[vendtalk] New to list and possibly to the vending program

[Charlie Richardson]

Hi Cheryl,

Just so everyone knows, I'm the chairman of our committee of blind vendors 
in New York and I have talked to you briefly about BEP.

Being a past foodservice manager I can tell you my description wouldn't be 
that it is very hard, but a different animal.  You should love foodservice 
if you're going to be in it otherwise you'll hate it.  Also in running 
newsstands there is a wide variety of types and difficulties.  Some of our 
newsstands are simple.  A manager just retired from a facility that sold no 
beverages and collects $1000 per month from the vending machine contractor, 
lottery tickets from a vending machine only and the over the counter sales 
were about 60000 per year.  All total his net profit which is like gross 
pay, was around 40000 per year.  The new person going in could easily make 
more with minimal effort.

I run the store in the Capitol Building with storage rooms in the 
legislative Office Building which is easily a quarter mile trip, but when I 
get there I probably have more storage space than store space.  I have 8 
vending machines that we service near the storage area and 11 other machines 
in 6 locations around the Capitol Building.  I sell beverages in the store 
and just put away a 75 case order of Pepsi products today, which is the 
beverage company I do the most business with.

We sell between 400,000 and 450,000 dollars worth of lottery tickets per 
year and keep about 40 different instant tickets for sale in the store.  But 
the most difficult thing about my store is servicing over 100 newspaper 
accounts.  I just took on 28 new accounts so I don't know exact numbers, but 
about 700 newspapers go out on account per day, which I am paying for every 
week and billing them later.  I charge fees for the service according to how 
many papers they get, but it's a cash hog over time and lots of weight 
lifting every morning with putting them on a cart, bring them in the 
building and off the cart to be X-rayed through security, then off the X-ray 
machine and back on the cart and then off the cart and in the store to be 
opened and separated for delivery to the offices.  Overall this service nets 
me about $30,000 per year, so I see it having value.

Anyway, there's a lot of types between the two descriptions.  We have also 
introduced legislation to expand our priority, so with the help of the New 
York Affiliate of the NFB we see new opportunities coming over the horizon. 
But with the changes in the state legislature we'll be taking at least a 
different approach with a senate sponsor.

Enough rambling from me, hopefully others will give their opinions on 
foodservice and other types of facilities.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cheryl echevarria" <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com>
To: <vendtalk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 1:09 PM
Subject: [vendtalk] New to list and possibly to the vending program


> good morning all:
>
> I am from NY, and I have a few questions, especially to the ones in the 
> food services.  I have decided to look into the vending program here, out 
> by me in Suffolk County the person in charge told me that she only has a 
> couple of food service areas.  My question is and I have heard these 
> places are very hard to run.
>
> What is your thoughts on this, and do you like these sites.
>
> Cheryl Echevarria
> Treasurer
> National Federation of the Blind
> Greater Long Island Chapter
>
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