Investment: the numbers behind payback

Payback on a drink machine is decided by three numbers, not by the machine price: cups sold per day, gross margin per cup, and the fixed cost of the site. Everything else, including the machine's feature list, only shifts those three.

The pages below work through the arithmetic with ranges taken from operating sites, and mark clearly which assumptions are site-specific. Treat any single-number payback claim, including ours, as a starting hypothesis rather than a result.

Terminal ROI: A Data Report

What actually drives payback across a sample of operating terminals.

12 Rules for an Unmanned Retail Startup

Operating rules that survive contact with real sites.

Unattended Retail ROI Across Cities

How city tier, rent and labour change the break-even point.

Refill Planning at Transit Sites

Refill frequency as a cost line, and how to reduce it without stockouts.