Editorial standards

Sourcing

Every figure in The Sweet Spot is sourced. It comes from a linked public source, from marketplace listing data labeled with its source and date, or from our own arithmetic with the assumptions shown. We prefer primary sources: regulations and health codes, government data, manufacturers’ specification sheets, trade associations and company filings. Each source is linked where the fact is used, and every article ends with its list of sources.

We do not publish invented quotes, interviews, case studies or test results, and we never invent a venue. Venues in the data are described by type and city (“a bowling alley in Greensburg, PA”).

Marketplace data

Some articles use listings from PinPoint Vending’s marketplace. The first time an article uses them, it names and links the marketplace and gives the date of the snapshot; after that, it calls them “those listings”. Visitor counts in the listings are reported by the venues and not audited, and we say so when we use them. The marketplace is a snapshot of open listings, so we don’t treat it as a picture of every venue or of vending as a whole.

How we run the numbers

Earnings and pricing pieces carry The Math: a worked example in a table, with an explicit “Assumptions” line above it. Unless an article says it is testing different values, every example uses the same house inputs, so you can compare one article with another and swap in your own figures:

• $8 per serving;
• a $1.80 cost-of-goods deduction per serving, the figure fixed in the host agreements in the marketplace listings. It is used only to work out the venue’s share (net sales are the price less $1.80), not as the operator’s real cost;
• a 40% venue share of net sales, the median across those listings;
• about $0.50 of sugar, stick and topping per serving, treated as a floor for the operator’s own materials;
• card processing at 5.95% of the price;
• a $100 monthly placement fee for a Standard location, $200 for Premium.

At those inputs an $8 serving leaves the operator about $4.54: $8 less the venue’s $2.48 (40% of $8 − $1.80), $0.50 of materials and $0.48 of card fees.

Every worked example is labeled an illustration, not a forecast. We never promise earnings.

AI assistance

We use AI tools in research and drafting. The editor, Kieran Kheller, reviews each article and checks its numbers against the cited sources before publication, and the article’s desk is accountable for it.

Images

The photos in our articles are AI-generated depictions of typical scenes, and each one is labeled as such in its caption (“AI-generated image”). They don’t show specific businesses, venues or people, and they never carry data, readable text or brand logos.

Corrections

To report an error, use the form on the contact page, with the article’s address and the passage in question. When we find an error, we correct it in the article and add a dated note in a Corrections block at the end of the article, saying what was wrong and what is right. Substantial updates also change the article’s “Updated” date.

Review dates

Every article ends with the date it was last reviewed and the date of its next review. Money and regulation pieces are reviewed every 90 days; other articles every 180. A review rechecks every source, figure and link, and the article is updated when something has changed.

Conflicts of interest

Nobody pays for coverage in The Sweet Spot: no paid placements, no sponsored articles and no payment for a mention or a link. When an article cites a company’s listings, prices or published terms, it links the source and labels the figures with their date, as set out under marketplace data.

Links

External links are citations: they point to the source of a fact, open in the same tab and are not marked nofollow. A company we name is always linked to its own website, at most three times per article, and never in a headline, a heading or the answer that opens an article. Internal links connect each article to its section guide and to related coverage.