Podcast: Great stories, insights and opinions from leading operators | Best of 2024

As the host of Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending & OCS Nation podcast, I hear great stories from operators. They open up their vaults, giving candid accounts of the challenges of starting a business and even sharing some of their miscalculations along the way. 

As we look back on the podcasts from 2024, let's look back at valuable insights from operators who had something to offer and, of course, a couple more secret sauce recipes. 

In this episode, hear from:

• Kim Miros of DAC Total Refreshments in Florida
• Dean Prather from Quality Vending & Coffee in Kansas City
• Jon Holden from All Star Services in Michigan
• Jon Corto from Buffalo Strive
• Arthur Siller from Evergreen Refreshments in Seattle
• Dan Welch from World Cup Coffee in Portland
• Rick Pavlic from Pavlic Vending in Wisconsin
• Anthony Cuccolo from CSB Services in New York
• Andy Owen from C&S Vending in California
• Another tidbit from Matthew Marsh at First Class Vending & Coffee in Las Vegas

In our next episode, we'll look at suppliers who fueled the industry in 2024, and what they had to say when they spoke to Vending & OCS Nation.

Be sure to subscribe to Vending & OCS Nation in your favorite podcasting app so you don't miss an episode! 

No time to listen? Prefer to read? Here is an edited podcast transcript:

Bob Tullio: Welcome to Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending & OCS Nation, the podcast for the convenience services industry. Today’s episode is part two: best of 2024. More advice, opinions and insights from leading operators and of course, some secret sauce recipes that may give you something to think about in 2025.

Let’s start with Kim Miros of DAC Total Refreshments in Florida, who blessed us with her courageous journey — a challenge for sure — as she went from educator to vendor.

Kim Miros: I’ve resigned from teaching now, right? I’ve resigned. First month, negative 7,000. And he had so-cooked the books.

So, what do you do? You can’t resign. You can’t give a two-week notice. Like, what are you gonna do? And I just about lost it. Like what have I done here? What have I done? So, you have to roll up your sleeves. You have to figure it out.

And I started, well, I figured out that the guys that were working for me were stealing along the way as well. I bought the business in September of 2017, and I had to start firing people basically immediately.

Keep in mind, I’ve always been a manager of people. And my older son, who’s a business owner, said, “Mom, the business sounds great, but your hardest, honestly, the biggest struggle, is gonna be employees.” I said, “No, I manage people well. That’s not a problem whatsoever, right?”

So, first batch, I had to let go, and I had to start running the routes.

So, I started at 4:30 in the morning, 8:30 at night, learning all this, running the business, trying to do everything out of a box truck. I had to get there at 4:30 in the morning — stock it all — because I don’t have a VMS system at all. There were 200 vending machines and about 10 credit card readers. That was it. And so up and down that box truck.

At 8:30 at night, I would come home. I’d brush my teeth and cry. I’d say, “I can’t do this again.” And then the next morning, you would do it again. And one week, a month, six months, a year goes by, right?

Bob Tullio: Dean Prather of Quality Vending and Coffee, an operator that has served the greater Kansas City metro area for decades, shared the company journey and his route to becoming a prominent figure in the convenience services business. As it turns out, he has emerged as an inventor and his Q-Tote product is having a positive impact on operators around the country. He also offered us one of the best miscalculation stories of the year.

Bob Tullio: Is there anything over the years you guys look back at and say, “I think we might have taken a wrong turn here. Hey, we fixed it, but it was definitely a miscalculation.”

Dean Prather: There is no doubt. And it’s one that we laugh about today and really worked hard at trying to stay the course.

Carl and I were in Chicago at NAMA — I don’t know the exact years, but we’ll go with many moons ago. It was probably around 15 years ago when this concept of micro markets was introduced at NAMA. We sat and we listened, and we listened and we sat, and we walked out the doors to the hall, and we looked at each other and we said, “These people have lost their darn minds. They’re doing an honor box system.”

Bob Tullio: Exactly.

Dean Prather: You know, that was it. I mean, that’s the way we saw it. It was honor box. And we were like, “You know what? You all go have fun. We’re gonna do us. We’re gonna continue to be a vending company at heart. And we’ll just keep on, and we’ll see you on the other side.”

Okay, well, and there’s a whole another story to that, right? We do our best when we’re approached about this new concept, and we explain to people why it has benefits and why it doesn’t, and why we feel like they need to stick with their vending. And then one day, we got that call… from — at the time — probably our largest account. They wanted a micro market, and they weren’t taking no for an answer.

So we said, “Fine, we can do a micro market. We’re going to be transparent with you and tell you this is going to be our first market.” And that was “the truth sometimes hurts” [moment], and it did in that case, because they said, “Sorry, we don’t want to be your guinea pig.” And that’s the day that we said, “We got to do these micro markets.”

Bob Tullio: How about Jon Holden of All Star Services in Michigan: a tireless promoter of Made in Michigan products, a campaign that was driven by the pandemic business slowdown.

Jon Holden: It really slowed down my role in a new business development standpoint because nobody was taking meetings with the vending guy to talk about, you know, switching their services when no one’s coming to work. So one, I wanted to validate my employment, you know, and keep functioning. Obviously, I have other functions in my responsibility, but I thought, “Okay. What can I do as a leader of a local Michigan company to help strengthen our local and state economy? What if there was a company that’s located here in Michigan, headquartered here, employs people here, that’s making a product that we could sell?”

I think the first promotional video I ever put on LinkedIn was for a company called Cooper Street Cookies. It’s a family-owned, women-owned business, and they make healthy granola bars and biscotti, things along those lines, that are absolutely fantastic.

Bob Tullio: And that was the beginning of Holden’s very successful Made in Michigan program. One thing is obvious, he loves that program and the industry itself.

Bob Tullio: What do you love the most about being an operator?

Jon Holden: Oh, this is a great question. First and foremost, I love the partnerships. I love the partnerships with our suppliers. I love the partnerships with our clients. And I love the partnerships we have internally here at All-Star Services with all of our team members.

I love that human connection we get from being an operator in this industry. There’s no two days that are the same. We care deeply about what we do. We are on our third generation right now at All Star Services. We are looking forward to the fourth generation, to the fifth generation. This is in the blood of my kids.

Bob Tullio: Jon, are the three boys just little versions of Jon Holden?

Jon Holden: They are mini-mes, carbon copy replicas of me. I mean, just like bowling balls with blonde hair and blue eyes, running down the hallway, fighting, breaking stuff.

Bob Tullio: Smart markets were a topic of conversation on Vending & OCS Nation. And here’s what Jon Corto of Buffalo Strive had to say.

Bob Tullio: Jon Corto, do you think that smart markets are going to take sales in public locations like car dealerships in particular — that type of thing — to a whole other level? Are you utilizing that at all at this point?

Jon Corto: 100%. Just the things that you can vend out of a smart cooler, the price points that you can get out of it, much better. Not to even mention from a technical standpoint, you don’t have to have a lot of technical abilities to run a smart cooler. I mean, a lot of it’s done on the back end, depending on who your provider is. So, from a service tech perspective, that’s a huge win. I remember, just starting this business, I had to learn about every machine and learn how to fix every machine that I owned. That’s hard to train. And now with these new smart coolers, it kind of takes a lot of that out of the equation.

Bob Tullio: Arthur Siller of Evergreen Refreshments in Seattle is a big believer in new technology, and he has seen the impact of smart markets firsthand.

Bob Tullio: Now, you’ve operated a lot of smart coolers over the years, and do you really find a big impact in terms of sales, or is it more about the ability to operate in public locations?

Arthur Siller: It’s both. On the sales side, we have seen as we replace the traditional or product that we’ve had for a long time and equipment with this newer technology, we’re seeing two, three times sales lift in same-store locations. And that lift is maintaining. So, it’s not that we put something in, and there’s this honeymoon phase, and then that goes away. It is proof that when you introduce new tech, and it’s easier for people to use it, they will use it.

Bob Tullio: At the NAMA Show in Dallas, I talked to a number of operators who were pleased with the show and the vibe surrounding the industry. Here’s Dan Welch from World Cup Coffee in Portland.

Bob Tullio: How do you feel about the vibe at the show itself compared to what you’ve seen in the past? Was it a positive vibe overall?

Dan Welch: It’s not only positive, but my feet are telling me it’s a big show. This year, I’m seeing a lot more independent mom-and-pops with a booth selling their wares, bringing them to market, kind of for the first time. And then some really entertaining ones. I just visited the cotton candy machine. I thought that was a hoot. I have no purpose in my market at all, but the demonstration and the theatrics of that were just so fun. And their vibe is absolutely energetic. And also, the guests here are also hyped up about really the future of vending and OCS and micro markets.

Bob Tullio: Is that reflective of your operation and how you’re feeling about your operation?

Dan Welch: Yes, very much. You know, coming here makes me understand that the decisions we’re making are correct — that it’s not as heavy of a risk of what we’re doing. Because a lot of operators, maybe myself — I know myself — I second guess, “Okay, is this the right decision?” as we’re working on it.

I hear from NAMA people, as well as our industry people, show the progression and the trends, and we’re making the right decisions.

Bob Tullio: Anthony Cuccolo from CSB in New York.

Bob Tullio: What do you think is the vibe at the show itself?

Anthony Cuccolo: Very positive, very upbeat. Probably more excitement than I’ve seen in a while.

Bob Tullio: They’re saying this is the biggest show ever. Does it feel like that?

Anthony Cuccolo: It does. From the shows that I’ve been to in the past, it does.

Bob Tullio: Would you say that’s a reflection of where your business is going too?

Anthony Cuccolo: I hope so.  

Bob Tullio: I mean the positive vibe.

Anthony Cuccolo: Oh yeah, absolutely. There’s just a sense in the industry. It just seems like we’re getting a lot more traction, and we’re appreciated more for what we do with our customers.

Bob Tullio: Andy Owen from C&S in northern California.

Andy Owen: Very nice. I don’t go to them every year. I did go last year. Very similar feel. A lot of very friendly people. Everyone’s got a smile on their face. Seems like everything’s on the up. Talked to a lot of people who, as we all did, suffered greatly with COVID, and it seems like the vast majority of people are close to where they were before COVID. A handful are better off. So it’s good to see.

Bob Tullio: Rick Pavlic from Pavlic Vending in Wisconsin.

Bob Tullio: Rick, how about you? What do you feel about the vibe in terms of the industry as a whole right now in the show itself?

Rick Pavlic: It’s surprisingly huge. I mean, the floor space is huge. I was really surprised about that. And a lot of head count, and it seems to be quite well attended.

Bob Tullio: As you know, I like to ask about that secret sauce that brings success. Here’s the secret sauce recipe for Matthew Marsh, First Class Vending, one you won’t soon forget.

Bob Tullio: What is the secret sauce at First Class Vending?

Matthew Marsh: Just because Canteen does it, doesn’t mean it works right. Everyone likes to compare themselves to the big guys; doesn’t mean they’re doing it right. That’s the secret sauce.

Figure it out on your own. Research, do whatever they don’t do, and you’ll be successful.

Bob Tullio: I like that.

Bob Tullio: And here is the recipe from Kim Miros at DAC in Florida.

Bob Tullio: What do you think is the secret sauce at your company?

Kim Miros: Service, I would say.

You know, you can’t tell your employees that we’re doing all this for “the business” because you just kind of see “the business,” right? But when you say we’re doing our very best because we all have to be supported, our salaries have to be supported by this, what all we’re doing. So, we’re doing this well because we want to make sure, you know, this person’s getting paid, and we’re getting paid. Am I making sense with that?

Bob Tullio: Well, you create a more realistic understanding that it’s all about mutual success, right?

Kim Miros: Right. And when you’re successful, we’re helping all of us to be successful as well. And we’re going to do our best to help you be successful. So, it is about just being a team, and our goal is to help each other, to support each other.