Live Bait Vending Machines

Live Bait Vending Machines MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 32-1-6 Selling live bait 24 hours a day through vending machines has the potential to bring in good income, but it also takes work, persistence and prime locations. Eight years ago, Joe Hokel of Athol, Idaho, purchased six live bait vending machines after learning about them on a visit to his home state of Iowa, where the machines are made. Within a few months he bought six more. Weekly, from spring through fall, he fills the machines and also delivers bait to businesses along a 150-mile route. "I sell 120,000 to 130,000 nightcrawlers a year," Hokel says. He also sells smaller worms, maggots, and glowworms, which are nightcrawlers that turn fluorescent green from eating a powder that Hokel adds to their bedding. Worms survive up to six weeks in peat moss bedding, while maggots last two weeks in sawdust. Bait is packaged in Styrofoam containers required for the refrigerated vending machines. Hokel buys bait and packing material from wholesalers, and can pack 75 to 100 containers an hour with a dozen nightcrawlers each. He takes 200 to 800 containers on his weekly route to fill his 12 machines that hold 170 containers each. Location is key. At first, Hokel placed three machines near an exclusive lakeshore, but sales were slow. He found out people buy their bait and other supplies before they get to the lake, so he pays $15/month rent (plus a percentage of sales) to convenience stores and bait shops to place his machines outside their businesses. "When things are working right, you're making money 24 hours a day," Hokel says. He makes more profit on his $2.50/dozen vending machine nightcrawlers, than the bait he sells to businesses to resell in their stores. Hokel notes that minnows also can be sold in the vending machines, but they can't be sold for fishing in Idaho or Washington, where he has his machines. Hokel says the machines are basically maintenance-free - and tough. A car ran into one of his 765-lb. machines, and it still works. Vandals broke the door on another machine, but didn't get past the second door to get money or the bait. But things can go wrong that require extra servicing trips: someone unplugs the cord, Canadian coins get stuck, the coin mechanism breaks, vandalism, etc. Also, the containers required for the machines are more expensive (42 cents/apiece) than the containers for bait sold directly to businesses. Hokel combines vending machine and direct sales to make his sideline business work. He is also a distributor for VCI Vending and can help interested entrepreneurs buy the $4,300 machines to start their own route. The company offers payment plans that don't require winter payments, when the vending machines aren't being used. "I would recommend people start off slow with one or two machines," Hokel says. He adds that live bait vending has potential for more profit in states that allow selling minnows. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Joe Hokel, 220 Akin Back Ranch Rd., Athol, Idaho 83801 (ph 208 683-3242).

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