Message to the guy using the Nelson "HA!HA!" Avatar. (I forget who you are)

The whole idea is to get people interested in halves (and $2 bills) once they are handed out to many people, they might start to circulate, at least in a small area, as some people in some area have already done with $2 bills (never understood why I never heard any stories about an area sucessfully circulating halves or small dollars, but I do know people have tried, but I think the reason for the half was "A big clunky coin that does not work in many vending machines", and for the small dollar "Could I have a dollar bill instead, please?" :rollling

Well, if OI become sucessful, and start to see $2 bills and halves start to actually circulate by the few, and I am doing good, moneywise, I may ask a few vending and self checkout operators in the area if they want my help to get their machines to accept $2 bills and halves. Then, maybe it would grow out further and further until the entire U.S. was covered with vending and self checkout machines that accept and dispense $2 bills and halves as needed. It may be just a pipe dream, but hey, I may have better hopes with $2 bills and halves than dollar coin advocates do with replacing the $1 bill with the dollar coin.

I gotcha Gary. Thanks for your opinions.

 

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Yes there are paper dispensers for machines.
Our unit came with one, however we sell ipods and all thar jazz

 

And I take it, these machines can be programmed to both accept, and dispense $2 bills as needed? Because, most only say "$1s or $5s for making change" So, is there any way I could have these machines programmed to give out $1s, $5s AND $2s? And if I decided I wanted to stock the machines with bigger bills, like $10s and $20s (possibly a few $50s) for those who wanted to incert $50s and $100s into the machines, if I programmed them for that, would it be possible?

I wonder if the food and beverage industry, and maybe the toy crane industry makes a model that meets my desire.

 

They scan the money and the program recognizes it, you need a computer programmer who has the hardware to do it.
Our unit accepts 1,5,10,20,50,100
It dispenses 1,5,10,20

I havent seen toys or food units like this yet, ive seen electronics, acne treatment and cosmetics

 

Here is what one company told me about as far as $2 bills and halves go:

Tom ~

Regarding the $2 bill, several manufacturers have removed the programming for the $2 bill to free up memory. It can be put back in with relative ease if needed, but it may be a special order.

Regarding the half dollar there are several issues you face. The acceptance of the $.50 coin will be difficult as we have seen with the $1 coin. There are hundreds of millions of dollars of these coins sitting on the shelves at the mint because the public will not embrace them. Getting $1 coins from you bank is also a problem; most banks do not stock them and you must order them in advance. Some banks are actually charging customers for the $1 coins. The second issue is the coin changers for the vending machines do not credit up $.50 pieces. Again, I think it is a use/memory issue in the software.

Regarding giving change in bills, that is possible but it only give back one denomination, i.e. if you put in a $20 bill and bought an item for $2.50 you would get back two $5 bills and two quarters. The machine can be made to accept $100 and $50 but again the “bill recycler” can only give one denomination in change. There are machines that can give back multiple denominations as change but the units that do that do not fit in the traditional vending machines; there is limited space in the machines for the mechanisms that accept money and give back change.

Anything is possible but currently paying back multiple denominations in a traditional vending machine is not available. If you have any questions I am more than willing to help, you can call me a the number below if you like.

Good Luck.

Regards,
Bill Watson
General Manager

Weymouth Distributing Co. Inc.
944 Venice Blvd.
Los Angeles, Ca. 90015
213-748-5181


I responded:


Hi Bill,

Thanks a lot for all of the information. I will respond to your answers to me, and see what else you think. Because I think I have some good arguments in defense of both, the $2 bill and the half.


Tom ~

Regarding the $2 bill, several manufacturers have removed the programming for the $2 bill to free up memory. It can be put back in with relative ease if needed, but it may be a special order.

If I do this business idea, I would want $2 bills to be accepted by my machines. How much might bringing back the programming cost?

Regarding the half dollar there are several issues you face. The acceptance of the $.50 coin will be difficult as we have seen with the $1 coin. There are hundreds of millions of dollars of these coins sitting on the shelves at the mint because the public will not embrace them. Getting $1 coins from you bank is also a problem; most banks do not stock them and you must order them in advance. Some banks are actually charging customers for the $1 coins. The second issue is the coin changers for the vending machines do not credit up $.50 pieces. Again, I think it is a use/memory issue in the software.

I disagree with this. Most people I've ever seen talking about using halves in their tills as cashiers, have had only about a 2% rejection rate from customers. My whole hang up with both $2 bills and halves is that, banks do not hand them out as needed and self checkouts do not dispense them as needed, and 99% of the population is not going to go out of their way to ask for certain denominations. Many people on vaious coin newsgroups and message boards have agreed with me that, if self checkout and vending machines accepted and spit out $2 bills and halves at them that, for a while, there will be two groups of people. One group would be your complainers, and the other group would be your hoarders. However, after a few months or so, people would just see $2 bills and halves as common money and not give them a second glance. Also, about the dollar coin acceptance issue. The reason the dollar coin does not circulate well, is because we have $1 bills, and, when given a choice, the consumers will always choose the bills. There are no choices with the $2 and 50 cent denominations. There is no $2 coin, nor no 50 cent bill, which is why I believe halves would have a a better chance at circulating than dollar coins, if they got handed out into circulation as any other denomination. Many people who do not like carrying a lot of change might like the idea of getting one half over two quarters. Not to mention, rejecting a half for two quarters would be just plain silly to most people, if you ask me. Unless they use a bunch of vending machines regularly, and need those quarters due to the machines not acceping halves.

Anyway, one important issue I must raise is, there was a guy who told me that there are machines that accept halves, and I have also read that there are some that do, but one person told me that the limit for the size of the coins accepted in most modern vending machines is about "28.8 mm" I believe, and the half, unfortunately, is "30.61 mm" and would not fit in most mechanisms, however, the dollar coin is "26.5mm" so, they work, however, I am not really all that interested in getting dollar coins to circulate, due to the fact of having $1 bills, however, like I said, we don't have $2 coins or 50 cent bills, so I will support the $2 bill and half dollar coin, and hope that, with times, if I am sucessful that other businesses decide to follow in my footsteps. I hope to exaust that 10 year supply of halves sitting in the Federal Reserve vaults, if my ideas become popular.

So, do you think you could make a mechanisn or do you have a mechanism that accepts and dispenses halves as needed?

Regarding giving change in bills, that is possible but it only give back one denomination, i.e. if you put in a $20 bill and bought an item for $2.50 you would get back two $5 bills and two quarters. The machine can be made to accept $100 and $50 but again the “bill recycler” can only give one denomination in change. There are machines that can give back multiple denominations as change but the units that do that do not fit in the traditional vending machines; there is limited space in the machines for the mechanisms that accept money and give back change.

If there is a limit to one denomination to give out in change and I accepted ALL denominations, including $50 and $100 bills, I believe that the logical choice for that denomination that gets recycled, would be the $5 bill. Sure with a $100 bill, if you spent $5 or less, you would wind up with 19 $5 bills and more coins for the rest of their channge, but since the machine would also accept smaller bills, the only other denomination I could see the machine giving out, is $10s and most people will likely only be putting $10s and/or lower bills in the machines.

Anything is possible but currently paying back multiple denominations in a traditional vending machine is not available. If you have any questions I am more than willing to help, you can call me a the number below if you like.

If anything is possible, is half dollar acceptance and dispensing possible? I mean, even if the standard machines do not take the half due to its size, could a custom coin mechanism be made or ordered? Because, as I said, I have read and been told that there are indeed machines out there that accept halves.

Good Luck.

Thank You, Bill. If you can help me out, please let me know.

Regards,
Bill Watson
General Manager

(I wonder if this guy is aware of the "size" problem with halves in most vending mechanisms, but if there are mechanisms out there, accepting halves, I should be able to get ahold of some.)

 

The technology certainly exists. I've never seen a vending machine as such that gives paper change, but the self-checkout machines in supermarkets, home centers, etc., all make change by returning up to 99¢ in coins, and the rest in paper. I don't see any reason those units couldn't be incorporated in modern vending machines.

 

Your source of that information is WRONG on two counts!

(1) It's just about an hour and a half since I routinely got back a five, three ones, and some coins after paying for a $1.35 item at my neighborhood grocery store with a $10 bill.

(2) Machines don't shortchange people.

 

As earlier stated you need a computer programmer for the two's, I am not up to date on the whole vending machine products, but have only seen a handful that accept twos after being reprogrammed.
Should cost a couple hundred per denomination.
As for the recieving change in multiple denominations, our machine is bigger than the standard vending machine, the unit needs a lot of space that you cant create with a regular sized vending machine.

What do you intend to sell in your vending machine? Where is the location? How long is the lease for? How is foot traffic? How much are you expecting to create from your machine?

 

Well, you are wrong on "one" count. I had a post office stamp machine short me $30 once. I was putting in $30 at a time and had $90, because I wanted a bunch of SBAs (I thought they were cool. This was in the mid-1990s before the GD) and the stamp machine only gave me change for $20 each time. I had only realized it because I knew I was not getting enough SBAs and I was only buying the cheapest stamp you couyld buy. So I had to tell the store managers about my shortings, and they got me a check sent directly to my house from the post office for $30. I was cool with it, because, usually when the government owes YOU money, they take their own time, but if you owe them, its "Now, OR ELSE" but they sent my check pretty quick.

I should have just told them to ship me a few more SBAs at my expense instead because it probably wouldn't have costed much.

 

Well, as long as it can be done and is not a fortune (seeing as I may already be spending a fortune on half dollar accetion, if even possible)

I think if I could only chooseONE denomination to give out, that $5 bills would be sufficent for chage from ALL denominations, even if I accept $50s and $100s, and if there is any amount owed back, smaller than $5, they could get small dollars, halives, dimes and nickels (wish I could mess with pennies, but one of the members here, said that penny acception would be extremely costly) The only problem I would face, is if the Treasury ever did reissue $500s and $1,000s and issue $200s, because then, I'd probably have to issue bills in $20 bills in change, if I wanted to accept up to a $1,000 bill, which I would IF I could, and THAT is a VERY BIG "if", but, would someone really be dumb enough to insert a $1,000 bill into a vending machine to buy a $1.50 candy bar?

I actually wanted at least three machines (that would accept $2s and halves and small dollars among other denominations, of course) One would be a soda pop machine, one would be a snack machine, and one would be a toy crane. Halves would be perfect for the toy crane machines, as toy cranes are usually 50 cents per play, instead of two quarter slots.

It would be at a restaurant on a busy road.

Not sure yet. If you mean, leasing the building, we are trying a ONE year deal first, to see how the business does.

Not sure. The business hasn't been set up yet.

Don't really care if I make a ton of money, just as long as I see the ocassional $2 bill inserted, or half plunked in the machines (Sorry, I know this sound a bit obsessive, and weird, but I really want to try to succeed in bringing the 50 cent and $2 denominations back into wide circulation. So much, in fact, that I might even buy my brother-in-law's sister a few machines with the programming to use $2s and halves for her resturaunt business as well, and we could split the profit. Even if its something like a 60/40 deal instead of 50/50. Anything to spread the circulation of the two denominations, and if she does not want to go through the troubles of ordering $2s and havles for her tills and machines (which I believe she will anyway as long as I get her the machines) I will order and supply these denominations for her, if she will let me, in exchange for some "normal" money of course)

 

My recommendation is to ditch your other ideas for now, with any business especially restaurants you won't make a profit for the first 2 years. If your lucky only a year... so I would invest the main business, screw the machines for now, rent out space for the machines in 6-12 months once you have foot traffic. someone shall be interested but put in a clause that their machine has to accept or dispense $2's
once your making steady profits with the business 2-3 years time, then invest into vending machines, but go high class items, or specialties, they're not lucrative unless you own dozens of machines and even then your talking $50-$60 profit per machine every week, only way its profitable.

Not trying to hate but your setting yourself up for failure, take a step back and think about everything rationally.

 

PS
if you have a solid business plan send me a copy, I am interested investing currently with Facebook's IPO coming up I will have safe change to throw around.