My buddy does maintenance, on 7 of them, for a couple here in the Longview area. During the summer it is helter skelter. Keeping the machines running, stocked with bags, emptied of money, trash empty, etc.., is more than he can handle sometimes, and he puts in some late nights. Also he has mentioned before, that he wished they were all in concrete parking lots, because he also has to weed eat and mow a couple of them. As far as how much they make, I'm not sure, I know the couple uses the money for a month long vacation every year.
I don't have any but have met some people that do. Like anything else its Location. Location. Location.!! One guy has 2 in Florida at big marinas and makes over $100k each on em a year and the other guy has moved his a time or 2 at $16k a pop to try and find a location that's profitable.
I would pose the question, Have you ever bought ice from one of these machines ? I know I haven't but I see guys stopped at them. I usually stop at Bucees to get gas so I pick up ice there.
I would pose the question, Have you ever bought ice from one of these machines ? I know I haven't but I see guys stopped at them. I usually stop at Bucees to get gas so I pick up ice there.
Bucees is the place to get ice, but I frequent the ice hut in Hondo going to the deer lease.
I seriously checked into several of them a couple years ago. From what I can see, at least around me is that the market is pretty well saturated. I even went and sat at several of them and counted the number of customers using them in an 8 hour time frame.
Not sure what companies you have spoken to but the ones I talked to will sell to anyone anywhere so there is no way to protect your area from someone opening one up across the street from you.
I think it is a pretty heft investment up front. Location would be the key here. I have one not to far from me here in Round Rock and it is pretty busy. I buy my ice there and usually always have to wait. I buy ice at one in Ozona too, and during deer season there was always a wait. Most likely to be successful I would think you would need several in an area with multiple activities, such as a lake, soccer/baseball fields, camping areas, hunting areas, etc.
I checked as well couldn't give a hard number on profit! So I kept looking it would take an average of a few years to recover on one unless your in a great location . So I my self slowly backed away . Unless you have an extra 50,000 laying around to invest .
I would pose the question, Have you ever bought ice from one of these machines ? I know I haven't but I see guys stopped at them. I usually stop at Bucees to get gas so I pick up ice there.
I do all the time. Bucees is a much further drive so unless I'm going by one I'd just run up to the Twice the ice. During the summer there is a line usually but it goes quick.
In for results. With as many car washes that I see popping up I'm beginning to think that they are the money makers.
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I worked in commercial real estate my first year out of college and I had a client that was looking at the upper end drive through car washes. He was trying to put in 10 locations and figured that he would pocket $600,000/year and be able to sell all of them for $6,000,000 (profit) after he paid off his investment. Seemed like a heck of a good deal. Like anything, location and competition were the two major factors.
I think it is a pretty heft investment up front. Location would be the key here. I have one not to far from me here in Round Rock and it is pretty busy. I buy my ice there and usually always have to wait. I buy ice at one in Ozona too, and during deer season there was always a wait. Most likely to be successful I would think you would need several in an area with multiple activities, such as a lake, soccer/baseball fields, camping areas, hunting areas, etc.
FIL's buddy has quite a few and each one was around 10-12k to start up. Has one in Seadrift that was paid for in less than 2 months.
I used to love getting ice water out of the Elgin Hwy 290 Twice the Ice machine.
So why don't I love it now? Well, I would if it still worked. They had so much vandalism, they simply stopped repairing/replacing the coin acceptance mechanism (the ice vending still works, but since it's exposed to more highway lighting, it isn't vandalized nearly as often).
So now I go to the next door HEB and pay $1.50 for 5 gallons instead of $1.
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