Heat dome? Brown outs? Heat strokes? Riots?

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Fishman

Gordon, it's funny you mention the ICE business. In New Albany Indiana right off of state street next to a storage facility, is an ICE VENDING MACHINE, standing alone on it's own. I assume it belongs to the storage facility place. Been there for years. I've seen people use it myself, no idea how much or how many people, but it must be worth it to keep it because you can tell it is being taken real good care of. I would bet it's paying off like a slot machine right now with this heat.

Bud Riggs (The Boz) and I watched them build one in Carlsbad, NM. It sits at the corner of Spring and US 285, right in front of the car wash we worked.

It took about 10 days, from ground breaking to finish it. It was the third one this guy owned, it is a franchise, pretty damn simple, and requires regular routine maintenance, but not much of it.

The machine purifies the city water, makes ice 24/7 and also give water out if you bring your own jugs. He expected it to be fully paid for in 5 years (by now) and produced a monthly profit during this time.

We contacted this franchise, as well other similar, I believe if Boz hadn't had a stroke, he was going to invest in these.

I have two great locations here, but lack interest. I think a scaled down version or even one of those ice freezers you see at gas stations, would be a nice absentee business. I'd suggest a water purifier next to it, the one at my Discount Drug Mart does gangbusters. They sell ice inside.

Most of the ones we talked to had a substantial investment attached up front. I'm surprised how much ice is sold here (Ohio) in winter, but, then consider all the holiday parties, no body likes warm beer or pop, eh?

GordonJ