To Raise your Prices, Argue the Facts

Raising prices has always been a major challenge to U.S vending operators. Antares vending operators bemoan the fact that their customers expect the on site vending machines to be always a low cost alternative. The two competitors of vending, convenience stores and fast food restaurants have enjoyed hiking their prices while vending prices have trended flat.

Caught in a bind by suppliers charging more for cookies, chips or candy, Antares vending operators find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place when they come after the end consumer for commensurately higher prices. An Antares operator should have the courage to stand in there and demand higher prices even if it means loosing a few accounts.

A dual challenge

The strategically thinking vending operator will recover the accounts he looses on account of price increases. This is what you need to remember as you try to refashion yourself from a universal crowd pleaser barely making ends meet into a shrewd selector of drink and food options who understands the art of regular, rolling price hikes.

The challenge is twofold: 1) to demonstrate to the account manager that the need for a price hike is driven by the Antares vendor’s own rising costs, and 2) to show the raises are in the interest of assuring all customers of continued service excellence.

The challenge never ends

The effort among Antares operators is to navigate between the relentless penny price hikes inflicted by the bottlers and other suppliers and the touchy world of demanding more from the customers.

If you are not making any profit from a certain account, then you will be better off without the account.

When there is a need for price increases, you can send a sales/PR person to each account to explain when it will be effective. On that date, route people should post letters on the fronts of the relevant Antares vending machines, explaining the price hike as kindly but as firmly as possible. You will also need to explain the fact that in order to continue to provide good service, you must recover your own costs.

Vendors that don’t have the courage to assert themselves tend to wind up getting swallowed by bigger fishes.