Guide
Comparing Two Nicotine Vending Offers Without Guessing
Most offers differ in the percentage quoted and in almost nothing a venue can verify. These are the questions that separate them.
Compare offers on eleven things: who the tobacco retailer is, who holds the license, what the percentage is a percentage of, payout timing and reporting, who owns the stock, who bears damage and theft, fault response, restock method, the term, the exit and who makes good the wall, and exclusivity. A headline percentage on its own is not comparable between two offers, because two operators can mean different things by it.
Why a percentage is not comparable
Thirty per cent of gross sales and thirty per cent of sales after product cost are very different numbers, and both get written as “30%”. Before comparing two figures, make both operators state the base. If one will not, you do not have two offers to compare — you have one offer and one advertisement.
The scoring sheet
| Question | Why it separates offers | A weak answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the tobacco retailer? | Decides who carries the licensing and verification duties | “We handle all that” |
| Who holds the license for my address? | Licensing is per location | “We're fully licensed” |
| A percentage of what, exactly? | Gross, net of tax, or net of product cost | Just a number |
| When am I paid, and what report comes with it? | Reporting is how you know the figure is right | “Monthly, roughly” |
| Who owns the stock at the point of sale? | Bears on who the retailer is | Vagueness |
| Whose loss if it is damaged or stolen? | The machine is in your room, not theirs | “That never happens” |
| What happens on a fault, and how fast? | An empty or broken machine earns nothing for either party | “We'll sort it” |
| How is restocking triggered? | Telemetry against a fixed round is a real difference | “Regularly” |
| What is the term? | Length of the commitment | Unstated |
| How does it end, and who repairs the wall? | The exit is the clause you will care about most | Silence |
| Is there exclusivity? | May limit other things you sell | Buried in the document |
The things that look like differences and are not
- Screen size and hardware styling. Real, but not worth a percentage point.
- Number of product slots, unless your room genuinely needs the range.
- A quoted 'typical monthly revenue'. Ask for the sample size and period; an average across other venues says little about yours.
- Speed of installation, if the licensing step has not been done yet — that is the step that sets the pace.
One test that cuts through
Ask both operators to put the eleven answers in writing. The offer that comes back complete is usually the better-run business, independently of the percentage, because those answers exist in a company that has thought about them and have to be invented in one that has not.
Afterwrk publishes its side of most of these already: who owns the machine and stock, who is the retailer, what the venue pays. The percentage and the term are set per venue in the agreement. What is published →
Last reviewed . A person rechecks the sources before this date changes.
Common questions
Should I always take the highest percentage?
Not without knowing the base it applies to and what happens when the machine breaks. A higher share of a machine that sits empty is worth less.
Is it reasonable to ask for all this in writing?
It is the point. These are contract terms, and an operator who will not write them down is telling you something.
See whether your venue qualifies
The assessment applies everything on this page to your actual address.