Where cotton candy machines earn their keep.

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States

States covers where a cotton candy machine can actually be placed, one state at a time: which locators take specialty machines there, the food vending licence a floss sugar machine needs and the agency that issues it, the venues already running one, and the share those venues take. Specialty placement is a narrower market than snacks and drinks, and these guides say how narrow in each state.

Reported by The Sweet Spot Venue Desk 51 articles

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Cotton candy machine placement by state

Twenty-nine states have a signed cotton candy placement. Twenty-one have none at all, and two are outside the specialty locator’s coverage entirely.

8 min read

More States coverage

  1. Best cotton candy vending locator in Illinois

    Illinois signed the strongest bowling alley in the dataset and one of the weakest venues in it, within a fortnight. Same state, same venue type, ten times the difference.

    5 min read

  5. Best cotton candy vending locator in Maine

    Dry winter air is the easy part of a Maine placement. The harder question is what sixteen months means at a venue that closes for five of them.

    6 min read

  10. Best cotton candy vending locator in Mississippi

    Six Mississippi placements, three different percentages, and not one below the national median. This is the most expensive state in the record to place a machine in.

    5 min read

  13. Best cotton candy vending locator in Nebraska

    Most states let an operator pay the whole enrolment fee up front. Nebraska limits the advance to a fifth of it, which changes the cash flow of a first machine.

    6 min read

  14. Best cotton candy vending locator in Nevada

    Nevada’s climate is the easiest a floss machine will meet and its licence is a flat annual charge. Both facts point the same way: go wide, not small.

    5 min read

  16. Best cotton candy vending locator in New Jersey

    Flanders agreed a better share than Burlington and reports 1,000 visitors a year against 120,000. On an operator’s spreadsheet only one of those numbers matters.

    5 min read

  28. Best cotton candy vending locator in Texas

    Texas is the only state in this record whose median share is 50%. Its busiest venue accepted the worst terms and is still the best placement in the state.

    5 min read

  30. Best cotton candy vending locator in Vermont

    The cheapest state in this series to try a machine in is also the one with the least to go on. Vermont’s nearest comparison is 70 miles away and unrankable.

    5 min read

  40. Best cotton candy vending locator in Florida

    Five cotton candy placements, from a Miami deli taking 770 people a day to a Cape Canaveral rage room taking 23 — the record’s full share span in one state.

    6 min read

  41. Best cotton candy vending locator in Alabama

    Alabama’s health permit follows temperature control. Spun sugar needs none, which may put a cotton candy machine outside the permit entirely — ask the county rather than assume.

    6 min read

  42. Best cotton candy vending locator in Arkansas

    Arkansas charges up to $93 a year for the decal on a machine like this, and the air works against the product for half the year. Both belong in the arithmetic.

    6 min read

  43. Best cotton candy vending locator in California

    California’s six specialty placements all agreed the same share. The variation is in the counties, where 58 different health departments permit the same machine.

    7 min read

  45. Best cotton candy vending locator in Georgia

    Georgia is the only state whose entire record is specialty machines. Four venues, four cotton candy placements, and a trampoline park seeing 410 people a day.

    5 min read

  46. Best cotton candy vending locator in Ohio

    Ohio is a bowling-alley market for floss sugar. Four of its six cotton candy placements sit behind a shoe counter, and all of them pay the venue 40% of net.

    8 min read

  47. Cotton candy vending machine placement in Alaska

    Alaska is outside the specialty locator’s stated coverage, so placing a cotton candy machine here means doing it yourself. The dry interior air is the one thing working in your favour.

    6 min read

  48. Cotton candy vending machine placement in Arizona

    Floss sugar’s enemy is moisture, and Phoenix averages under nine inches of rain a year. Arizona may be the easiest climate in the country for a cotton candy machine.

    6 min read