Came accross a firewood vending machine in the campground at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park in Michigan. Does anyone have one of these in operation? Looks like a nice unit, it is mounted on a trailer and looks portable. Seems like a good idea to me.
Firewood vending machine
- Thread starter woodspltr
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DJ4wd
ArboristSite Operative
Welcome to AS!
No, I haven't seen one,but I'm curious now. Does it take money and then spit out 6 pieces like a gum ball machine?
No, I haven't seen one,but I'm curious now. Does it take money and then spit out 6 pieces like a gum ball machine?
doobie57z
ArboristSite Operative
Took a picture but it is too big to send and I'm not any computer expert on how to resize it. I did find the web site. www.thefirewoodexpress.com. I tried without the "the" before and nothing would come up.
Curlycherry1
Addicted to ArboristSite
Hmmm $10,000 price. Figure 10 year standard depreciation so that is $1,000 per year depreciation. Figuring each bundle of wood has to contribute $1.00 to the cost of the depreciation of the machine and then figure ~20 weeks of time per year for the summer campers to be around buying wood. 1000/20=50 which means you gotta put 50 bundles through one per week to pay for the machine. OUCH!
Seems rather unfriendly
Vending machines tend to be unfriendly. Best bet is a good looking dame with a pretty smile and operating a bar that also sells a case of cold beer to go with the bundled firewood.
That's MHO.
Vending machines tend to be unfriendly. Best bet is a good looking dame with a pretty smile and operating a bar that also sells a case of cold beer to go with the bundled firewood.
That's MHO.
doobie57z
ArboristSite Operative
Cheaper to put a drawer and a money slot in the ice shanty and let the kid man it for the summer. Lock him in. Doorbell for 24 hour service. Be like Cool Hand Luke in the hot box August though...
DJ4wd
ArboristSite Operative
If someone owned like a KOA type setup it would be more of an employee free way of keeping tourist off his case with questions like: where can I buy wood, and why don't you sell it? Of course you would have to have someone cutting and bundling it just so. Yeah I agree,a cute girl with an umbrella and a cooler would be so much easier. :bringit:
Vending machines tend to be unfriendly. Best bet is a good looking dame with a pretty smile and operating a bar that also sells a case of cold beer to go with the bundled firewood.
That's MHO.
I do agree with this concept. i have bought more than one beer when I was not thirsty because there was a pretty girl serving it. As for vending machines, think bus station locker. Moeny in, key opens gate, you get wood. Simple, yet unfriendly.
blackdogon57
Addicted to ArboristSite
Sounds to me like a waste of technology. We can make a vending machine that spits out firewood, we can put a man on the moon, you would think we could find a way to cap an oil well before it kills whats left of our envirroment.
Dalmatian90
Addicted to ArboristSite
Another way to think about that...
$5 bundles, you could tolerate a 20% theft rate on a honor system box and still the net the same.
I'm sure there's a place for them, maybe a smaller campground that doesn't have a full-time store / ranger station, which also have modest theft rates, and where you can get a long term contract to allow you cover the cost of the machine.
Thinking back 20 years ago to when I worked a couple seasons for the Conn. State Parks in one of our smaller campgrounds (~55 sites between two nearby locations), probably half of those 20 weeks I think you'd be hard pressed to meet 50 bundles/week...but three weekends each season you'd be racing to keep them full each day.
Guess it comes down to knowing your specific market.
I have a friend who used to supply ice to one of the bigger State Parks here in Michigan. They went through about 8000 bags a year. I would think that firewood sales would be about the same. At that rate you would pay the machine off pretty fast. Every year the park had trouble keeping a dealer. During the week when it was slower they didn't want to spend the money to staff it, on the weekends they couldn't find people that wanted to work Fri/Sat evening. Using the vending machine would seem to solve those problems.
I wouldn't think that 50 a week would be hard at all. If the park is full on the weekend and 1/2 of the sites have a fire with one bundle each night you are at 50 on just Friday and Saturday. If you sold 10 a day the rest of the week you would have 100 per week or 2000 over 20 weeks. Did the park you work in have a store? or did the campers have to get firewood etc outside the park and bring it in?
Curlycherry1
Addicted to ArboristSite
A go-getter person could make money by delivering the wood to the campsites at predetermined times each day on weekends. It would save people the effort of lugging the wood themselves and allow the seller to push selling an extra bundle or two.
I made big bucks as a kid at our cabin by taking vegetable orders the week before and then delivering them on Friday night when we got to our cabin. 2-3 Hours of delivering and I had about $50 of pocket money. That was good money for a 10 year old.
I made big bucks as a kid at our cabin by taking vegetable orders the week before and then delivering them on Friday night when we got to our cabin. 2-3 Hours of delivering and I had about $50 of pocket money. That was good money for a 10 year old.
Dalmatian90
Addicted to ArboristSite
No store, not even a guard shack.
Only weekends you would be at capacity normally were Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day.
July and August you had decent occupancy during the week as well.
But the early and late season, you might have three or four campers during the week, and a few more weekends. Most of those are experienced campers who would have better sources of firewood then spending $15-25 a night for bundled wood. (Or if you tended some campfires like I have a few hundred...ain't a decent campfire till you're up to 3am watching it burn down, and last wood on was 11
)
TFPace
ArboristSite Operative
Honor system
My dad owns a campground and we have used a honor system for many years and it has worked for us. The rack we have measures 18" X 18". What ever the camper can stack inside this opening is his. We cut our wood in 16" lengths.
That dispenser system. I'm certain there are areas that theft is more of an issue than other parks but the pay back for our 100 sight park would be way too long.
Tom
My dad owns a campground and we have used a honor system for many years and it has worked for us. The rack we have measures 18" X 18". What ever the camper can stack inside this opening is his. We cut our wood in 16" lengths.
That dispenser system. I'm certain there are areas that theft is more of an issue than other parks but the pay back for our 100 sight park would be way too long.
Tom
Great idea, Curly. I would love to deliver a couple of truckloads to a park and just pile it up for say, $300. Then someone has to pay me for the pile and/or distribute it so that the campers can use it from there.
Unfortunately, I can't find anyone who wants to pay me or do that distribution. So, we are back to my bundles containing 6-to-8 logs.
I see a couple of problems with that idea. First what time? If it is too early on Friday you miss the people coming for the weekend, if it is too early on Saturday people are still out doing things. If it is too late people are not going to take the chance on you not showing and get it somewhere else. Second, what about during the week? Do those campers do with out? Third, seems you would have to go every time. What if it is raining? Do you go and not sell much or do you not waste your time? If you don't go then no one is going to trust you the next night and already have there wood.
Seems to me that the vending idea fixes a lot of these problems. Campers get the wood then they want, you don't make extra trips and everyone is happy.
