coffee drinkers are consuming 2+ cups of coffee a day. And 62% of coffee drinkers buy a to-go coffee at least 1x per week. Without a coffee supply in your workspace, this leaves workers no option but to leave the area to get their coffee, whether it be before or during work hours. By providing coffee vending options like traditional pot brewers, Keurig machines, or coffee vending machines, you’re not only making your workers live easier, but you’re also saving your business money by cutting costs of working time!

Coffee Service Options for Your Office

No matter what size your breakroom space is, there is a coffee vending service that is right for your business. At Take 5 Vending, we offer coffee pot service, full sized coffee vending machines, thermal pot service, BRIO machines, bean to cup units, Keurig machines, and more! While some of these solutions allow individual cups to be purchased, others permit the business owner to provide coffee to their workers free of charge. Unless you’re already familiar with coffee vending solutions, some of these terms might sound foreign to you. Contact us so we can lay out the options in more details and work together to find a solution that is right for your business’s needs.

Lavazza Brand Coffee Vending Machine

Worried About Crappy Coffee?

Don’t be! At Take 5 Vending we offer some of America’s most loved coffee brands including (but not limited to) Lavazza, Baronet, New England Coffee, Dunkin Donuts, and Starbucks! If you are a big fan of a certain type of coffee, we will do our absolute best to work with you to ensure your coffee service is as enjoyable as possible.

Want Coffee Service ASAP?

Contact us! Whether you want to call us by phone at 508-697-0800, email us at tfivevending@gmail.com , message us on Facebook, or contact us through our website we will get back to you as soon as possible! Unlike other companies in the area, we are family owned and operated, and are proud of the services we provide and hope you will be too!

 

Benefits of a Micro-Market in Plymouth

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Do you wish you could offer your employees something bigger than vending machines in the break room? A micro-market is the perfect solution. It offers a wider range of snacks, beverages, and fresh food in open-front coolers and on free-standing racks. Your break room will become a welcoming space for everyone.

Here are three reasons why you should upgrade your break room with one of our micro-markets.

Flexible Plan of Attack

Each company’s break room needs are different from the time of day employees visit the break room to the room’s layout and physical location. To help meet your needs, we will customize a solution that fits your company.

For example, a neighboring business might be open during regular business hours. But your business might have a second or third shift. It doesn’t matter which shift your Plymouth employees work. A micro-market is open 24/7. It’s accessible to all employees, even those who work the second or third shifts.

Do you have a large break room that serves hundreds of employees? Maybe your company is smaller with limited space, or perhaps it’s somewhere in between. We can customize a plan that works for you. For instance, the layout of your open-concept market will be designed based on your physical space and number of employees. Is your company growing? No problem, your micro-market can grow with you.

Micro-Market Technology

In today’s changing work environment, technology must adapt to meet new demands. Likewise, technology in the break room must also adapt. Our micro-markets include state-of-the-art tools designed to create a seamless experience for your employees.

An important piece of technology is the self-checkout kiosk. Unlike a store, a micro-market doesn’t need a cashier. The kiosk also offers other features such as a touchless checkout process using mobile payment options. It can also share promotional and rewards programs with users.

Carefully placed security cameras help deter theft and keep an eye on the space. In addition, wireless technology helps us track inventory and equipment status. We use the real-time data to keep everyone’s favorite products in stock. The data also helps us figure out when it’s time to introduce new products.

Snacks and Drinks

The main purpose of a micro-market is to offer great-tasting snacks, beverages, and pre-packaged fresh food. Access to delicious on-site choices means your employees don’t have to go off-site for their lunch or coffee breaks. And, as a result, staying on-site creates many benefits, from unplanned team work to increased output.

Part of our job is to make sure your employees have the options they crave, whether it’s the latest energy drinks or specialty waters, the latest snack trends, or delicious fresh food. But don’t forget the coffee service. With most Plymouth adults drinking coffee every day, access to freshly brewed and flavorful coffee or tea is a benefit your employees will love.

For more information about our micro-markets, coffee service, and vending options, please contact Take 5 Vending at 508-697-0800 . We look forward to hearing from you.

Rhode Island Business Looking for Vending?

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Rhode Island Vending

Whether you’re a factory warehouse, sales office, or manufacturing business, your employees have to eat.

Wondering what your options are as far as bringing in food for the office goes? Ordering pizza for the crew might be a tasty treat, but it’s not a practical option for everyday lunch. Going out to pick up take out is nice sometimes, but it certainly can take up more time than that 30-minute lunch break allows. Bringing in vending machines for your Rhode Island business is a great way to ensure workers can eat what they want, when they want to, in a doable amount of time during their working day.

Vending Machines Filled with Food YOU Want

We are a small, family-owned business with a passion for customer service, and we have been since 1980. This means that unlike our big competitors, we are able to communicate with you directly to ensure your needs are met. Whether that means filling an extra 2 rows with Diet Coke for the soda lover in the office, providing more healthy options for your student-facing vending machines, or servicing the business at a certain time – we want to provide you with the best experience possible.

Vending Options that Work for YOUR Rhode Island Business

Are you worried that your office is too small to fit a vending machine? Or that a drink and snack machine might take up too much space? We want to work with you to find a breakroom snacking solution that works for your business and your employees. We have plenty of options, ranging from combo machines to micro markets that can be installed in a variety of spaces.

Worried About Payment Options for Vending?

Let us start off by saying we do not charge to install vending machines. We do not charge to maintain or repair vending machines.

Worried about employees having to carry cash to use vending machines? Don’t be. Our machines are all equipped with digital payment processors accepting debit cards, credit cards, Apple Pay, and more!

Want to provide your employees with free snacks and meals? We can work out options that will allow your business to cover all costs associated with your vending machines or micro market so employees can snack freely and be thankful to their employer for letting them do so!

Give us a call today at 508-558-5033 or send us a message on our website to get started on a breakroom snacking solution for your Rhode Island based office, warehouse, or factory!