HUMAN HEALTHY VENDING: Are HUMAN Operators Making HUGE Profits?

51 thoughts on “HUMAN HEALTHY VENDING: Are HUMAN Operators Making HUGE Profits?”

• They mention a projection of net profit above based on the sales volume in the matrix but how is that “net profit.” It seems as though it does not take into consideration ANY of the operating expenses of running a business likes this, which would make it entirely innacurate. I used to run a vending route many years ago in Indiana and I had to pay insurances, wages, permits, merchant services fees, space rentals, and more. I don’t think this is an accurate portrayal at all, although I am admittedly not one of their customers. Guidance anybody?

• HUMAN BUYS THE MACHINES FROM JOFEMAR AND THEY ARE CONSTRUCTED BY A 3RD PARTY (AVT). AVT is full of even more shit then HUMAN. HUMAN and AVT know the machines will not last more them a year since the machines aren’t designed for regular use. The machines are more like a piece of art that you store in an area with no light, but they tell you to place it in the light. The machines currently have a manufacture defect wit the fuse blowing out due to the refrigeration design, but they aren’t telling the customers that and nor are they fixing the defect. Instead they are selling fuse holders to customers and telling them that its normal to purchase fuse on a regular basis. We are so sick of HUMAN and AVT.

• Brett you are absolutely correct, and they aren’t including the franchise fees, and commission, to the locations where the machines are housed. YOU MAKE NO MONEY.
  OHHH AND THE MARKETING IS BASED ON YOU GOING OUT INTO THE FEILD AND FINDING AND GETTING LEADS. HUMAN Sits back and gets a cut for doing nothing!!!! They don’t even want to help you when your machine is down. We currently have a couple machines down, and they don’t want to ship us the parts we need to fix it even though we are still under warranty. Total waste of money!!!! I would have gotten more bangs for my bucks on a stripper that kept her cloths on. HUMAN IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY!!!!!

• While I don’t call HUMAN a complete scam, I will say that there are some huge representations and lots of nasty surprises once you sign up.

  That Vending Profit Matrix above starts at 15 vends per day for ten machines and goes to 35 vends per day average for ten machines. I don’t know anyone hitting those averages across all their machines. I have four machines placed and have been unable to place my 5th. They are doing 3-5 vends per day average. I know another operator in my market who is doing 10 vends per day in their best machines. How can you make money after paying $12K for machines and even more for placement?

  That’s the big problem, HUMAN doesn’t share the risk. They make their money upfront and succeed whether you do or not.

  The charts above show how they misrepresent the potential. As brett and Mrs. betta state, lots of real expenses are left out of the profit calculations. Also, the numbers are calculated assuming steady revenue 7 days a week, 365 days per year. The target is schools, which are only open 5 days a week, and about 8 months a year when you figure summer and christmas break, numerous holidays.

  Schools average 180 days of instruction per year. Why are the charts based on 365 days?

  As far as “Adventising,” that is a complete bust. HUMAN started giving out its national ads for free, how could they turn around and start charging? Has a check EVER been sent out to operators? Has anyone, ever achieved $56,000 profit selling commercials on a vending machine?To be promoting this as a viable advertising business when after 2 years no checks are being cut does seem intentionally deceptive and probably fraud.

  If anyone else is selling advertising, please share cuz it seems like fraud to me.

• Considering HUMAN Healthy Vending franchise and would like to hear from actual Operators. Machines look top notch. How good are they really. What kind of vends per day are truly realistic? If you are a current HUMAN Operator, please share some facts (confidentially if necessary)?

• 1. Machines are WAY overpriced. Given the avg vend/day and other costs (including commissions paid, maintenance of the machines), it will take YEARS of working your tail off to simply make up the cost that was paid to HUMAN up front. With the same investment, u could make a lot more $$$ doing something else.

  2. Advendtising=complete joke. Zero national accounts, zero $. They really should not include it in their materials at this point. Esp when the cost of buying the equipment to run the ads is so expensive.

  3. Another trick is pigeonholing distributors/vendors into tiny little geographic districts, where it’s next to impossible to find 5 top locations, let alone 10, that actually would justify the huge upfront cost of a HUMAN machine. Sticking people into tiny little areas may allow HUMAN to sell more machines, but it virtually guarantees that the individual franchisee will fail.

  Approach w major caution!

• I too am considering HUMAN, but would like some input from some more actual Operators in a smaller market. Also does anyone know anything about this website? It appears that they have a vendetta against HUMAN that is more than informing potential fanchisees. What is behind that?

• also considering:

  Thank you for your comment. This site does not have a vendetta against HUMAN Healthy Vending. We are, however, skeptics and relentless about getting to the truth which, ultimately, must come from the franchisees and operators who know what happens once you sign the contract and your check clears. Before you sign up for any franchise or bizopp, be sure you speak with many operators, get lots of verifiable info from them and ask hard questions. Be sure to take off the rose colored glasses, and resist the temptation to hear what you want to hear.

  If we seem negative, it is because the rest of the Internet is filled with fluff and candy floss, press releases and blogs designed to block out any hint that anything could go wrong. This goes not only for HUMAN, but other healthy vending opportunities and franchising in general. We’re a tiny little blog trying to offset a mountain range of hype.

  We often put out a challenge or list complaints then judge a company by their CEO’s response. Those who lawyer up, hire an SEO firm to bury negative posts, tell their franchisees not to participate, or try to ignore away important issues raise the red flag signalling that more probing is warranted. We then probe harder, post more, and solicit input from both sides so that people like you can make more informed decisions about your investments and your family’s future.

  We set an open letter with our concerns to Chief Humanist Sean Kelly. We were disappointed that his response was, in our opinion, misleading and ingenuous, and ducked the important issues. We sent him a response giving him an opportunity to be honest and transparent and did not hear back.

  We invite HUMAN Healthy Vending, its operators, employees, vendors, customers, and franchisees to share their experiences and opinions – positive or negative – about HUMAN Healthy Vending. In the end, it’s not what we think that counts, but what franchisees andfuture franchisees think… once they know both sides of the story.

  Thanks for sharing – ADMIN

• Attn: Jerk off owner of this pathetic website.

  Interesting that your website is called unhappy franchisee however you don’t have any unhappy franchisees complaints (that are not true) rather personal “bashings”, disparagement and defamation without cause. Re healthy vending companies. This is a great concept and one that is much needed in our school systems. Why not attack some junk food franchisors for their blatant abuse of social responsibility.
  [Redacted – See below]

  We will publish some upcoming events on this piece of shit website as soon as they eventuate.
  People will research success vs failure, not what somebody is “accused” of being personally. I’d like the website owner to publish the names of the customers and their phone numbers instead of making accusations. Why not publish his own name and whereabouts…no chance! Coward sitting behind a screen.
  HUMAN healthy vending is not a scam.

• “Lucy” also wrote “The owner of this website “UnHappy Franchisee” is an ex franchisor and franchisee. He is also a drunk. I have done my research. Failed in both and now holds a grudge against and successful franchisors. He has some problems heading his way as he is pissing off the wrong people now.”

  The owner of this website has not been a franchisor, has not been a franchisee, and has no problem with successful franchisors who achieve success by following franchise laws and regulations in recruitment, and who do what they say they’ll do.

  Me, a drunk? I admit only to being intoxicated by your eloquent and sophisticated prose. :)

  “I’d like the website owner to publish the names of the customers and their phone numbers instead of making accusations.”

  Not gonna happen. We suggest commenters use a fake name when posting, like you did, Lucy. Those who email us at UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com are treated with the strictest confidentiality. If HUMAN would like to know which operators are unhappy, they should pick up the phone and start calling. Or call AVT and ask which operators machines are malfunctioning most often.

  Thanks for your comment, Lucy. I’m sure HUMAN Healthy Vending appreciates your passionate support.

• Admin, thanks for your responses.

  Lucy, who is this “we” you are talking about that is going to be publishing “events” about this site.

  Still would like to see some hard data from some actual HUMAN operators if you are out there.

• By way of background I have been a HUMAN operator for over a year and have had machines in place for seven months. I decided to go with HUMAN after investigating several other similar businesses. I made my decision in large part because of the assurances of management that they had no intention of ever using a franchise model, an obvious misrepresentation at the outset. Now they are using coercive tactics to “induce” us to become franchisees instead of operators including threatening to take away certain critical rights that we were promised.

  Simply put, in my opinion “healthy vending” in general can be a good business. Again, in my opinion HUMAN Healthy Vending is not a good investment for at least the following reasons:

  1. The Cost of the Machines: The machines are grossly overpriced. You can purchase exactly the same machines that they sell for $10,000 – $12,000 for half that amount from several highly reputable independent distributors. There is nothing proprietary about these machines except for the sophomoric graphics on the outside. To put it simply, this means that you have to sell an extra 12,000 bags of chips PER MACHINE before breaking even just on the additional cost of the machine over fair market value. At 15 vends per day you can do the math as to how long it will take you just to get even. Eat healthy because you’ll have to live a long life just to make up difference between what they charge and the actual value of the machines.

  2. The Quality of the Machines: Although these machines — which are inexplicably manufactured in Spain (and are probably the only thing manufactured in Spain) — look nice and are cool to watch operate, they are difficult to operate and almost impossible to maintain. Almost none of the machines I have purchased to date from HUMAN have arrived without a significant defect before they are even placed in service. Moreover, these machines are broken constantly. Parts literally fall off almost every day. Fuses blow constantly (and AVT has the temerity to charge you for new ones even when under warranty). They are also very complicated to fix. Unless you either have an enginerring background or can afford to hire a full-time factory trained technician (as I have been forced to do) stay away from these machines or they will become the worlds’ most expensive doorstops. In short, these machines are absolute lemons.

  3. Adventising: HUMAN promotes their machines as being different because they come with electronic screens at the top. They charge about $2,500 per machine for such screens which consist of some sheet metal and a small computer with a monitor. These could not cost more than $500 to produce and are broken almost all the time (I had four of them go down in one week). More importantly, they serve no practical or economic purpose and are an enormous waste of money. When I signed up more than a year ago I was promised that there would be a national advertising campaign in place within six months which would significantly increase the cashflow being generated by the machines. In reliance on this repeated representation which also appears in their promotional materials I spent more than $12,500 on these screens. To date they have not generated a penny of income and there is no current indication that they will EVER generate any income. They were a complete and utter rip-off.

  4. Competition: I paid extra to have my contract provide that I have a right of first refusal on any location in my assigned territory. Now HUMAN has taken the outrageous position that it has the right to sell franchises in the territories of existing operators, further diluting business for both the existing operator and the new franchisee. (These guys are like Bialistachk & Bloom in The Producers — selling the same thing over and over again and making a profit each time. The machines are the equivalent of “Springtime for Hitler”– guaranteed to fail) When I’ve asked them to put in writing that I will still have a right of first refusal as against these new franchisees they have refused to do so.

  5. Selling Old Machines: I recently purchased 16 purportedly new machines. However, without informing me, without my permission and without even offering a discount, they slipped in two older machines with old technology. Except for the fact that I employ a highly trained technician I would never have known that this was old technology until they broke, of course. When confronted with this fact HUMAN’s operations manager admitted that this was not current technology and further admitted that they did not tell me they were dumping old machines on me without my knowledge. I have asked them to replace these old machines with new ones and they have failed to respond to this request for more than a month. In fact, their in-house attorney refused to even discuss the matter further and then banned me from having any further discussion with any of the HUMAN technicial people.

  6. Location Development Assistance: The so-called LDA by which operators and franchisees are to obtain their locations is a waste of time and money and is, of course, overpriced. The typical fee for finding a location in the vending industry is less than $500.00 per location (yes, there are people who do that for a living). The kids who do the LDA work at HUMAN are very nice and atttractive young people but to my understanding and experience generally have no experience or training as location developers. their efforts are generally ineffectual and at a much higher than industry standard rate (as is true with everything they do even though they are less skilled than industry standard).

  7. Add on services: As with the machines themselves, all of the other products they provide are grossly overpriced for no apparent reason. For example, the credit card devices that they charge $750.00 for can be purchased “all day and every day” in the open market for less than $300.00. They charge $1,000 to deliver and install a machine. The industry standard is less than $100.

  8. Training: They lure operators and franchisees who know nothing about vending into the business by promising support and training of various kinds. However, training consists of a three day seminar, much of which is childish motivational nonsense (somewhere between selling vacuum cleaners and 1960’s EST). As noted above, you WILL NOT be able to maintain these machines yourself based on this training and will be left at the mercy of HUMAN and AVT, resulting in significant machine downtime and extreme location anger.

  9. Additional Free Services: I was promised items such as public relations assistance, marketing and website development when I signed-up. None of this was provided — even where providing a minimal level of the promised assistance would have resulted in HUMAN selling me a large number of additional machines. These are the same kinds of add-on services they are now promising to provide to franchisees. I respectfully suggest that you let experience be your guide as to whether these services will in fact ever be provided.

  10. Financing: When I signed up I was told that there would be a program in place in a few months to help operators pay for more machines. This same representation is now being made to franchisees. However, this never happened. You should know that it is extremely difficult to obtain outside financing for these machines. Most lenders (including the SBA) require a significant track record (usually two years) before they will make a loan and banks will almost never loan on these machines — even if you have a great personal balance sheet, net worth and credit history. This is in part because of the general reluctance of banks to lend to anyone right now but also because the banks know that these machines are grossly overpriced and that they could not, therefore, recover in the event of a default. You should thus assume that the only machines you can afford will be those you pay for out of your own savings and that any expansion beyond that will be severly limited by the lack of available financing.

  11. Profitability: As others have mentioned, the profit analysis contained in the Handbook is grossly misleading for at least the following reasons. First, the average vend is closer to $1.00 than $2.00 as assumed, thus immediately reducing the projected sales per vend by almost half. Furthermore, the term net profit is misused. In fact, their analysis is limited to gross profit; i.e. sales minus only the cost of goods. It does not include any of the substantial expenses related to the operation of the business such as rent, gas, auto insurance, generally liability insurance, payroll and payroll related expenses once you need employees (which will be by the time you get 10 or so machines in decent locations), medical insurance (which you will have to provide under Obamacare (not a political statement just an economic fact), sales tax on many of the products in certain states, accounting and legal fees, etc. In sum, you will need a very large number of very well placed machinesbefore this substantial investment of time and money ill show a profit. HUMAN’s projections are a work of fiction — at best.

  12. Alleged Altruism: In part I decided to make this investment based on my belief that we were doing some good. This was based on the repeated promise (which appears on each machine) that 10% of HUMAN’s proceeds are donated to organizations that fight childhood obesity. By my calculation, HUMAN’s proceeds from machine sales to date should have been in excess of $10 million so that they should by now have donated at least $1 million to such charities. Over the last several months I have asked for an accounting to demonstrate that they are in fact making such donations. (This is important to me since I used their promise as a sales tool to attract locations and thus my reputation is on the line here) Remarkably, HUMAN has repeated and unequivably refused to provide such information. They will not even provide the names of the charities to which they make (allegedly) such donations. You can draw your own conclusions from this refusal.

  13. Timeliness: Of the dozens of machines I have ordered from HUMAN almost none have been delivered on time. This has not only caused me substantial angst since I have arranged my schedule and that of my staff around these major installations only to have to re-schedule (thuis losing days at a time) but it has also caused major problems for me with locations who were expecting the installations on a date certain and had planned events around the installations. HUMAN seems to think that consistently misrepresenting delivery dates is somehow normal in the business world and seem to treat deadlines as approximations or suggestions. Of course, any other company atempting to oprate in this fashion would be out of business within weeks.

  14. The Culture: A few final thoughts about the organization. The company consists almost exclusively of very nice and attractive young people who have little or no experience with business in general or with the specific tasks they have been assigned to perform .They are frankly great salesman and have intentionally created almost a cult-like atmosphere. While they are great salesmen, in my personal opinion they are terrible and inexperienced operators (I will leave it to others to conclude whether they are not only grossly incompetent but also dishonest.)

  One final note in overview. In response to the various submissions from other operators on the website HUMAN has chosen to make outrageous and unsubstantiated personal attacks (and I suspect their response to me will be a similar attack). However, PLEASE note that they do not in any way dispute any of the specific comments about the machines, their operation or their principal franchise salesman. They apparently hope that they can mask reality with name calling. They are trying to do the same in their franchise documents (at least according to Sean’s statements during a recent presentation) by requiring that franchisee’s communicate with one another only through HUMAN, thus giving HUMAN the opportunity to censor all such communication. I suppose the next thing they will threaten is to put you in a Stalag if you chose to exercise your First Amendment rights.

  I could go on. I won’t. You get the drift. Best of luck.

• Thank you for the long list of advice. Why have you continued to purchase more machines if everything you say is true?

  I am a potential franchisee and would like more of the financial info.

  Thanks

• I grew very quickly in a few months and did not recognize all of these issues until I was up and operating for awhile. Also I had commitments to the locations that I had an obligation to satisfy.

  I don’t know what additional financial information I can provide to you. Sorry.

  Finally, within a few days after I posted my initial comments HUMAN purported to terminate my operators agreement in apparent retaliation for informing potential investors of the facts concerning HUMAN. They are almost cult like in their attempts to suppress the truth and punish those who disclose the real risks of this uneconomic enterprise.

  Since I am no longer allegedly affiliated with human I do not expect any further postings.

• I would agree with Experience Operator on this. Don’t waste your money. If you want healthy vending, just buy the machines and go get the sites yourself. Save yourself the headaches of partnering with HUMAN. Don’t buy Jofemar, Don’t do any business with AVT, and Don’t use InOne Technology.
  Maintenance nightmare
  LCD screens nightmare
  Advendtising non existent
  Products are a pain in the ass to find, buy, sell, etc….
  Go to costco and try to buy Izze Juice in Blackberry only.
  Go to costco and buy popchips in BBQ. Whats your cost? Too High.
  I have many more, you get the point.
  Take the hours that you think you will spend on this business, multiply that by 4. Then take your profit, and divide that by the hours. Good luck making a living.

• We are looking at going into healthy vending and human is our top pick. There seems to be other companies out there but we like what human is selling and it does seem like the operators we are talking to are doing well.

  The only negative we have found is on this site. If we were to go it on our own with our own machines is it really just as easy to get the foods we need from Costco. We want to provide local and healthy only snacks. We have found a place to get the machines on our own, but we feel like the support of being part of something is luring us toward HUMAN.

  We see the disgruntled people. If I set up an anonymous conference call would people be interested in calling in and talking about Human from a positive and negative perspective?

• NoExperienceAtAll…..do you due diligence, there’s better companies out there than HUMAN as you can see from all the misleading information on here. 1st off, they are providing illegal “earnings claims”, the “Adventising” is a joke, the machines are made in Spain, are not very reliable and you will be married to AVT for servicing so more $$$ out of your pocket, they’re not even Energy Star rated, you won’t get the variety of products that you need from Costco, not to mention the inconvenience, and with a franchise you should be taking advantage of buying power as a franchise group, how does that make sense to buy from Costco? These are just my thoughts, take them for what you feel they are worth and good luck!

• Hi , I am not a HUMAN vending operator. On the other hand I am a successful vending opertator. I have to now compete with these HUMAN vending machines that are set right next to my machines. After reading the above comments. I’m not at all worried about the competition. I have made the changes I need to make in order to make my clients happy and I see these HUMAN machines as a temporary inconvenience. I actually feel bad for the operators of these HUMAN vending machines. Too bad they had to get taken like this. Due diligence is the key. If you do your due diligence you would find that healthy vending has only to do with your choice of snacks that you sell. You don’t need a national franchise or funny painted over priced machines with stupid screens to do this business. This business like all other businesses are about people and relationships. Ounce you understand this very important fact. It’s gonna get a lot easier.

• Whether it’s because of Bill Wotochek or because their original model (based on adventising) has borne no fruit whatsoever, HUMAN is rapidly descending into a simple scam. In fact, it’s already there!

  Everything’s overpriced.

  Machines fall apart fast (monitors, fuses, cooling units, bill acceptors, coin mechanisms…you name it), and warranty is far too short.

  Their claims are getting more outrageous even as the reality has become more clear. They seem to be breaching franchise law on a routine basis (they should not even talk about adventising any more since they have not landed one national account).

  The new franchise model is a complete rip-off, including asking for a percentage of sales revenue from each franchise on top of their absurd markups on equipment, shipping and every other cost they can inflate.

  And now the CEO seems to be selling himself as some kind of guru, charging additional dollars so he can tell franchisees and operators just how much money he’s made out of them.

  If you’re considering being a HUMAN franchise, JUST SAY NO!

• COME ON PEOPLE!. Just listen to “experienced HUMAN operator”. He spelled it out for you in detail. This is another Bizop joke. I have been in the vending business for over 25 years. The most I have spent on a machine is 2000 dollars. The average is about $800 dollars. Who the HELL cares if the machines is fancy. People want it to work. Thats it. cheap prices and make sure it works. If your into Healthy snacks (which do not work), take it from someone in the bus for years, buy them yourself. Wake up and do your homework. Find your own locations or get a food local locator. Vending is a hard cut throat business but it can work it you do it the right way. DO NOT BUY INTO THE HUMAN VENDING. A SCAM . The owners should die a slow death. making people lose 100k, unthinkable. I HATE people like them, they give all vendors a bad name. Dont invest stick to what you know

• Scam scam scam. These jokers are scamming people. Call any vending co oany that has beenin business for atleast 10 years anywhere in the US. They will all tell you that HUMAN and all of the healthy scammng vending companies are scamming innocent people.

• I bought in and lost my shirt. Well they got me some location but failed to research the state’s laws and after a month the schools told me I couldn’t have the machines on until after lunch. Now, I will bear some of the responsibility as the business owner but hell I paid them idiots 10k to do it.

  I have accepted the awful decision I made and am moving on. I know the company will fail because they lie to people and then disappear. I have spoken to several with similar experiences. Again, I take some of the blame but do feel like I was misled. I even made reference calls for them in the first couple months. Needless to say, once reality set in I made no more calls!

  The machines are crap and a constant headache to fix. Parts are impossible to find and expensive. If you want to get into vending buy some cheap used machines and go at yourself…I have some for sale!

• My post above was made out of anger during a very bad week and isn’t an accurate picture of my experience. Did my business fail? Yes. Was it HUMAN’s fault that business failed? No.

  I placed my machines primarily in schools and the state I live in had a law that the machines could not be turned on until after lunch. For the first 2-3 months I was doing great because the schools were not enforcing that law. At the beginning of the next school year a school, where I didn’t have a machine, got in trouble and fined for having a Pepsi machine on before lunch. Once that happened the district became Vending Nazi’s to the point of unplugging my machines until lunch was over. 4 Machines I had that were doing 60-70 vends per school day each were now doing 8-10 vends per day. Other machines in the schools suffered similar declines. Needless to say business went from great to awful very quick like.

  I then tried to move the machines around a bit, but my options were limited. During this time I never reached out to HUMAN. HUMAN did try to help me every time I sought it. I did lose money and suffered mentally and emotionally from the endeavor. A couple weeks ago my frustration peaked and I posted what I did because I was looking for someone to blame and was angry. Truth is, unforeseen circumstances doomed my business. Had the schools never started enforcing laws they gave a blind eye to before things would have been fine.

  I did have issues with my machines and a more common machine would have been nice as getting parts on ebay would have been awesome. The HUMAN machines are nice. Part of my problem was that once the business went south my care for my machines went south with it.

  I am not gonna type a novel. I have spoken to people who didn’t do well like myself, but I have also spoken to people who were successful. Would I get into it if I had to to do over…No of course not. However, if I lived in an area where I could machines into large high schools that were flexible about machine times I would in a heartbeat.

  My assessment of HUMAN with a clear mind is:

  Positive
  – They are very responsive and proactive in helping you provided you ask, especially Patrick who was awesome

  – They try to get better and take complaints as constructive feedback and work to improve

  – They have a deal with YMCA which will be huge. I had a machine at a YMCA and it did great…until evil Pepsi cut off my drinks. I think the Y’s are running the soft drink companies out though. This is probably the tip of the iceberg and more deals will follow.

  – Potential locations love their advertising and their program an easy sell. I just didn’t have enough good locations in my area.

  – The machines, while not perfect, are better than the machines offered by other healthy vending companies

  – They do a great job training and educating vendors if the vendors take advantage of it.

  – Have good deals and discounts to get some products

  Negatives
  – The machines, while good machines, are made in Spain and are not widely used. Cheap used parts are tough to come by

  – I know they do it differently now, but I had no training on how to fix issues that arose with the machines. The have a some kinda boot camp now, but they didn’t when I started. Also, I started when HUMAN was in its infancy and I am sure much is different.

  – I am not a believer in the whole adventising concept. The screens add something to machines, but I don’t think they will add anything to anyone’s pockets via ads anytime in the future.

  I thought I should have post my experience when I wasn’t angry and looking for someone to blame. Is HUMAN perfect, no they are not but to lay the blame at their feet for the failure of my business isn’t fair to them.

• I am a HUMAN vendor. While there are some issues here that have some truth to them I feel like I should add a bit of my experience.

  -Machines: They are nice, easy to customize, easy to fix and can vend almost anything. The parts are expensive but not hard to obtain like everyone says. My 16 machines have done over 120,000 vends in 6 months and maintenance issues have been pretty minimal. They are definitely expensive, but in a good location like a large school I do 50-80 vends a day at $1.33 average vend price.

  AVT/HUMAN: AVT is very responsive and easy to get parts and help from. HUMAN although new at the business is easy to deal with as well.

  Vending is a HARD business. I don’t care what anyone says. You have to be on the ball when it comes to finding and maintaining a good product mix. Source multiple distributors, look for breaks on shipping, have back up products etc…I have spent a huge amount of time learning all the aspects of my machines so I can perform all the work myself and know when things go wrong. Most businesses take a long time to become profitable, this is no different although I think it can pay itself off faster than most.

  EVERYTHING is dependent on your locations. EVERYTHING. They must be large schools, and you must have the exclusive rights to vending there, with no shut off times.

• I agree vending is a hard business and you are right about locations. As I mentioned above my only real major compaint with HUMAN was they set me up in contracts at schools where I could only do snacks. I had no vending knowledge or experience at the time, but I realize now you can’t pay 7-10k per machine and ever make your money back with just snacks. I suppose it is possible but much harder because the profit from every drink vend is double what it is from a snack vend…and drinks vend more frequently. It would have been nice to have had this explained to me upfront. Again its obvious now but it wasn’t to someone who knew nothing about it. I was in schools who all had Pepsi beverage contracts, shut off times, and cafeterias hostile towards vending.

  Other than that complaint HUMAN was fine and they are not scammers. They did do their best to try to make my business successful. The poster above is right though without the right locations coupled with the right situations making good money isn’t possible. If you have that though you can do really well.

  I think HUMAN is the best of the companies that do healthy vending, but no matter what machines you have or company name on them it will all come down to location, location, location. The guy above is exactly right. I think HUMAN’s YMCA deal will really pay off for operators though because those are really good locations if you can do beverages as well.

• I got involved with them a long time ago. My machines broke down constantly… bad mother board, bad coin dispenser, bad bill reader, bad power supply, dead screen, dead scroll motors, on and on and on. The machines were complete junk. In the two locations where the machines didn’t break almost daily, there was no traffic… not even ten vends per day. After more than a year of trying to get things fixed, I gave up… then I couldn’t even give the machines away. They crowded my garage until I finally had to hire a guy to haul them to the dump.
  The whole time I was told everything would be just great! But it was not. Back then they also said you could run a business “on the side” for “less than an hour a day.” what hogwash… the person who said vending is hard work is right… which was fine. I was up for hard work, was even looking forward to it and was totally excited… if it had only worked!
  And what is so healthy about Pop Chips or Hansen’s soda? It’s still junk. Healthy-ER maybe, but not healthy… fresh fruit, yogurt, etc., that’s healthy. Their snacks are just another type of junk.
  Advendtising? Great sounding idea. Never saw a nickel and my screens were glitchy.
  I am glad for the people that are doing well with this, but I imagine they are the lucky minority who did not run into the endless problems I had… I would advise operating on your own or through a company besides HHV…
  My advice: Run run run away from this company. They are crooks.

• Well, Experienced Human Operator kind of summed up their sinister approach to any dissent…
  “Finally, within a few days after I posted my initial comments HUMAN purported to terminate my operators agreement in apparent retaliation for informing potential investors of the facts concerning HUMAN. They are almost cult like in their attempts to suppress the truth and punish those who disclose the real risks of this uneconomic enterprise.”
  Can they do that? I guess they can… Scary… and seems to be exactly how Sean and Andy operate. They talk a great game of “our noble cause” integrity, honesty, blah blah blah… all the buzz words, and all the while snickering up their sleeves on their way to the bank.
  I would be glad to see their ship sink, but after 5 years in biz, they’ve fleeced enough to move the the next flock and certainly have profited greatly with their huge markups, so they’ve already had more success than I would have wished for them.

• “The only people who are mad at you for speaking the truth are those people who are living a lie.”

• Well, just for reference, there are many much more advanced and smart vending machines out there at less that this pricing. Just google for “smart vending” or “smart vending machine” and there you go…

• I would never in a million years invest in a vending franchise with a company such as Human.

  Saying that, I do have a substantial amount of machines that I purchased from Human a few years back. It has taken some time and extra effort however, it is safe to say that the JOFEMAR machines do crank in money once, and I do stress this, you learn how to fix and properly operate the machines.

  Keep in mind that Human simply partnered with JofeMar for their machines and then put a wrap and a silly LCD screen on top of the machines and then created a silly media frenzy around healthy vending . Keep in mind, there was no one within their very small and extremely new organization that could teach operators how to change a fuse, basket or AC unit on the machine. Human then partnered with AVT to provide low end low quality telephone technical support and ship the machines to its customers. Human had to use AVT as technical support as utilizing JofeMar would simply turn customers against Human and question their ability to mark up machines that they in turn never built and or created.

  Basically, the machines are made in Spain, they are retrofitted at JofeMar in Miami and then shipped to California to be jacked up by the AVT idiots.

  The JofeMar machines are very good high quality machines and they sell for a little over 5K brand new.. As everyone on this forum knows Human marks the machines up to $12K for a non franchise and $10-$11K for franchise. A substantial markup just to put a cheesy wrap and a LCD screen on top of the machine.

  Vending is profitable if you know what you are doing. You do not need to invest in overpriced machines and a silly franchise to make good money in vending. Buy your own machines, start small and out of this failed franchise vending model and you will do just fine.

  On another note, if anyone is fed up with their Human machine, I would gladly purchase those used models off of anyone for the right price. Please contact me outside of this forum.

• NUMBERS NEVER LIE, I have 10 machines in NORCAL(SAC).6 out of 10 broke down with refrigeration problems, 7 out of 10 monitors quit working,10 out of 10 blown fuse holders, numerous electrical,sensor, J2000 problems. I called AVT about a problem, the TECHNICIAN told me my machine was older with old technology. These machines are only 2 years old or less. If HUMAN is selling old machines as new.Thats BIG TIME FRAUD. Thanks experienced Human operator,Fairly New operator. Brandon, hows that snitch in Elk Grove?

• Let me first start off by saying that I have never dealt with HUMAN but I have bought and sold a lot of other Healthy Vending Machines, and Healthy Vending “can” be a very profitable business IF you do it correctly. It all comes down to just two essential items:
  1. Buy the machine at the Right Price! You can find New Healthy Vending Machines for $3000 with a warranty so why would you pay $10,000 or more? [redacted]
  2. Locate the machines at the right business. If you’re going the healthy route, then that means you can’t put the machine in any normal location- it really needs to cater to the health conscience crowd.

  If you follow these two rules, you can be successful in vending healthy.

  Full disclosure: Jeff Cramer has stated that he is a seller of used healthy vending machines. – ADMIN

• Jeff can you please email me your information? [redacted] Thanks

  Editor’s Note: We don’t allow posting of personal contact info here. Please hold your conversations here, publicly, so all may benefit. Thanks. ADMIN

• Why is the average vend amount so low? Why not sale Fresh Salads, Wraps and that sort of thing and place the machine at busy corporate building lobbies?

  I am sure you could get to 50 vends by just placing an automated fridge, ala Shelf X, and sell pre-packaged salads for $8 or about 10% below what Freshii sells them for.

  You could try to cross-sell hight ticket items such a cold pressed fresh juice.

  HUMAN and franchise business models aside; increasing the convenience of healthy food choices through automated, fresh vending seems like a huge market.

  If Fresh Casual chains such as Freshii have been succesful while having to pay for premium locations using the traditional retail shop model, it seems feasible to greatly make this industry more profitable by pre-packaging the most sought after salads, wraps, fresh juices, etc. and selling them through an automated vending channel placed at locations where people have shown to be willing to pay for a salads, wraps, sandwiches, sushi, etc.

  Just build your own brand, target a densely populated area and develop and source a portfolio of products including your own private label stuff.

  So I would see the end goal as trying to be more like a (FOB) Forward Operating Base for a Whole Foods shelf.

  Or even better, a FOB for Whole Food’s BEST performing shelf. Something you will be able to achieve through trial and error.

  I don’t see money in trying to compete with M&M dispensing machines by saying that your machines dispense Cliff Bars.

  Am I missing something here?

  Does anybody have experience with the Shelf X line of equipment?

  Charlie

• Charlie –

  You have no idea what you are talking about.

  No experience in on-site food sales and vending.

  And Human Vending is a scam. Sean Kelly of Human is a scammer (not Sean Kelly of Unhappy)

  Do you really think someone working out of their garage can land a large manufacturing or office complex using Human Vending’s program or by buying ShelfX on their own?

  Hancock

• Lets get real people.ANON HUMAN VENDOR ,first off you are a moron.Have you ever take out the refrigeration unit,leak checked,fixed it,recharged it.Rewiring the fuse holders,how are you going to fix faulty screens.Have you ever diagnosed why the machine keeps blowing fuses. This is not about cleaning the glass,or cleaning the filter or cleaning spills. It seems to me you able to do no brainer work.

• This place is a scam. Please do not make the same mistake I did. Do not send them your money! They will suck you in with the slick emotional marketing, and slowly squeeze the money out of you. There is no money here folks. It is a losing proposition. Move on!

• This company should be called HULAM (Helping U Lose All your Money). Easy to get caught up in the emotional aspect of their marketing campaign. But don’t do it! There just isn’t enough money left after expenses to make money at this. Beware!

• Their sales people and much of their staff are the same ones from the old Revive Energy Mints scam. I do not believe this company will be here much longer.

• “This company should be called HULAM (Helping U Lose All your Money).”

  That is very funny, Really? Reilly Nelson.

  Sad, but funny.

• HUMMUS

  Helping U Magically Misplace Ur Money

• Risperdal BrandonG says
  HUMAN means Helping Unite Man and Nothing. If you invest you will have nothing. Not even a pot to pss in.

• $1 -50% markup -6% royalty and marketing -15% site commission – 6% Credit card transaction – gas – maintenace – insurance – sales tax = pennies on the dollar.

  Human is a business opportunity scam

• Good Idea….poor execution. How can you create a franchise system when you never proved the concept as a company before hand? The way HUMAN makes their money is by selling machines, their location services, and now products. You may as well go sell soap for Amway. There is no money in vending as a franchisee for Human Hokey Vending

• Human Hokey Vending? No mo money…but that is funny!

• Human seems to have been going through financial problems of late. That is why they have increased their royalties, machine prices, and need you to buy your products from their product portal.

• I talked to Sean Kelly at Human.

  He wanted to dress up his crappy vending Bizop as a franchise so he could have franchise credibility.

  Sean is a run of the mill confidence man that you avoid.

  Sean tried to hire real franchise executives and no one would accept.

• TO ALL INVOLVED WITH HUMAN HEALTHY VENDING AND PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS,REMEMBER THIS ; ONLY A FOOL SUFFERS A FOOLS FOLLY. AND THAT THE FACT,JACK.

• Thank you SOOOOO much for the input This site and all your wisdom may have saved me 10’s of 1000’s of dollars. Does anybody know of a reputable consultant company that I can use to break into the healthy vending business? I do need help but it looks like not the kind of help offered by these ” turn key” companies…

• Sounds like those who invested in HUMAN need a class action lawsuit.