Vending machines

The claim

“Don’t buy more crypto. Don’t start Amazon FBA. Don’t invest in real estate.

Instead invest in 3 vending machines that will pay for your mortgage, car payment and kids college fund.

Here’s how it works:”

@MikeHoffmann, 535,935 views¹

The tweet’s text and two photos give no sales, costs or hours¹. We did not read any thread or replies, so figures may have been given there¹. This page judges the scheme, not the people who tweeted.

The sums

The median US homeowner with a mortgage paid $2,035 a month for housing in 2024². The average car loan payment was $697 a month in March 2026³. Together that is $2,732, or about $911 of profit from each of three machines (our sum; the college fund is not priced).

Stock takes 30% to 50% of sales, the building’s owner may take a share, and card fees take about 5% to 6% of card sales⁵¹⁰¹¹. We estimate that 35 to 55 cents of each dollar is left, before fuel, tax, repairs and the owner’s time.

A card-reader company’s 2025 totals work out at about $473 of sales a machine a month (our division; machines with card readers only)⁴. A survey of 23 operators gave $309; it is small, self-reported and may date from 2020⁵.

At $473 a machine, $2,732 of profit takes 11 to 17 machines (our estimate)⁴. For three snack machines to do it, each must sell $1,660 to $2,600 a month, 3.5 to 5.5 times the measured average⁴. Three average machines take in about $930 to $1,400 a month⁴⁵.

The claim is not impossible. One of the tweet’s photos shows a micro market, a set of open shelves with a self-checkout screen¹. Micro markets using the same card-reader company averaged about $12,600 of sales a location a month (our division)⁴. A bundle costs $3,339 to $17,299 on one catalogue⁷, and these sites belong mostly to established operators.

What happens to most people who try

US Census Bureau data counts 21,746 vending businesses with no employees in 2023¹³. Almost half (49.5%) had sales under $10,000, and 70.7% had under $25,000¹³. These are sales, not income. The small group includes newcomers in a first, partial year and deliberate sidelines¹³. The data cannot show who quit; we found no measured profit or survival figures.

One newcomer’s six-month report, read second-hand, describes two refurbished machines bought for $3,200, leaving “about $130 to $150 in monthly profit”²¹.

The upside

In the same Census data, 1,832 businesses (8.4%) had sales of $100,000 or more, and 496 (2.3%) had $250,000 or more¹³. On our kept share, $100,000 of sales leaves very roughly $35,000 to $55,000 a year before fuel, tax, repairs and loan payments (our estimate).

The best individual cases are operators’ own unverified reports of sales, not profit:

• 21 machines and five part-time employees: over $300,000 a year in the operator’s essay headline, after $5,000 in year one (he also sells a course)¹⁸.
• 57 machines: $30,000 a month after two years and about $160,000 spent on machines (the essay links to his coaching)¹⁹.
• More than 30 locations: $50,000 a month after 16 months, with $400,000 in equipment (the interview links to a coaching programme)¹⁰.

A realistic good result, on our estimate: year one is two to five machines and little or no profit after paying for the equipment. By years two and three, someone good at winning locations has 10 to 25 machines, leaving roughly $1,000 to $2,000 a month. That rests on one operator’s own report of “around $2,000 in profit” across 24 machines; the period is not stated and appears to be monthly¹⁷.

What it takes to compete

• Locations, won by selling. One operator’s sites ranged from $200 to $2,800 a month⁵. The operator reporting $50,000 a month refuses any site that cannot sell $2,000 a month¹⁰.
• Scale. Every case above has 21 or more machines or locations¹⁰¹⁸¹⁹.
• Capital. A new machine was $2,474 to $5,584 on one catalogue⁷. One news report puts used ones at $500 to $2,000¹⁷.

To tell early, find a location before you buy a machine. Then watch the first 60 days: a machine financed at about $170 a month needs about $320 to $500 of monthly sales to cover its own loan and card-reader fee (our estimate)⁹.

Who else makes money from it

Our collection is small: 11 tweets from two accounts, ten from one account with almost no views, and both point to a vending product or service¹. An interview with Mike Hoffmann of Vendingpreneurs, a paid coaching programme, links to his X account under an earlier handle, and X’s data for the tweet shows the same earlier handle⁶¹. The programme’s pages show no price²⁸. Its terms say “all sales are final”, with refund requests considered case by case at its discretion²⁶. Its home page gives “$1K-$250K” of monthly revenue; its second site says such figures “are not typical”²⁵.

When a US seller promises to provide locations, Federal Trade Commission rules require a written disclosure seven days before you pay³⁶. Coaching alone is not clearly covered (our reading)³⁶. We make no claim that any account or company named here is covered by, or in breach of, any rule.