We ship improvements to location research continuously. Here is what has changed, and what it means for the lists you receive.
Last updated August 17, 2026
v1.7Latest
Cover your whole territory, not one ZIP
Nobody runs machines in a single ZIP code. Operators work an area — a few towns, a corridor, the side of a city they can service in a morning. Pro and Scale now research a territory rather than a point on the map, at the same price.
NewPro covers 3 markets and Scale covers 5, and you choose the ZIPs — neighbouring towns, or three cities in different states if that is the route you drive.
ImprovedMore ground means more opportunities: Pro delivers 300+ locations and Scale 500+, spread across your markets so every one of them gives you something to work.
NewEvery location shows which market it came from, and the summary breaks the count down market by market, so you can plan a week by area instead of reading one long list.
ImprovedEach business appears once, however many of your markets it sits between — so overlapping territory gives you more distinct locations rather than the same ones twice.
ImprovedEvery market is guaranteed its share of the list, so a smaller town alongside a big city still comes back with real coverage instead of being crowded out.
NewChoosing markets that sit close together? Checkout tells you at the point you enter them, while it is still easy to pick somewhere further out.
v1.6
Stop calling businesses that can’t say yes
The slowest part of placement work is not finding locations — it is the week spent on businesses that were never in a position to sign. This release is built to take that wasted effort out of your week before you pick up the phone.
NewA corporate Walgreens or Planet Fitness signs placement contracts nationally, years in advance — the manager who answers the phone cannot approve anything. Every location is labelled Independent, Regional, or National Chain, so you can work the ones where the decision gets made on site.
ImprovedEvery business across your entire market is scored, and your list is drawn from the top of that ranking — so what arrives is the strongest set of opportunities the market has to offer, not simply a set of them.
NewPlanning a day of visits usually means pasting addresses into Maps one at a time. Each location shows its distance from your market center, so you can group an efficient route in a couple of minutes.
ImprovedYour list reflects businesses that are open and operating today, so every name on it is one you can actually walk into.
ImprovedOutreach drafts are written for each individual location — including separate branches of the same business — so what you send speaks to the specific site you are approaching.
ImprovedLarger plans now search deeper into dense markets, so you get the full breadth of coverage your plan includes even where the competition for space is thickest.
v1.5
Check a location before you spend anything
Placement economics vary enormously between a tourist city, a factory town, and a commuter suburb — and most of what is written about this business online ignores that entirely.
NewHave a specific spot in mind and want to know if it is worth pursuing? Score any address free, using the same scoring that powers the paid reports, before spending a dollar.
ImprovedCity guides are written from each metro’s own employment mix, traffic patterns, and anchor industries, with earnings estimates that move accordingly — so what you read about Detroit reflects Detroit.
ImprovedA faster, shorter path from choosing a plan to having your report in hand.
v1.4
Help with the part that comes after the list
Getting the locations is the easy half. Walking into a business and persuading an owner to give up floor space is the half that decides whether you make money.
NewTelling an owner "this will make you money" is weak; showing them the arithmetic is not. Download a profit projection built from your own numbers and bring it to the conversation.
ImprovedEach plan spells out the size of market it suits, so you can match what you buy to how widely you are actually canvassing.
NewRunning both ATMs and vending? Pull the second list for a market you already know in one step, rather than researching the same area twice.
NewOperators who recommend PlacementScout can share a referral code and get credited for it, and promo codes work at checkout.
v1.3
No subscription to research one market
Most tools in this space bill monthly whether you are actively expanding or not — the wrong shape for a business where you research a market, work it for months, then move on.
ImprovedBuy a market when you need one and nothing when you do not. Three one-time plans: $19.99 to test a market, $39.99 for a full canvass, $99.99 to work at scale.
v1.2
Decide if this business is worth entering
Before spending on locations, the harder question is whether machines pay for themselves in your area at all — and almost everything written about that online is someone’s sales pitch.
NewEveryone quotes different income figures and none of them are yours. Calculators for both ATM and vending let you model returns using your own costs, commission split, and traffic assumptions.
NewChoosing between ATMs and vending is the first real fork, and the trade-offs are rarely laid out plainly. A side-by-side comparison covers startup cost, ongoing work, and what each business demands of you week to week.
NewFree market guides for 50 metros, so you can read what a specific city looks like for placement before committing to it.
NewLanding the location is not the end — most operators walk into the conversation with no sense of what a fair commission split or contract term looks like. Guides on placement agreements cover what to expect before you are sitting across from an owner.
v1.1
Vending research, and reports built to be shown
Vending placement rewards completely different things than ATM placement does — and either way, the research only helps if you can put it in front of the person whose floor space you want.
NewVending machine location research, scored on what actually drives vending revenue — dwell time and captive audience — rather than the cash demand that governs ATM placement.
ImprovedReports are designed to be shown, not just read: presentable enough to hand to a property manager as evidence you have done the homework.
NewThe largest plan includes the paperwork operators otherwise assemble from forum posts — placement agreement templates, supplier directories, and a business primer.
v1.0
Stop driving around guessing
The standard way to find placements is to drive a neighbourhood, note the businesses that look busy, and hope. It burns weekends and still misses most of the market.
NewEnter a ZIP code and get the placement opportunities across that market researched and ranked, so you start from a prioritised list instead of a windshield survey.
NewEvery location arrives with publicly available contact details, so there is no separate hunt for a phone number before you can start calling.
Every update applies to your next report
Improvements to how locations are researched and scored are applied automatically — there is nothing to upgrade, and no subscription.