Ran the numbers on candy bar margins for vending routes and it's wild how much operators leave on the table by buying from big-box retail instead of wholesale.

A standard Snickers bar retails around $1.50-$2.00 at a gas station. Buying single bars or small multipacks from a grocery store to restock a vending machine means you're paying almost full retail before you even mark it up for the machine. Your margin gets crushed before you start.

The fix is stupidly simple: buy in case quantities direct from a wholesale source. A 48-count case at bulk pricing brings your per-bar cost down significantly compared to shelf pricing, and vending machines move candy fast enough that a case doesn't sit around.

If you're running even 2-3 machines, the math on bulk restocking pays for itself within your first cycle. Set up a recurring restock instead of scrambling every time a machine runs low.

Started SnickerStash for exactly this reason — wholesale Snickers cases for vending operators and small retailers who got tired of the retail markup tax.