Vending Services Supplier

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

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.

 

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.

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.

Healthy Snacks that Sell in Boston and Providence Schools and Colleges

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Healthy Snacks that Sell in Boston and Providence Schools and Colleges

Wondering what healthy snacks appeal to students? With today’s snack regulations, deciding which healthy snacks to stock your schools with is no easy feat. Despite these new regulations, students have shown they will in fact purchase healthy snacks in school. According to a study done by Y-Pulse that surveyed 1,314 consumers, including 177 full-time college students, college students snack more than all other demographics and are snacking at all times of the day. Whether after a long day of learning, before their after-school activities, or during a finals study break, healthy snacks are an important component to student’s everyday lives. 

College Student Snacking

Our goal at Take Five Vending is to ensure students have good quality, healthy snack options that they look forward to eating. Let’s take a look into what healthy snacks are being sold in Boston and Providence colleges and schools. 

Baked Chips – A Great Snack for Schools

Baked chips are a healthy alternative snack to the classic potato chip. Not only are they significantly lower in caloric value and fat content, but their taste doesn’t stray far from the original flavorful bite you’re expecting. Consuming baked chips as an alternative has the ability to leave students feeling less groggy in the classroom, allowing them to focus more on learning. Consider keeping a wide selection of baked snack options in your vending machines, because offering a variety of flavors like Baked Lays BBQ, Sour Cream, Original, and Onion encourages healthier snack consumption among students in schools and colleges. 

Granola & Protein Bars – To Keep the Students Going

One of the more obvious healthy snacks being sold in Boston and Providence schools and colleges are granola bars and protein bars. These healthy snacks are full of vitamins and fulfill student’s hunger with ingredients designed to keep them going throughout their day. There’s a type of snack bar for every different type of student. RX Bars are high in protein but made with as few ingredients as possible. Whereas Kind Bars make a wide selection of whole grain, whole nut, products with varying fruits. All of which are healthy snack options for students. 

RX Bars that are great for students

Beef Jerky – A Portable Treat for Students in College and High School

This simple snack has origins that date back to 1550, yet it remains popular today. Though there isn’t much to it, beef jerky is a healthy snack option that’s low in calories, high in protein, and a great source of vitamins and minerals. Jerky’s portable nature makes it accessible in almost every situation, perfect for a student on-the-go taking snacks with them to class. Most importantly, it’s a healthy option that leaves them feeling nourished and ready to be active.

Dehydrated Fruit Chips – A Healthy Option for Boston and Providence Schools

Getting students to eat fruit has never been easier with dehydrated fruit chips. What’s better than a refreshing piece of fruit? A fun way to eat it! Fruit chips allow students to indulge in the fun chip crunch while actually eating a healthy snack. Students might lean away from eating traditional fruit in school due to the messy nature of it. By supplying them with dehydrated fruit chips in the vending machines instead they have the option to make the healthy choice with no messy inconvenience. Offering items like plantain chips exposes students not only to healthy snacks, but to snacks they might not have been exposed to yet. 

Plantain Chips for Schools

Thinking about stocking your vending machines with healthier snacks? We’d be happy to go over options that work best for your school system whether it be a public school or private college. Contact us at (508) 697-0800 anytime 7am-3pm, Monday-Friday OR shoot us a message on our Facebook page Take Five Vending.

 

    

 

4 Healthy Beverages for Schools in Boston and Providence

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It’s the time of year that kids are returning to school. Some are heading off to college in the Boston area and while others are starting their first day of elementary school in Pawtucket. No matter what the age, set students up for success with healthy eating habits. This includes what they eat AND what they drink. Students who are properly hydrated feel and perform better at all levels.

Want to promote wellness in the classroom? Here are four healthy beverages for Boston, Providence and Brockton schools.

1. Water

Providing access to drinking water gives students a healthy alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages. It helps to increase students’ overall water consumption, maintain hydration, and reduce energy intake if substituted for sugar-sweetened beverages.

There’s no such thing as drinking too much water. There’s also no such thing as offering water in too many ways. Consider keeping water in vending machines along with installing a water filtration service to allow students to access water in more ways than one.

2. Milk

Milk has 9 essential nutrients, including protein that kids need. It contains calcium and phosphorus, which are both important in building strong bones. If students aren’t a fan of white milk, flavored milk such as strawberry, chocolate, or Rhode Island’s classic coffee milk are all great alternative options. Don’t worry about getting a warm milk from a vending machine- all of our machines are climate controlled, so drinks are served at the temperature they’re meant to be enjoyed at.

Most importantly, milk is a tasty lunchtime drink that goes great with cookies!

3. Tea

Years ago, you might not try to pitch tea to a group of 5th graders. With the advent of healthy iced tea options reaching the market, the taste of tea has totally transformed and with it the demographic of its drinkers. Offering tea from brands like Lipton and Pure Leaf in vending machines to students is a great way to encourage healthy beverage consumption. Numerous studies have shown that a variety of teas may boost your immune system, fight off inflammation, and even ward off cancer and heart disease.

Wondering if hot tea is an option for the teacher’s room? Absolutely! We set up tea and coffee stations in many schools’ breakrooms to create a space that helps teachers and staff relax.

4. Juice

Last on our list is juice. This cold beverage is perfect for any cafeteria. Keep juices in your Boston, Providence, or Brockton vending machines. Whether you enjoy orange, apple, or tomato you’re sure to gain the health benefits. Juice can help your immune system and give you certain vitamins and minerals for a healthy body. It can also lower certain cancer risks.

Healthy Beverages for Your School

Want to hydrate students and teachers? Make healthier choices by offering these beverages in your Providence, Boston, and Brockton schools!

Contact Take 5 Vending at (508) 697-080 or tfivevending@gmail.com for information about our office coffee, vending, micro-market, or office pantry.