"Setting up and using a plan-a-gram"
We used a piece of 30"x40"- 16 gage metal, hung it on the wall. The product packages suspended with a magnetic chip from an office supply store. This represented the products in a full size snack machine.
Setting up and using a plan-a-gram can be a useful tool for making menu changes and communicating these changes to your route personnel.
Chips, Cookies, Candy, Pastry-----
Take each item in the snack, candy product line and placing it into a standard plan-a-gram. This plan-a-gram could be published in a graphic form and used as a reference. Standardize as many machines as possible. Recognize that there may be some variations of this standard because of some special consideration for a location. Narrow the product line as close as possible to your standard. Products that are not part
Pricing----------
Tract the unit price for any special order item and make sure the selling price reflects necessary mark up? The items displayed on the Plan-a-gram could be tagged with the proper pricing. Price an item at a minimum of (3x) cost. Example (.19 cents cost) should sell for .60 to .65 cents.