There are many different types of vending available in the market today.
Most of these vending ventures include large to mid-range investments in equipment, products, and marketing.
However, if your looking for a vending system that offers little startup costs, honor box vending might be for you.
What is Honor Box Vending?
Honor box vending is the practice of using a cardboard or plastic container to hold snacks/candy in exchange for the buyer to pay on an “honor system.”
Typical honor boxes will be cardboard or plastic with an attached coin/or cash box.
Anyone who wishes to purchase the product in the honor box is expected to follow the instructions set forth on the box.
For example, you may stickers on a box that say “3 For $1” or “50 cents Each.”
The buyer can freely take the candy or snacks from the container, but is expected to pay on the honor system at the requested price.
Because this type of vending is on the honor system, the patron can freely pay as little or as high as they would like.
The patron can also take as much or little product as the full amount of the product in honor boxes is usually freely accessible.
To encourage the patron to pay the requested sticker price, you will typically find charity stickers on these boxes as well.
This charity is something that the honor box owner has chosen to promote and donate a portion of all sales from the box.
Examples of these charities include the National Children’s Cancer Society Charity Vending Program.
What Are The Types Of Honor Box Vending?
The two primary forms of honor box vending are candy and snack box honor vending.
You will typically find candy honor boxes on restaurant counters or anywhere that provides a public service.
For honor snack boxes, you will typically find these in these same type of places, but in a location to serve it’s employees.
Example locations of these include breakrooms, cafeterias, or any location where employees spend their breaks.
How Do Honor Boxes Make Money?
You may be wondering how a system that is built on the patron’s honor can possibly make any money?
It’s actually a pretty simple process.
We mentioned earlier for a candy honor box, that you will typically see stickers on a box that say “3 For $1” or “50 cents Each.”
Honor Box owners will typically purchase candy pieces for under ten cents per piece and fill up the container.
We will use a ten-cent candy cost for this example (even though this is usually high)
If a patron takes 3 pieces and pays the full $1 for 3 pieces, the honor box owner made a .70 cent profit.
How?
The cost of the 3 pieces of candy sold was .30 cents.
The patron paid $1 for the 3 pieces, which resulted in a .70 cent profit.
What if the patron took 1 and paid 50 cents?
Then the profit per piece increases as the profit for one piece would be .40 cents.
With such high-profit margins, it leaves the honor box owner plenty of room for what is called “shrinkage.”
What is “Shrinkage?”
It is basically a term that describes when there is less profit versus the number of products in the honor box.
So, let’s say you had 100 pieces of candy in the honor box.
We are going to assume that we sold all the candy at $3 for $1 using the lowest price per piece at .33 per piece.
You should end up with roughly around $34 when you collected the box.
Anything less than that would be considered shrinkage and cutting into your profit margins.
It will be up to the owner to decide the percentage of shrinkage that is acceptable at various locations.
Where Can You Put Honor Boxes?
Here is an example to place honor boxes:
Amusement Park
Apartment Building
Assisted Living Center
Auto Brake Shop
Auto Dealership
Bank
Bingo Hall
Bookstore
Bowling Alley
Bus Station
Business Office Building
Car Wash
College/ University
Community Center
Community Swimming Pool
Computer Store
Dental Office
Department Store
Doctor’s Office
Dormitory
Driver’s License Division
Dry Cleaner
Fire Station
Fraternity/ Sorority
Furniture Store
Gift Shop
Golf Course Lounge
Government Office
Gym
Health Club
Hospital
Hotel
Humane Society
Ice Skating Rink
Industrial Park
Laundromat
Library
Mall
Manufacturing Plant
Medical Building
Meeting Hall
Military Reserve/ Guard Center
Military Enlistment Office
Military Treatment Facility
Miniature Golf
Motel
Motor Vehicle Division
Motorcycle Shop
Muffler Shop
Night Club
Nursing Home/ Retirement Home
Oil & Lube Center
Police Station
Private School
Public Utility Office
Railroad Station
Recreation Center
Rental Yard
Rest Stop Facility (off Highway)
Roller Skating Rink
School
Senior Center
Shopping Center
Ski Resort
Stock Brokerage
Telemarketing Office
Tire Store
Tourist Attraction
Truck Stop
Trucking Company
Veteran’s Affairs Facility
Veterinary Office
Waiting Room (any kind)
Warehouse
YMCA
Youth Center
Zoo