Last Monday was Labor Day, a day for the celebration of the hard-working citizen of the United States (the rest of the world celebrates it much earlier). What does that mean for vendors, though? Did vending take a day off on Monday?
No, it did not. Here in America, we believe that the harder one works, the more success one can get. With vending, working on the business is an all-day affair, not always ending at an even 5 or 6 o’clock at night, and in order to run it well, vendors and their employees have to work hard during those long hours in order to grow and reach their business potential. During my time with vending, I remember working 12-15 hour days just trying to get my route done and getting the truck ready for the next day’s route. Running a vending business is incredibly hard work, and I feel that it should be appreciated more for the convenience it offers us and the food options we get.
With the onset of newer technologies to make vending easier, consolidate routes, and optimize pretty much everything about the business, vending will be more much efficient overall. Therefore, as hard as vendors and their teams have worked on a daily basis, now they will be able to see greater returns on their efforts. Does this mean that vendors can finally take a holiday and not worry as much about their vending business?
A better question is if there was something you are passionate about, could you keep it off your mind. The same applies for vendors in the vending business. This is a business that is difficult to be successful without putting in all of one’s effort. As one vendor put it to me, “Vending is addictive. Once I see that money, I just cannot stop.”
Therefore, here is to the vendors out there who work hard, who toil every day in front of mounds of Mounds and other tasty snacks and oceans of beverages, and who pursue their passions fully and without remorse. Here is to the vending route drivers and the warehouse workers who organize and deliver food and bring back loads of bills and change, who fix the problems machines have along the way, and who move giant vending machines from one place to another. For all of those in the vending industry who understand that success does not come free and have made the sacrifice to find themselves looking over an empire of automatic merchandising machines, we salute you and are here to support you.
Have a great fall and winter season!
