Mar 8, 2017 | Company News, General
Tips for Better Health Houston 2017! Houston… we have a problem; Houstonians love to eat. In fact, Houston offers some of the best restaurants in the USA. It is hard to pick the best bbq, seafood, tex-mex, etc. restaurant because they are all good. Furthermore, the portion sizes are large here as well. Therefore, all the good food is adding to our waist lines. Your not alone… many are packing on pounds year over year. Also, we are working harder than ever with longer hours thus making it important to enjoy a mid-afternoon snack.
What you can do to improve your health in Houston?
- Knowing what healthy product choices offered in your workplace vending machine can help.
- Many of the main stream manufactures, smaller ones too, are already improving calorie count, fat and sugar content per serving, and more.
- When considering buying from vending machines, take the time to look over the nutrition fact sheet located on the back of the package or online.
- Product companies now are adding the important nutrition facts on the front of the packages. That way you can read the facts before purchasing.
Product companies have started adding some or more whole grain into baked goods. For example, Cheez-Its now have the regular baked version and another made with whole grain. Whole grains are packed with nutrients, including protein, fiber, B vitamins, antioxidants, and trace minerals (iron, zinc, copper, and magnesium). A diet rich in whole grains has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer.
In summary
Sticking to lower fat, nutrition rich choices from vending machines can make a difference. Furthermore, water choices have increased tremendously over the last few years. Life Water (by Pepsi) is a purified water that is pH balanced with added electrolytes. The electrolytes are for added flavor, making it easier to make the switch from unhealthy soda to water with your snack.
Mar 2, 2017 | Company News, General, Uncategorized
Hometown Vending decided to upgrade operations by implementing a VMS vending route software system in early 2014. Using a vending management software system helps vending companies run day-to-day operations both in the office and at customer locations. Hometown Vending decided to take the leap and invest in a system that helps with scheduling, customer commissions, cash management, schedules and more. In our opinion, it would be really difficult to compete in 2017 without such a system to help keep things organized and running efficiently. We invested in Stream VMS and feel that the system is both easy and robust.
In the past, all customer commissions were dependent on drivers pulling the internal cash meters from each machine during service and then bringing back to the office so that we could manually enter into an Excel spreadsheet. This was incredibly tedious and time consuming… not to mention difficult to insure accuracy. Balancing the books and customer commissions took hours and hours each month. With Stream VMS software, all cash meters are automatically entered into the cloud during each service. Furthermore, all commissions are automatically calculated and our customers have their own login credentials so that they can view sales, current and past commission reports, etc. We feel that this creates a valuable level of trust with our customers.
Scheduling was another challenge for vending operators in the old days. Managers would have to layout schedules on paper and make sure drivers had a copy. Stops and machines would often get skipped due to communication errors, etc. Our vending management software automatically schedules and organizes routes. Our customers all seem really happy with the fact that we never overlook restocking their machines. Stream vending route software makes it really easy to schedule the really slow accounts that may require service once every two or three weeks. The system remembers the date of the last service and makes sure to show up in the drivers Stream iPhone app every two or three weeks, etc. No more overlooked slow stops!!
Stream vending route software also keeps track of all our cash management and tells us exactly how much we should expect back from the drivers each day by machine, location, etc. I am almost certain that most vending operators have experienced a driver stealing some cash at some point and this is precisely why we are really happy to have implemented a software system to run our business.
In conclusion, we couldn’t imagine running our business the old fashion way… spreadsheets, driver theft, inconsistent commission reports, etc. We made the jump in early 2014 and have been really satisfied with the results of using vending machine route software. We are the leading vending machine company in Montgomery County Texas and feel that having Stream VMS run our backend management has been crucial to our success.
Feb 4, 2017 | Company News, General
Hometown Vending now offering the next generation of cashless vending machine technology… eport Interactive. The ePort® Interactive offers our customers vending machines that are the most advanced cloud-based interactive and cashless capable machines available. It enables the delivery of nutritional information, remote (by text) refunds, loyalty programs, and robust, potential multimedia-marketing campaigns for select vending machines from Hometown Vending. The eport devices supports traditional credit and debit cards, as well as NFC (Mobile Wallet) payments including Apple Pay and Android Pay.
Innovative Technology
The simple, clean touchscreen device is a vibrant, full color touch screen allowing the display of national or custom marketing and promotional campaigns. Basically, it combines cashless payment with nutrition info into one device. Furthermore, if an employee or staff member loses money… we can text back a code that will allow them to make another purchase on us.
Broad Applications
The simple design of the device and superior security features of both the device and the ePort Interactive platform make it the coolest and best-in-class solution for our vending customers in Conroe, Houston, Magnolia, or the Woodlands looking for a payment solution offering a high tech consumer engagement and content delivery options.
Features
On-screen nutritional Facts, colorfully displayed, detailed product information is available prior to purchase, informing the consumer about their selection.
On-screen advertising with interactive user interface: Brilliant touchscreens attract more customers and influence consumer purchasing patterns. The Interactive touch screen offers positive consumer patterns and encourages interaction of your staff with the vending machines.
On-screen assistance: Save time and money by quickly returning lost money with unique credit codes that can be sent to customers via SMS text messages. Also, we can manage subsidized ‘free vend’ location occasions without ever needing to visit a machine.
The eport Interactive system is a high-speed wireless connection and state-of-the-art cashless option that offers Hometown Vending customers the best possible experience. Contact Hometown Vending today and we can help you decide if an eport device is an option for your location.
Aug 27, 2013 | Company News, General
Hometown Vending is a Houston vending machine company servicing the north side of Houston Texas. We have increased our coverage area to include Conroe, Humble, Magnolia, Tomball, Huntsville, Cypress, Greenspoint, Waller, etc. due to increased demand in those areas. We are growing in the cities above and ready to penetrate the market with the best family owned and operated vending company in the Houston Texas area. Due to our central location, in The Woodlands, we are able to get right over to all cities above due to less congestion compared to the Houston area. If your area is not included on the above coverage map, please don’t hesitate to call… there is a chance we have moved into your area.
We carry the finest name branded items that you would expect to find in your vending machines. Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper products are available as well as Lays, Doritos, M&M Mars, Hershey, etc. Please check out our products page here. Having our office / warehouse centrally located in the Woodlands is a great advantage to serving the areas above.
In closing, we have been in business since 2005 and have experienced growth each year. Our business is simple… take care of your customers with good service, honest commissions and quality equipment. Hometown Vending strives each day to take complete care of the customers.
