‘Not a snack machine’: Twist in Aussie side hustle
Sydney teenager Haven Sun made $12k in a year off one vending machine. Source: Facebook.
Forget vending machines offering a can of coke and a packet of chips – the new take on the iconic pop-up shopping experience is going for a decidedly up-market approach.
As more and more Aussies are looking to vending machines across commercial properties as a quick cash side hustle, some are taking it a step further by using the technology to appeal to different markets.
At the premium end, Queensland seller Chase Marshall is listing AI-powered footwear vending machines at $29,970, describing them as “not your average vending machine”.
“This is Australia’s first dual-brand footwear vending model featuring high-demand footwear priced from $25 to over $120 per pair,” his listing said. “These are not $2 snack machines.”
The package includes site prime commercial property placement covering shopping centres, airports, transport hubs, theme parks, hospitals, resorts, tourist destinations and beachside locations – premium spots that typically come with higher rental fees or revenue-sharing agreements that can eat into profits.
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A Stepngo Footwear Vending machine is listed for sale at $29,970 in Queensland. Source: BSale.com.au
Asked in a Vending Machines Australia group how profitable the machines actually are, one member said “depending on the size of your machine, and what location you put it in, you want to aim for a minimum of $160 a week per machine”.
“Generally profit is between 30 to 50 per cent of sales, and they take about 2.5 years to pay off.”
“Once the machines get up to above $500 a week, you need to start thinking about refilling them more than once a week, so you have quite a bit of buffer.”
Another warned about the complexity of site selection: “You need to factor in the number and demographic on the site, as well as how exclusive your service is in the location. For example, if you have a servo next door to the site, they are a competitor – and your prices will need to be the same or cheaper. Lots to consider.”
For young Australians priced out of property ownership and frustrated with wage growth, the appeal is clear, but they do still need to put in their own time to make it work.
Sydney teen Haven Sun turned several thousand dollars into a small fleet of five vending machines – one of which netted nearly $12k in one year, after teaching himself the industry through YouTube tutorials.
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Andres Vending founder Andre-Christian Collett spent Christmas holidays working filling machines. Source: TikTok
Drawn by the $10.4 billion industry’s allure of low upfront costs and 24/7 operation, the reality for small players often falls short of the “passive income” label, with even Mr Sun telling Nine News he has hit his limit and is “not looking to expand anymore”.
The 15-year-old used family help to buy his first machines and spent hours cold-calling 200 businesses in a month to secure locations, before renting them out to small businesses and warehouses in Parramatta and Blacktown. One of them is able to pull in about $570 gross a week but that’s not enough to entice him to make it a full-time gig.
“I can’t get to every vending machine every single day,” he said. “I want to keep this as a side hustle and go get a job. Because to actually make real money in this industry, you need to do at least 50 vending machines.”
Vending machine owner Haven Sun feels that to make “real money” in the industry you need at last 50 machines. Source: Facebook.
Andres Vending founder Andre-Christian Collett, 24, represents the more ambitious end of the spectrum – aiming to hit 100 machines in 2026 off a business that’s reached $1 million in cashflow.
“Anyone can do it, you’ve just got to put your mind to it,” he told TikTok followers. His Andres Vending business started in December 2021 with eight machines “and now I’ve got 47 so it’s going really well”.
But it hasn’t been smooth sailing, with Mr Collett highlighting how he lost money on a site he paid $20,000 for, which “shut down before I could even make $16,000 from it”.
He has also worked through the holiday season, restocking machines. “It is the Christmas break but my sites are working through so I am working through. But that’s alright because I love making money,” he posted over the weekend.
“If you want to have this job to have a little break and make a bit of passive income, it is that, but when you start making a lot of money and you have more machines it’s not passive at all to be honest with you, but the money is worth it.”
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Andre-Christian Collett’s “crib” where he has organised shelving to restock all his machines. Source: TikTok
Mr Collett aims to get $30 a day off each machine, which adds up to $150 a week minimum for a five-day site, or $200 a week for seven-day operation. “Anything less than $150 a week in total sales is not worth it.”
His most outstanding result – $450 a day from a construction site machine – was “very, very uncommon, that was an anomaly for sure”.
According to EMR Claight, the Australian vending industry averages over $10 billion in sales from 1.2 million machines, with popular items including soft drinks, chocolates, chips, energy drinks, and juices.
“The snack and vending machine industry generates over US$64 million ($95.2 million) a year in profits. The net profit per month for a vending machine in Australia is about $400-500, with average total gross sales around $650–750 a month.”
At those rates, 10 machines would generate $4,000-5,000 monthly.
Entry costs also vary considerably, with Mr Collett selling a second-hand machine for $1,250 after buying it for $1,800 and generating $5,000 in sales over 17 months – which he called “easy money” netting him $3,000. That equates to a return on investment of approximately $176 per month, or roughly $40 per week.
New machines range from $6,890 to $8,790 for small combo snack-and-drink units holding 30 to 36 products, according to Sydney supplier Cool Vending. Refurbished units start at $4,450.
