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Locators by State

Locators by State names a vending machine locator for each of the 50 states and shows the arithmetic behind the pick: which companies take placements there, what they charge upfront and monthly, and what the state itself adds — the licence a food vending machine needs, the agency that issues it, and the business opportunity law that governs the sale of a location. Start with the state-by-state overview, then read the guide for your state.

51 articles Updated

Start here: the section’s guide

Vending machine locators by state

Most locators work nationally, so picking one by state is really picking one by what you can verify there. Twenty-nine states have a placement record; twenty-one have none.

Three things change at a state line, and the locator is not usually one of them. What changes is which licence the machine needs and who issues it, whether that state’s business opportunity law reaches the fee, and whether any locator can show you a placement there. The third is the one that decides the choice.

Buyer’s Desk 9 min read

Every Locators by State article

  1. Best vending machine locator in Hawaii

    Hawaii is one of two states a locator has publicly ruled out. The other national option has never shown a placement here, which leaves the search to you.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  2. Best vending machine locator in Idaho

    Idaho asks almost nothing of an operator, which leaves the contract carrying the entire weight — in a state where no locator has anything local to show.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  3. Best vending machine locator in Illinois

    Most states give a buyer 48 or 72 hours with the paperwork. Illinois gives fourteen days, registers the seller, and then exempts you if you are wealthy enough.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  4. Best vending machine locator in Indiana

    Indiana’s protections are among the strongest in the country and the switch that turns them on is a sentence the salesperson may never say.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  5. Best vending machine locator in Iowa

    Iowa’s business opportunity law closes the referral gap by name, and its vending licence has to be in hand a month before the machine runs. Plan backwards from that.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  6. Best vending machine locator in Kansas

    No machine licence, no state registry, no cooling-off period. Kansas is one of the states where the paperwork you negotiate is the only paperwork there is.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  7. Best vending machine locator in Kentucky

    Most state laws have to be argued into covering a locator. Kentucky lists a location claim alongside earnings claims, bonds the seller, and lets you walk for a month.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  8. Best vending machine locator in Louisiana

    Most states that protect a buyer start with paperwork. Louisiana starts with a bond, sets no disclosure requirement at all, and bites at $300.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  9. Best vending machine locator in Maine

    Most states set the barrier in the bond. Maine sets it at $25, waives the bond for a seller with a Bangor address, and starts the disclosure clock at the first handshake.

    Buyer’s Desk 7 min read

  10. Best vending machine locator in Maryland

    Maryland gives you ten business days to read and no right to change your mind. Its bond is not a barrier to entry — it is a tax on promises.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  11. Best vending machine locator in Massachusetts

    Massachusetts asks a vending operator for almost nothing. That is the problem: with no state statute verified here, the federal disclosure is the whole of your protection.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  12. Best vending machine locator in Michigan

    Michigan is a remedy statute dressed as a filing requirement. Nothing compels a seller to tell you anything, so the record is yours to create.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  13. Best vending machine locator in Minnesota

    Most states treat a location promise as a business opportunity. Minnesota treats it as a franchise, which is a considerably heavier thing to be.

    Buyer’s Desk 7 min read

  14. Best vending machine locator in Mississippi

    Mississippi has one of the six largest placement records in this series and the thinnest legal paperwork behind it. Read the deals, not the code.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  15. Best vending machine locator in Missouri

    The state asks nothing. That is not the same as nothing being required — in a home-rule state the real licensing question is answered at city hall.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  16. Best vending machine locator in Montana

    Montana asks less of a vending operator than any state in this series. It also offers a buyer nothing local to check, which is the trade.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  17. Best vending machine locator in Nebraska

    Nebraska’s statute has no dollar floor, a volume trigger instead of a price one, and a cap on money taken in advance. It is the most protective empty state here.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  18. Best vending machine locator in Nevada

    Nevada bills a vending operator for existing and protects it for nothing. Three annual licences, no state registration, no cooling-off period confirmed.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  19. Best vending machine locator in New Hampshire

    Most states catch anyone who promises a location. New Hampshire catches the ones that also supply the equipment, which is a narrower net than it looks.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  20. Best vending machine locator in New Jersey

    Three New Jersey listings, three shares, and an ordering that makes no sense on traffic. If you wanted proof the percentage is not priced on footfall, it is here.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  21. Best vending machine locator in New Mexico

    Most states let a sealed-package machine off with a sales tax permit. New Mexico does not, which makes the licence question larger than it looks.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  22. Best vending machine locator in New York

    Six New York listings, three different machine types and the lowest average share in the record. Thin paperwork, unusually favourable terms.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  23. Best vending machine locator in North Carolina

    North Carolina is strict about the seller and silent about the machine. It is also the only verified state that will take an FDD instead of its own disclosure.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  24. Best vending machine locator in North Dakota

    North Dakota regulates the machine harder than any state in this series and the seller not at all. The paperwork is all at the wrong end.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  25. Best vending machine locator in Oklahoma

    Most states make a large seller post a bond. Oklahoma lets a large seller skip registration entirely, which inverts who the paperwork reaches.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  26. Best vending machine locator in Oregon

    Two Oregon quirks decide what a first machine costs: the licence covers a fleet rather than a unit, and it dies at the end of the calendar year.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  27. Best vending machine locator in Pennsylvania

    Pennsylvania gives a buyer the rarest thing in this series: two venues of the same type, in the same state, five days apart, on different terms.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  28. Best vending machine locator in Rhode Island

    Rhode Island asks $50 for up to three machines and prorates it by when you apply. It is the cheapest entry in this series and the easiest to go and inspect.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  29. Best vending machine locator in South Carolina

    Most states hide the registration in a filing cabinet. South Carolina puts it in the advertisement, where anyone can check it in thirty seconds.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  30. Best vending machine locator in South Dakota

    Most states name a securities regulator or an attorney general. South Dakota sends vending locators to the insurance division, and lets them pick their security.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  31. Best vending machine locator in Tennessee

    Tennessee has no verified business opportunity statute and a separate tax on amusement games. What it does have is three venues that agree exactly.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  32. Best vending machine locator in Texas

    Most states catch a location promise on its own. Texas needs two things at once, which means a quiet seller is an unregulated one.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  33. Best vending machine locator in Utah

    Utah asks for no bond and no registration. It asks for a receipt proving the disclosure happened — and it can now take that receipt away.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  34. Best vending machine locator in Vermont

    Vermont is the cheapest state in this series to put a machine into and one of the least regulated. The compensation is ten placements next door.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  35. Best vending machine locator in Virginia

    There is no Virginia registry to check. There is a bond that has to be in place before anyone tells you they will find locations — so ask when, not whether.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  36. Best vending machine locator in Washington

    Nebraska caps the advance payment at a fifth. Washington forbids it outright — no money before signature — which makes it the strictest state here on cash.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  37. Best vending machine locator in West Virginia

    Most states in this series ask more of the seller than of the machine. West Virginia reverses it: a certified person, a county price, and nothing on the locator.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  38. Best vending machine locator in Wisconsin

    Seven signed Wisconsin venues, every one of them stating a price. The state’s own rules sit on the machine and on the contract’s back end, not on the locator.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  39. Best vending machine locator in Wyoming

    A non-transferable licence changes what buying into a route means. In Wyoming the paper belongs to one operator at one address, and nowhere else.

    Buyer’s Desk 5 min read

  40. Best vending machine locator in Florida

    Most state laws have to be argued into covering a locator. Florida’s says the quiet part aloud: supplying the names of locator companies is enough to be inside it.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  41. Best vending machine locator in Alabama

    Alabama has no verified business opportunity statute of its own. That makes the FTC’s one-page disclosure the whole of what a locator owes you before you pay.

    Buyer’s Desk 7 min read

  42. Best vending machine locator in Alaska

    Alaska has the toughest business opportunity law in the country for this exact trade, and it starts at $250. That matters more here than any locator’s coverage map.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  43. Best vending machine locator in Arizona

    Arizona is served by both national locators and signed by neither. A first placement in a state is a different risk from joining a queue, and should be priced like one.

    Buyer’s Desk 7 min read

  44. Best vending machine locator in Arkansas

    Arkansas is the rare state that taxes the machine three different ways and lets you pick. The option you choose changes your per-machine cost from zero to $93.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  45. Best vending machine locator in California

    California’s seller assisted marketing plan law is one of the strongest in the country, and a promise of locations alone does not trigger it. The earnings claim does.

    Buyer’s Desk 7 min read

  46. Best vending machine locator in Colorado

    Colorado puts an identification decal on each machine and leaves the food licence to whichever of its public health agencies covers your address. Nine counties are the exception.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  47. Best vending machine locator in Connecticut

    Where California needs an earnings claim before its law applies, Connecticut needs only a promise of locations and $200. It is the sharpest statute in the country for this trade.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  48. Best vending machine locator in Delaware

    Delaware licenses the machine, not the operator: five dollars each, every year, plus a two-inch label naming you. The locators, meanwhile, have signed nothing here.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  49. Best vending machine locator in Georgia

    A state that lets a seller hold only 15% of your money until you have been trading for 60 days is a state where the standard enrolment fee deserves a question.

    Buyer’s Desk 6 min read

  50. Best vending machine locator in Ohio

    Ohio has two different locator markets, not one. A specialty machine and a snack machine are placed by different companies, on fee models that are not comparable until you write them out.

    Buyer’s Desk 8 min read