# Pizza vending machines



## Earl (Apr 5, 2016)

I think this is gonna be the next big thing in canada. It's already popular in asia and europe and now some companies have popped up in canada, for example PizzaForno | Canada's 24/7 Automated Pizza Oven | Artisanal Pizza Made Fresh to Order in 3 Minutes. Does anybody know how much capital is required to get started, what kind of profits you can expect, and how much work is involved?


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

I make my own gourmet pizza as opposed to buying pizza from 7-11 and for that reason I'm out.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I think it would be a lot of work to clean the machine and replace the pizzas every day.

I am not sure you can beat the competitors prices either. Pizza is dirt cheap around here.

Video linked, but in the comments it says they are filled with frozen pizzas and then heated, so basically it is just storage and an oven.

I read the machine cost $55,000 and if you sell 40 pizzas a day you can make $90,000 a year. What do you do with unsold pizzas ?


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## Earl (Apr 5, 2016)

I was under the impression these machines actually built the pizzas, and the owner simply had to fill it with the raw ingredients from time to time. If it's just a large fridge that heats up a premade frozen pizza then that is a lot less impressive.

Nevertheless, there are machines that make the whole pizza, see here: Pizza Vending Machine GIF | Gfycat

In any case I think vending machines that serve pizza and other types of hot food are gonna be big. They have already been popular in places like japan and singapore for a while so why not here? They have many advantages over owning a restaurant, you don't have to hire people, you don't have to rent a building (just a place to put the machine), they work 24/7, and they can continue to operate during covid. Imagine how much money you could make by putting one of these on a college campus.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

In the regular vending machine business (pop, chips, candy, gum, jelly beans, etc.) the money is in convincing people that there is money in machine vending. Kind of like multi-level marketing. They market the machines to unknowledgable people hoping to find an easy, hands off, money making business. The only one who ever makes any real money in vending machines are the people selling the vending machines. Luckily for them there are many people hoping for this easy lifestyle (just like the "earn $5,000 per month working online from home" group) to keep the money rolling.

In vending machine business it is recommended that you buy from those people who have finally figured out the low revenues this business usually offers and is willing to sell their machines at a big loss, just to get out. Much cheaper entry point if you go that route. Perhaps pizza vending has some of those people. Might be too new. Can't say.

Anyway, I would avoid it like the plague.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

Earl said:


> I was under the impression these machines actually built the pizzas, and the owner simply had to fill it with the raw ingredients from time to time. If it's just a large fridge that heats up a premade frozen pizza then that is a lot less impressive.
> 
> Nevertheless, there are machines that make the whole pizza, see here: Pizza Vending Machine GIF | Gfycat
> 
> In any case I think vending machines that serve pizza and other types of hot food are gonna be big. They have already been popular in places like japan and singapore for a while so why not here? They have many advantages over owning a restaurant, you don't have to hire people, you don't have to rent a building (just a place to put the machine), they work 24/7, and they can continue to operate during covid. Imagine how much money you could make by putting one of these on a college campus.


Why would the college let you put in a vending machine for free?

Look. You are going to have your basic food costs. You are almost certainly going to be ponying up a serious percentage of revenues to the college or almost anywhere else you put it, where you don't own the facility. Do you know how to repair a vending machine? No. So add a very expensive maintenance contract to the expense side of the ledger. Might want some liability insurance. Assuming you are going to service the machines we can remove other labour, but you will still need a vehicle and gas, etc. When all that is done, your price point for each sale will have to compete with everything else this student can buy. 

It's not a slam dunk business, by any means.


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## Earl (Apr 5, 2016)

sags said:


> I am not sure you can beat the competitors prices either. Pizza is dirt cheap around here.


Now that you mention it I don't think the cost of pizza has changed in the last 30 years. I remember when I was a kid in the 90s it cost $9 for a large pepperoni pizza, or slightly more if you wanted more toppings. That is still the cost of pizzas at many pizza joints, Unlike Big Macs and Whoppers, both of which cost three times what I remember them costing in the 90s. Not sure why pizza is immune to inflation. Yet it must still be profitable otherwise you wouldn't see so many pizza joints.


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## Earl (Apr 5, 2016)

Eder said:


> I make my own gourmet pizza as opposed to buying pizza from 7-11 and for that reason I'm out.


An actual pizza from scratch is beyond my skill but I make "pizza monkey bread". You take a package of pillsbury premade biscuits, cut each biscuit into quarters, add some melted butter, some chopped pepperoni, and some grated cheese, then mix it up and put it in a baking pan in the oven. Not very healthy but it's yummy and easy to make.


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## Earl (Apr 5, 2016)

OptsyEagle said:


> Why would the college let you put in a vending machine for free?
> 
> Look. You are going to have your basic food costs. You are almost certainly going to be ponying up a serious percentage of revenues to the college or almost anywhere else you put it, where you don't own the facility. Do you know how to repair a vending machine? No. So add a very expensive maintenance contract to the expense side of the ledger. Might want some liability insurance. Assuming you are going to service the machines we can remove other labour, but you will still need a vehicle and gas, etc. When all that is done, your price point for each sale will have to compete with everything else this student can buy.
> 
> It's not a slam dunk business, by any means.


You bring up excellent points and perhaps the smart way to invest in this would be to buy the stocks of the companies that build and market these vending machines rather than by buying and operating the machines themselves. That is assuming you believe hot food vending machines are going to be big in the future. We already see automated kiosks at MacDonalds replacing human cashiers, the next logical steps would be to replace the cooks too.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I think if I was going into the vendor business.......I would prefer slot machines, but the government frowns on that.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

sags said:


> I think if I was going into the vendor business.......I would prefer slot machines, but the government frowns on that.


Now you know why. The money is too easy and abundant. No reason to cut anyone else in. They will let you start a movie theatre business, right now, if you want. Can't open it up but certainly no barriers to starting up the business.


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## MrMike (Sep 30, 2020)

When we first heard about this, my wife and I drove just to try it. I LOVE the idea but in practice, it was an OK pizza for $12. I wouldn't buy from there again.

Then again, if I were at a baseball game, I may pay that much money. then again, it would probably cost $20 at that location.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I don't think the wall of pessimism on this business is quite warranted. I think it ought to be possible to be profitable operating vending machines but you'd have to do your homework. I'd wager that operating a pizza vending machine is a bit more complicated than selling chips and chocolate bars. The investment sounds significant, too. I'd say it calls for some thorough due diligence.


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## ChrisLavictoire (Apr 13, 2021)

I think it is a pretty interesting idea but was also disappointed to find out that the vending machine only house the pizzas and heats them up. My biggest question would be surrounding the food safety. I don’t understand how anything can be heated up in 3 minutes by an oven from a food safe refrigerator temperature. Also, I’m curious about how often these machines will get cleaned. Personally, I don’t think this technology is enough to compete with a local pizza shop that makes your pizza fresh. There’s no knowing how long those pizzas will be in there. I am still interested in trying it though.


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## nobleea (Oct 11, 2013)

I can buy a regular size frozen pizza from Superstore for $3 that comes in a dozens of flavours (some of them extremely good). And the frozen pizza is made in Germany.
Vending machines are pretty low end, and low skill. As such, the profit won't be much since anyone can do it. $/hour of your time, you'd be better off working a min wage job.


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## Fain (Oct 11, 2009)

Earl said:


> I think this is gonna be the next big thing in canada. It's already popular in asia and europe and now some companies have popped up in canada, for example PizzaForno | Canada's 24/7 Automated Pizza Oven | Artisanal Pizza Made Fresh to Order in 3 Minutes. Does anybody know how much capital is required to get started, what kind of profits you can expect, and how much work is involved?


Yeah I've seen 1 in Toronto Downtown. Was by the office I was renting and in between 2 nightclubs. got lots of drunks using it. Location is key. They installed it at an above ground parking lot.


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## Fain (Oct 11, 2009)

Earl said:


> I think this is gonna be the next big thing in canada. It's already popular in asia and europe and now some companies have popped up in canada, for example PizzaForno | Canada's 24/7 Automated Pizza Oven | Artisanal Pizza Made Fresh to Order in 3 Minutes. Does anybody know how much capital is required to get started, what kind of profits you can expect, and how much work is involved?


Very little work from what I've seen. It requires extremely low maintenance and inventory can be checked online through an application. They come briefly to restock. and that's it.

Good location may see someone double their money within the 1st year.


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

Our pure pizza play is Papa John's with a ticker of PZZA.

I bought a small position of about 10k in in July 2020 on the premise that with Covid restaurant dining closed take out would flourish, and these guys are all take out.

It is presently down a bit, but I am keeping it as a consumer staple type of company


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## Fain (Oct 11, 2009)

Ponderling said:


> Our pure pizza play is Papa John's with a ticker of PZZA.
> 
> I bought a small position of about 10k in in July 2020 on the premise that with Covid restaurant dining closed take out would flourish, and these guys are all take out.
> 
> It is presently down a bit, but I am keeping it as a consumer staple type of company


Good purchase man. They are doing big international expansion. Not enough choices in Asia for guys like me for pizza.


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## Menjie (Apr 19, 2021)

ChrisLavictoire said:


> I think it is a pretty interesting idea but was also disappointed to find out that the vending machine only house the pizzas and heats them up. My biggest question would be surrounding the food safety. I don’t understand how anything can be heated up in 3 minutes by an oven from a food safe refrigerator temperature. Also, I’m curious about how often these machines will get cleaned. Personally, I don’t think this technology is enough to compete with a local pizza shop that makes your pizza fresh. There’s no knowing how long those pizzas will be in there. I am still interested in trying it though.


OK I can clarify a few elements here:
1) the concept is for the franchisee to prepare FRESH pizza dough and pre cooks it, toppings are either not cooked/pre cooked.
2) the pies themselves are already in their pizza boxes so no mess, no contamination, ease of use for refills
3) the DLC (in France: date limite de consommation) on those pies is 72 hours. This is considered a fresh product. This is not comparable to an industrial frozen pizza, it does not compete in that market at all.

4) HOW do you go from fridge to cooked pizza: the pizza box is selected, drops into the oven while the box is opened up. Heats up the toppings just right & warms the crust just right (the important components that needed pre cooking are already done). At the end of 3 min the pizza box is pushed out the opening ready to eat, the temp of the oven is quite substantial (I’ve read 400 Celsius, not Italian wood fired oven level yet but not that far...)

5) my personal conclusion: if u have a really good pizzaiolo who does amazing pizza that can supply you by preparing your pies during dead hours it can be a win/win


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