What a signed vending location looks like: 4 real listings, term by term

What makes a vending location “signed”?

A vending location is signed when the venue has executed a written host agreement to take a machine, fixing the share, the term and the machine type before any operator arrives. A lead is a business that might agree; a signed location already has. The signer matters too: either the operator signs the venue directly, or a locator signs and licenses the space to the operator.

The federal Business Opportunity Rule bars covered sellers from misstating the chances that a seller, locator or lead generator will find locations for the buyer (16 CFR 437.6). A signed agreement replaces those odds with a document; leads versus signed placements prices the difference.

In the model behind these listings, the locator holds the agreement with the venue and grants the operator “a revocable license to place and operate your machine there,” with no tenancy or leasehold created, according to the key terms on its pricing page. In property law, a license is permission to use property owned by another (Cornell Law School’s Wex). When the locator signs, check the non-circumvention clause in the locator contract, which can limit your direct dealings with the venue. Who holds the vending location contract compares this structure with signing the venue yourself; buying placements outright is a different path, covered in locator versus buying a route.

Which terms does a vending location agreement fix?

A vending location agreement fixes the parties, the spot, the term and renewal, the venue’s commission, who services the machine, who pays for power, insurance and liability, and how either side can end it. Those are the core terms in guides from vending software maker VendSoft and legal marketplace ContractsCounsel, and a listing shows only some of them.

What a “vending location for sale” can mean

An ad for a “vending location for sale” can be selling three different things, each with different rights, so ask which one before you compare prices.

• A licensed space. The four listings below work this way: the locator keeps the host agreement, and your permission lasts as long as the license.
• An assigned host agreement. A route sale can move existing agreements to you, but only where each one allows assignment or the venue consents. Read every agreement before closing.
• A machine sold with a placement. Under the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule, a seller provides locations when it furnishes them, offers a list of them, or requires, recommends or suggests a locator (16 CFR 437.1(m)). Where the rule covers the sale, the seller owes you its one-page disclosure document at least 7 calendar days before you sign a contract or pay (16 CFR 437.2), so ask for it.

General information, not legal advice; regulations checked October 5, 2026.

What does an arcade at 120,000 visitors and a 35% share look like?

The Burlington, New Jersey arcade signed its host agreement on September 3, 2026, reports 120,000 visitors a year (about 330 a day), and takes 35% of net sales, one of only two listings in the marketplace at that rate. Because it crosses the 100,000-visitor line, it carries Premium pricing: $2,000 to start, $1,600 of it refundable, and $200 a month.

• The share. At an illustrative $8 sale, net is $6.20; the venue’s 35% is $2.17 and the operator keeps $4.03. Here and throughout, that treats the agreement’s $1.80 cost of goods as the operator’s whole cost per sale, before card fees.
• The cleaning. Day-to-day cleaning is the operator’s job here, the only one of the four, so service visits must cover it.
• The machines. The venue signed for a cotton candy machine and a drink-and-snack machine, which matters if you want to place two.
• The route. The listing names two more signed venues within 60 miles: a gymnastics gym in Flanders (about 50 miles) and a retail store in Elizabeth (about 55).

What does a gas station at 360,000 visitors and a 50% share look like?

The Cincinnati, Ohio gas station, signed September 3, 2026, is the second-busiest listing in the marketplace at 360,000 venue-reported visitors a year (about 990 a day), and it takes 50% of net sales, the highest share any listing sets. Its listing gives the machine type as “Flexible,” and day-to-day cleaning is the venue’s job.

• The share. At an illustrative $8 sale, the venue’s 50% of the $6.20 net is $3.10, and the operator keeps $3.10. Half of every net dollar is the price of the traffic.
• The machine. “Flexible” leaves the machine open; before signing, confirm in writing which machines the host agreement allows.
• The pattern. Retail-type venues ask for more: every retail store, mall, gas station, electronics store and food venue in the marketplace sets 50%.
• The route. One more signed venue sits about 15 miles away, an arcade in West Chester Township.

What does an ice rink at 400,000 visitors and a 40% share look like?

The Export, Pennsylvania ice rink, signed August 21, 2026, is the busiest listing in the marketplace at 400,000 venue-reported visitors a year (about 1,100 a day). It takes 40% of net sales, the most common share in the marketplace; day-to-day cleaning is the venue’s job, and the machine is cotton candy. Premium pricing applies: $2,000 to start and $200 a month.

• The share. At an illustrative $8 sale, the venue’s 40% of net is $2.48 and the operator keeps $3.72.
• The count. The figure is the venue’s own. The locator’s pricing page says plainly that it does not audit it, so ask whether the rink counts admissions, skate rentals or a door counter, and how visits spread across the year.
• The route. Three bowling alleys in the same marketplace are within about 55 miles: Greensburg, Pennsylvania (under 10 miles), Pittsburgh (about 20) and Toronto, Ohio (about 55).

What does a bowling alley at 75,000 visitors and a 40% share look like?

The Toronto, Ohio bowling alley, signed August 14, 2026, reports 75,000 visitors a year (about 210 a day) and takes 40% of net sales. Sitting below the 100,000-visitor line, it carries Standard pricing: $1,000 to start, $800 of it refundable, and $100 a month. Day-to-day cleaning is the venue’s job, and the machine on the listing is cotton candy.

• The share. The same 40% of net as the ice rink, so the operator again keeps $3.72 of an $8 sale, at half the monthly fee.
• The peer group. Bowling alleys are the largest venue type in the marketplace, with 18 of 87 listings, and this one reports more visitors than 11 of the 16 that give a count.
• The route. The listing names other signed venues in Pittsburgh (about 30 miles), Barnesville, Ohio (about 45) and the Export ice rink (about 55).
• The paperwork. The listing flags Ohio’s local health licensing for most food vending locations; check the county before you install.

How many sales does each listing need to cover its monthly fee?

Each listing’s monthly placement fee is covered once enough visitors buy, and the four listings differ more on that measure than their traffic suggests. At an illustrative $8 sale and the agreements’ $1.80 cost of goods, the arcade needs about 50 sales a month just to cover its $200 fee, which works out to roughly 1 visitor in 200 buying something.

Formula: sales to cover the fee = monthly fee ÷ (($8 − $1.80) × (1 − venue share)), rounded up. Visitors per buyer = daily visitors × 30 ÷ those sales, rounded to the nearest 10. This is an illustration, not a forecast. The $8 price is Fine Print’s standard input for worked examples, not a reported figure. Your real price, your actual costs, card fees, machine payments and travel all change the answer, and covering the fee is not the same as making a profit. The vending machine break-even guide adds those costs back in.

Fine Print’s view: the 100,000-visitor line is the term most worth pricing. Crossing it doubles the monthly fee and raises the deposit by $800, so on the same formula a 95,000-visitor venue at 40% needs roughly half the buyers per visitor that a 100,000-visitor venue at 40% needs. In these four listings, the 75,000-visitor bowling alley needs about 1 buyer in 230 visitors, a lighter load than the 1 in 200 the 120,000-visitor arcade needs.

How do these four compare with the other 83 listings?

The four examples sit at the busy end of a marketplace whose typical listing is smaller. Across all 87 open listings in the same signed-venue marketplace on October 5, 2026, the median venue-reported count is 50,000 visitors a year, the median share is 40% of net, and 22 listings cross the 100,000-visitor line into Premium pricing.

• Traffic. 69 listings give a count: the middle half runs from 32,000 to 100,000 a year and the full range from 1,000 to 400,000. The other 18 say “Not counted.”
• Shares. Of the 81 listings that set one, 55 take 40%, 12 take 50%, 11 take 30%, 2 take 35% and 1 takes 45%; 6 set the share with the venue first.
• The 50% group. Every listing at 50% except one, a family entertainment center in Lawrence, Kansas, is a retail store, mall, gas station, electronics store or food venue.
• Terms. All 87 carry a 16-month minimum term, and 80 were signed for cotton candy machines.
• Mix. Bowling alleys (18), indoor playgrounds (15) and family entertainment centers (11) make up 44 of the 87.

The marketplace is a snapshot of open listings, signed between May 29 and September 3, 2026, not every venue the locator has signed, and it leans heavily toward family entertainment and cotton candy.

The same locator publishes a wider cut of the list with the waiting time attached. PinPoint Vending’s summary of its open signed locations counted 155 venues with no machine installed across 33 states and 151 cities on September 7, 2026, a median 62 days since signature, and California (19), Ohio (16) and New York (15) at the top. A venue that has waited months is worth asking about, since the wait may say more about operator coverage in that state than about the venue.

What should you verify before you sign for a listed location?

A listing is a summary of a host agreement, so verify the terms that move money before you sign for one. Check how the venue counted its visitors, which machine the agreement names, who cleans, how the share is calculated and paid, and what happens if the venue closes. A locator’s decision window may give you only a few days to ask.

1. The count. Ask where the visitor figure comes from: ticketing, point-of-sale data or an estimate.
2. The missing terms. Get in writing every term the agreement table above marks as not shown on the listing.
3. The space. Check power, footprint, access and connectivity before you move the machine; the locator’s terms put that check on the operator.
4. The exit. Ask what happens if the venue closes or removes the machine. In federal data through March 2025, 78.4% of arts, entertainment and recreation establishments opened in the year to March 2024 were still operating a year later (BLS establishment survival data); what happens when a vending location closes covers the clauses.

A checklist for the decision window for an offered location fits inside a few days, the vending locator contract guide covers the contract around the listing, and the wider picture is in how vending machine locators work.