If you're the one who got asked to "sort out the vending," and a company wants to put a machine in your building, here are the questions I'd ask if I were in your seat — and why each one tells you something that matters.

"How long have you been in business?"

Experience shows up in the details you won't think to ask about. A company that's been running routes for years knows where a machine should go, how to stock it for your team, and how to keep it running. Someone new to it is learning on your machine. This one question filters out a lot.

"How often do you plan on servicing the machines?"

This is the question that predicts whether the machine actually works a year from now. A machine that doesn't get serviced on a real schedule goes stale and sells out of the good stuff — and the moment people hit a row of sold-out favourites a couple times, they stop checking it at all. Ask for a specific answer: every week, every two weeks, adjusted to how busy the site is. Vague is a red flag.

"What kind of stuff do you put in the machines?"

What goes in the machine decides whether it gets used. The right answer is that they stock to your team, not to a generic planogram — the bestsellers everyone wants, plus what actually moves with your people. A company that puts the same lineup in every building is going to leave money, and your team's snacks, on the table. (I got into this in detail in what actually sells in a workplace machine.)

"What's your response time when a machine goes down?"

Machines break — that's a given. What separates a good provider from a bad one is what happens next. Does someone show up that day, or three days later? Same-day or next-day is the GTA bar. Anything slower and you've got a dead machine in your lunchroom and a team walking down the street instead.

The thing those four questions are really testing

All four are getting at one thing: is there someone behind the machine who's actually accountable? With a big operator you're often talking to a call centre. With us, you're talking to me. We're family-owned and Vaughan-based, we service vending across the GTA, and the person who answers the phone is the person who owns the route. Sam answers the phone.