In defense of "Garage Vendors"

A portion of a recent article in the Fort Meyers, Florida News-Press described Garage Vendors as the unlicensed, uninsured, unaffiliated bane of the vending machine industry. To portray these hard working men and women in this way is unfair and in the vast majority of instances entirely unwarranted.The term Garage Vendor is a vending industry term used to describe a small vending company that operates out of their garage or a small rental storage facility. Other industries often use the term mom & pop operation.Most of these companies are family businesses with only 1 or 2 maybe 3 people working long, hard hours desperately trying to compete with larger vending companies who have advantages that they dont have or may never have. They have their life savings wrapped up in their fledgling companies and are struggling to stay afloat. I know lots of Garage Vendors; they are some of my favorite people. I help them whenever I can, usually at no cost. Many of the largest and most respected companies in the vending industry started as lowly Garage Vendors. Nathanial Leverone (Canteens founder) and Davry Davidson (one of Aramarks founders) both started as Garage Vendors in the 1930s. The prosperous dot com companies existing today that were started in garages are legendary. Lets be sporting. Give these folks the respect they deserve for risking their capital and making the effort to build something from nothing, its the American way.Tom BrittenAnalyst . Intermediary . ConsultantPhone 813.469.5437E-Mail [email protected]