Friday, May 22, 2009

Healthy Vending Programs Offers By Planet Antares

Looking at the way Americans eat today is not really health-oriented. However, recent studies and published surveys have made the common public more conscious about their diet and eating habits. This trend towards healthier eating habits has brought down the popularity of traditional snack food and drinks from vending machines. This is mostly common in schools and employee break rooms where soft drinks, candy and fried snacks are being replaced by bottled water, juices and low fat snacks.

If you are running a Planet Antares vending business, you can provide a healthy vending program to customers along with the regular items in your menu. This will give them greater variety to choose from. The demand for healthy snacks is rising at a fast pace. Almost everyone is health conscious and wants to eat nutritious food. Americans are facing obesity as a big issue and with the high number of obese people in the country; this problem is not going away soon.

Healthier versions of traditional snacks are also being introduced in the market by many manufacturers, such as crème filled sandwich cookies and fried cheese snacks. As the demand for healthy products increases, companies are manufacturing more and healthier food items. Several locations demand only healthy foods in their vending machines. Planet Antares vending machines can easily cater to the needs of such locations.

In spite of the growing interest in healthy vending options, the availability and cost of healthy food items can be quite difficult. Usually, organic and low fat items cost twice as much as the conventional products. This is a major deterrent for most vending operators who avoid keeping healthy food items in their vending machines. They feel that they will lose business by offering healthy products alone. As a Planet Antares vending operator, you must offer healthy items to cater to their growing demand.

A healthy program can be successful in your Planet Antares vending business if the vending operators and packages goods supplier work in cooperation. Start off by placing a few of the products in your vending machines, just to see how they sell. Make sure that there is a lot of demand for such items in the chosen locations. By placing healthy products in your vending machines, you will recognize a change in the desires of people and hence, gain their loyalty towards your products.

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Management Software For Planet Antares Vending

At different stages, the vending operations can differ in various aspects. It may be at the beginning, growing, stagnant or declining stage. Vending management software offers an effective tool for improvement for all these stages.

For many years, industry specific software systems have been available and keep offering more benefits with technological advancements. For Planet Antares vending operators who want to grow, management software is a tool that will keep the company organized and allow it to operate efficiently.

However, most vending operators are facing the challenge of making time to learn the functions of the software systems. Most of them do not have the resources to allocate an employee for studying and implementing software.

Like any management tool, software requires a significant investment. This forces many vending operators to delay the implementation of this tool. In time, all sensible and forward looking operators will realize that they stand to lose by doing so.

A review of the major software packages revealed that many of these packages have immense benefits that will not turn obsolete. Upgrades will be possible in very little time and most of the work will be handled by the software provider.

The development and establishment of the DEX protocol has been a great development in recent years. It is the electronic data standard that will enable Planet Antares vending machines to report to management software. Most of the vending specific software systems will allow operators to use DEX.

Category management is a system that has many benefits including simplification of product selection at the route and warehouse levels, which will give management more control over individual machine menu. It may not be easy to predict future trends but a software system that offers comprehensive package of management tools will definitely be a worthwhile investment for your Planet Antares vending business.

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Expansion Strategies Of Planet Antares Business

While starting a vending business as a full time venture, you would want it to expand as soon as you are financially capable of doing so. Expanding a Planet Antares vending business would be easier by a Planet Antares vending program.

Usually, a vending business is started as a home based business, because people mostly start with a few vending machines. A vending business requires low investment at the beginning as you will not be required to have an office or a warehouse to run your vending business. This makes it a great business opportunity for everyone.

To expand your vending business means moving it out of your home or simply acquiring more vending machines and locations. A vending business has to be financially stable for you to expand the business, because expansion will mean investing more money in your vending business.

The first thing to be done will be to buy more vending machines. As you buy the vending machines, the locations that you have may not be enough to cater to your vending machines, which would mean that you will have to acquire more locations. Since you have already become familiar with the running of a vending business, acquiring more locations is not such a difficult task for you. Just ensure that you understand customer needs in the new locations.

People who are retiring or getting out of the business generally sell their vending business as established vending routes. If you are expanding your Planet Antares vending business, purchasing established routes will be a quick way f growing your business. This means that you won’t need to go out searching for a quick way to develop your business. In short, you will start where other vending operator left off and even provide a better vending service.

A Planet Antares vending business is a snack and beverage vending business. When you want to expand your vending business, try other vending business such as bulk vending and special products vending. Successful snack and beverage vending business is key for you to get ready for running other sorts of vending businesses.

The decision to expand your vending business should be made if you have enough capital to invest in expansion. Once you have expanded the business, you should only continue to make profits, not incur any losses.

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Friday, May 08, 2009

Raw Materials For Planet Antares Vending Machines

Four major raw materials are used for building vending machines such as those offered by Planet Antares Inc:

• Galvanized steel
• Lexan or other plastic
• Acrylic powder coating
• Polyurethane insulation

The larger part of the vending machine is created from galvanized steel ranging from 10 gauges to 22 gauges in thickness. For the outside cabinets, external doors and internal tank, the thicker gauges are used. These areas require gauges with such thickness. The inner gauges are used for internal doors and plates, can stacks and mechanisms such as bill validators and product trays.

The front panels of Planet Antares vending machines utilize Lexan, a tough polycarbonate plastic. When it comes to thickness, sheets of Lexan in the vending machine can range from 0.13 in (3.18mm) to 0.25 in (6.35mm). When performance counts, you can trust lexan sheets for durability. It is very tough to break, flame retardant, relatively easy to shape and can be treated to restrict UV rays, light and heat transmission.

Product logos, names and illustrations are silk screened on lexan sheets that are installed in channels on the doors of the Planet Antares vending machine. Lexan sheets products save money by lowering energy and replacement costs every year. This implies a longer life span for your vending machines.

Acrylic powder coatings are colored powders that are used to paint the surfaces of vending machines. This offers the best overall exterior durability and can be formulated into products with excellent chemical, corrosion, detergent and stain resistance. Good hardness and scratch resistance is offered by acrylic powder coatings for your Planet Antares vending machines. Also, a smooth and high gloss finish is provided for your vending machine. Acrylic powders also meet governmental environmental standards.

The inside of the Planet Antares vending machines is insulated through polyurethane foam. A seamless, water proof, durable building envelope is created with its application process. Moreover, it eliminates drafts in your Planet Antares vending machine by completely filling seams, cracks and crevices. The foam is blown between the outer cabinet and internal tank of the machine.

Apart from thermal insulation, the foam adds structural stability to both the cabinet and the tank of the machine. On the whole, it will add to the structural strength of your Planet Antares vending machine.

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Tips For Expanding Planet Antares Vending Business

Different vending business owners have different goals. While some of them look at vending as a part-time, parallel income opportunity, others start a vending business on a full fledged level. The common factor is that vending of any kind involves hard work and professional treatment.

As in any other business, Planet Antares vending needs to be setup in a proper, step by step manner. It is not a ‘get rich’ scheme which will provide extraordinary rewards as soon as your vending machines start operating. You must be careful about the selection of vending machines, products, location and maintenance to get the best results.

Starters must focus on the location of their vending machines in effective places. Every place cannot generate the same level of income but a few may provide huge income potential. In reality, it is a matter of your creativity and strategic ability. You should be able to convince business owners of existing locations to try your vending machines and explore new places as well.

Quality machines such as Planet Antares vending machines will start making money within the first year of investment. Once they start making money, you should think of expanding your business operations by looking for new locations for new equipment. You may even have to replace the machines that are not performing well. Gradually, you can move to locations with greater potential.

Another factor that has an impact on vending locations is the seasons and holidays. Customer traffic will vary according to different times due to these factors. Relocation may even result in lower sales than the previous place. Critical factors may have been ignored, new personnel may be inefficient or there may be lesser customer demand for selected products.

You cannot make accurate predictions about the success of any particular location. It depends on the efforts of the vending operator and effective matching of the machine, customer preferences and products. Commission is another issue to be paid attention. Negotiate and team up with a charity to minimize such issues.

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