Vending machines vs shops?

[Lutti]

Hey all! Somewhat new to the game, and absolutely loving it!! Bit sad it's being very Sims-like when it comes to DLCs - buuut it's awesome enough to deal with I suppose!
Anyway, to the point of this post: So there are vending machines, and there are shops?? Has anybody figured the 'actual' financial differences as well as guest happiness? The vending machines seem to need quite a lot of mechanic maintainance and it's somewhat costly to have extra mechanics I suppose.. I haven't quite figured out how much guest happiness difference they make compared to shops? Hope those of you with much more experience than me can help me answer all this Which would you prefer - is something more preferable early on and then later when money's not an issue, the opposite becomes better, or??
Mind you I'm speaking purely financial and guest happiness-wise, not, y'know, "looks"

 

[Jeminyne]

Welcome to Planet Zoo, and the community! (I agree, the DLCs kinda suck but at least the game is great. But here I am still buying all the DLCs, so.. )

Personally I find the vending machines don't sell enough to make their money back or make a profit.. unless you put them in very dense traffic-flow areas. I use them when there's a spot with high traffic, with no space for full shops, and there aren't any shops near by. The guests usually appreciate that. But even then, I usually only need one (and I usually only use the drinks, preferably a drink type that is rare in my zoo) and THEN it will make a profit. If I put two next to each other, they don't even get enough use to both make money. So yeah shops are a lot better and guests flock to them.

But maybe I just need to make the vending machine prices higher or lower? I'd be surprised though because I always just use the default prices for the shops.

I've heard of using the vending machines to attract guests to look-out points they normally miss, but I'm not certain that actually works.

 

[Lutti]

Thank you so much for that elaborate point of view Jeminyne! Makes perfect sense, and I definitely get only using the drinks machine as it's usually thirst that is the hardest to keep up with - before the vending machines, I was usually putting down 2 drinks shops and they'd still have long queues!! lol Sometimes feels more like an amusement park game than a zoo, but I do suppose it's "realistic" that guests have those needs - just feels like they visit the zoo for the drinks and food rather than the animals sometimes
I guess I'll play around with them for a while to see what feels right.. I'm not too worried about getting actual profit from them if it'll boost the guest needs, but would of course prefer not to lose money from them either!

 

[Kolikokoli]

I always do plazas with shops and put some vending machines between them because guests are always thirsty. Thank god I play sandbox, they are all in red numbers, lol.