Number
Vending machine side hustle: $15K/month across 27 machines, started with ~$600
Quinn Miller, 27, quit software sales and built a vending-machine business doing $15,000 in monthly revenue across 27 machines about 10 months in. His startup cost was roughly $600: $400-500 for a machine plus $200 to fix and place it.
$15K
Monthly revenue across 27 vending machines · USD/month
“He's currently doing $15,000 in monthly revenue and he's doing that across 27 machines. His startup costs were $600, $500 or $400 to buy a machine and $200 to fix it and move it to the place where it had to go.”
Number
65% margins: ~$9,700/month profit on $15K vending revenue
On $15,000 monthly vending revenue, Quinn Miller keeps about 65% as profit, or roughly $9,700-9,800 a month, working about 20 hours a week because he restocks the machines himself.
$65
Vending machine profit margin · percent
“So on the $15,000 in revenue, 65% is profit. So he's doing around $9,700, $9,800 a month in profit so far.”
Tactic
Value-sell your machine for $0 rent instead of splitting 10-20%
Most vending operators give property owners 10-20% of revenue. Quinn Miller, drawing on his software-sales background, instead 'value sells' the machine as a tenant-experience upgrade that helps retention, and pays the property owner nothing.
“I do what's called a value sell. And he goes, basically I say, look, your tenants are, are, if I just improve your tenant experience by just a small percent, maybe you're going to make more money because someone will want to stay or want to rent here.”
Steal thisReframe your cut-the-landlord-in deal as a value-add for their customers so you keep 100% of revenue.
Number
The vending math: 33-cent Costco Cokes sold for $1
Quinn Miller's model is deliberately unsophisticated: he buys cans of Coke at Costco for 33 cents and sells them for a dollar out of machines placed across about 10 locations he cold-called into.
$33
Cost of a can of Coke from Costco (resold for $1) · USD cents
“So he buys a can of Coke from Costco for 33 cents, and he charges a dollar for it, right?”
Number
Vending scales: a Palm Springs operator with 1,600 machines doing $5-10M
Quinn Miller told Sam about a Palm Springs vending operator running about 1,600 machines and pulling $5-10 million in revenue with roughly half in profit, showing the ceiling on the blue-collar vending model.
$10M
Revenue of a 1,600-machine Palm Springs vending operator · USD/year
“He goes, but I met a guy in Palm Springs who had about 60 1,600 machines, and he was making anywhere from $5 to $10 million in revenue with about half in profit, right?”
Framework
Vending is a whale business: chase repeat-purchase, not foot traffic
Quinn Miller's insight is that vending profit comes from heavy repeat buyers, not breadth: one resident might drink five Cokes a day. He argues you should evaluate any vending product (tampons, snacks) by its repeat-purchase rate, which is why he's bullish on Coke and Monster over one-off items.
“He goes, if I go to like a lower income area, these folks love Coke and love Monster to the point that one guy will drink 5 Cokes a day. I'm getting $5 from him. You have to ask yourself, can you get that for, uh, tampons or other products?”
Steal thisScore any vending or retail product by repeat-purchase rate before stocking it.
Billy
Quinn Miller, the Hillbilly of the Week vending operator
Quinn Miller is celebrated as the 'Hilly of the Week': a 27-year-old who quit tech sales to cold-call low-income apartments and motels, place vending machines for free, and net roughly $100K-120K a year off just 27 machines.
“So Quinn Miller, you are the Hilly of the Week. Congratulations. I love this business. So just to summarize, buy the thing for $1,000, cold call, you know, apartment complexes, motels, hotels, you know, low income, the better, I guess, is the way that this market works.”