A Slush Machine Can Make You Easy Extra Profits

If you operate any sort of retail outlet you obviously want to make as much profit as you can. There are many ways to persuade customers to spend more money once they are inside your store, but they vary considerably depending upon what you sell. For example, if you are a shop selling beds you could increase sales by stocking sheets, pillowcases, duvets, duvet covers, and other items associated with the bedroom.

Many outlets such as supermarkets use a number of tricks such as BOGOF, special discounts for a week, extra points on your store card, and many more to get you to part with your money. One of the biggest ways that supermarkets do this is by impulse purchases at the checkout where they put tantalising arrays of sweets and other goodies.

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Maximum Profit from Minimum Space Is What Every Retailer Needs

Everybody who owns a retail business wants to make the maximum amount of profit – preferably for the minimum amount of work! However, if you own a convenience store or a newsagent we all know that you have to put in long hours: yes the rewards can be high, but the hours are long.

Furthermore, while you want to make more profit there is only so much that you can do. Your shelf space is finite, so there may only be a limited amount of magazines that you can stock, even though you know you could sell more if only you had the space. You may have an off licence and could sell more wines – again if you only had the space!

That is probably one of your biggest limitations – space. If you had double the space you could stock a lot more items and make double the sales. It’s not rocket science!

This is why more and more retailers are looking to slushcompanies to install slush machines on their premises because they provide plenty of impulse sales, yet their big advantage is that they don’t take up much space. You can place a slush machine on your counter, next to the till for preference, and it will generate impulse sales for you on an ongoing basis. Customers will come into your store for this and that, see the slush machine, and be very tempted to buy a drink.

The slush companies can supply you with the machine and all of the syrups and other supplies that you need – which are not very much. Cups, straws, and maybe a plastic top for the cups, and you are in business. You can add some extras, such as posters, a pavement stand, and some flags, but that is all you need.

You will also find that many of the slush companies have special deals and offers that will enable you to make even more profit from a very small space on your counter. Maximum profit from minimum space is the ideal situation for every retailer.

The Birth of Slush Maker Machines

Way back in the 1950’s an ex World War II veteran owned an ice cream bar in Kansas which he bought with his military pay. Omar Knedlik was a successful businessman and later bought the Dairy Queen store in Coffeyville. However, just after he bought it the soda fountain broke, and there he was in the Kansas summer without any cold drinks. Somewhat in desperation, he ordered in some soda bottles and put them into his freezer. What he found was that when he opened them the soda immediately turned slushy. Believe it or not, this was the event that created slush maker machines.

What is going on here? What Knedlik had done, without knowing it, was to create a super-cooled liquid. The soda was actually colder than the point at which it transforms into ice, yet it hadn’t frozen. There is some science behind this. What happens is that for ice to form it has to have somewhere to start. That could be a tiny piece of dust or a rough spot in the glass of the bottle. If that isn’t present, the soda just keeps getting colder without actually freezing.

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The Rise of the Slurpee

In the US the majority of people are familiar with the name ICEE, and even more are familiar with Slurpee, although neither of those names means anything to people in Britain. They are both brands of slushy drinks which have been developed as a result of a faulty soda fountain in an ice cream store in Kansas in the 1950’s.

The entrepreneurial store owner, one Omar Knedlik, bought the store in the early 1950’s and just after doing so the soda fountain broke. This was in the heat of a Kansas summer, so he ordered in bottled soda and chilled it in his freezer to serve to customers. What he found was that when he opened the bottles the soda immediately turned slushy – and his customers loved it!

He then spent some time playing with an old ice cream maker and trying to replicate the slushy effect, which he eventually did. He now had a machine which could produce the slushy drinks at will and called his drinks ICEE. His machine was patented in 1962, and in 1965 7-Eleven stores bought a licence from Knedlik to use the machines in their stores. They called their product Slurpee after the “slurp” sound that is created when drinking the slush drinks through a straw.

In 7-Eleven stores today (some 8,000 of them) the Slurpee machines have a barrel which is surrounded with refrigerant. The syrup mixture flows into the barrel and is prevented from freezing solid by an auger which keeps it moving. The sugar concentrate also acts like a type of antifreeze. In the same way that we put salt on ice on the ground to melt it, sugar helps prevent the Slurpee from freezing. 

Today there are a lot of slush companies producing the syrups and also the machines in which to produce the slush drinks. Slush machines are found in all sorts of retail outlets and are an extra source of profit because many customers will buy a slush drink on impulse while in the shop. Others – especially schoolchildren - will flock into a store to buy the drinks and make other purchases while there.