Saving Money on Coffee Vending Carts

Cost-effective ways to start up your mobile coffee cart business
By Kristina Seleshanko If you want to start a mobile coffee business, you'll want to consider the best ways of saving money on coffee vending carts and supplies. Maximizing your profits by choosing smart ways to be frugal is never out of style, even if coffee is big business these days. Coffee profits are relatively easy to make; Americans drink 146 billion cups of coffee each year, and if you run a street or office coffee cart, you may have no overhead. You don't even need to advertise; customers are passerbys, who are attracted to the great smell of your coffee.
There are several ways to trim you coffee cart business costs even further, however. We'll look at three major ways to do this:

1. Buying used mobile coffee vending carts
2. Leasing or renting portable coffee carts
3. Purchasing coffee cart business supplies in bulk

Purchase a portable coffee cart that's pre-owned

Buying a coffee cart new is so costly that many people must obtain financing. But if you shop around, you can find a fantastic pre-owned coffee vending cart at a fraction of the price. Ideally, you'll examine the cart in person, checking that it's not only pleasing to the eye but is in good working order. Although newspapers in larger cities list each coffee cart for sale by individuals, some businesses selling used vending carts may offer a 30-day guarantee on their used carts.
Try:  Breaktime Vending sells a variety of used vending carts, including those suitable for coffee. Carriage Works also has a limited number of pre-owned coffee vending carts available.

Consider a coffee cart rental

One way to greatly reduce your up-front costs is to lease carts from coffee vending cart suppliers. Usually no down payment is required and your monthly payments are lower than if you were buying down a loan. Another potentially useful option is to rent a cart.
Try:  Mobile Vending Units leases coffee and other types of vending carts. National Food Cart Rentals rents many types of vending carts, including coffee carts.

Buy mobile coffee carts supplies at wholesale prices

Some small businesses do not bother buying wholesale; they prefer the convenience of not having to store bulk items and end up spending considerably more to buy their supplies at retail prices. But if you're watching your budget, it makes more sense to buy in larger quantities and get a great wholesale price. Just be sure you don't buy much more than you can sell, or you'll be wasting product--and money.
Try:  For bulk purchases such as cups, lids, napkins and utensils, consider WholesaleCoffeeSupplies.com. Coffee Wholesale USA sells coffee, coffee makers, grinders, filters, sweeteners and much more at wholesale prices.