Published • 30 Sep 2025
Running a small market inside an apartment building doesn’t look like running one in an office. Offices follow a schedule: the morning coffee rush, the midday snack, the lunch peak, and then a sharp drop after 3 p.m. That rhythm makes planning simple.
Apartments run differently. There’s no clocking in at 9 and heading out at 5. Residents come and go at all hours—grabbing a sports drink before the gym at dawn, picking up a snack with their packages at night, or heating up a frozen meal after a late shift. Sales aren’t concentrated in one window; they’re spread across the entire day.
For anyone thinking about placing a market in a multifamily property—whether you already operate other accounts or you’re looking for a new way to create revenue—this difference changes everything. It shapes your product mix, your merchandising approach, and how you measure apartment profit margins.
In this post, we’ll show you how apartments behave differently than office placements, and at the end you’ll find a free apartment profit margin calculator sheet you can download to test your own scenarios.
Dayparts in Apartments vs. Offices
In offices, sales are concentrated into a few high-volume peaks, which is why variety and speed are most important. In apartments, sales are spread out, which means consistency matters more than speed. You don’t need 20 sandwiches ready for a noon rush. Instead, you need hydration options around workouts, family-friendly items for evenings, and meal solutions for residents who skip the grocery run.
Example:
- Office Market: 60% of daily sales might happen between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
- Apartment Market: Sales could be evenly distributed: 25% in the morning, 40% in the evening, 35% on weekends and late at night.
This changes the economics. Spread-out sales make shrink control and replenishment discipline even more important. Still, they also give you margin opportunities by offering products residents are willing to pay for at unusual hours.
SKU Mix That Works in Residential
Apartment residents don’t shop like office workers on a break. They shop like people living their lives at home. That means their needs are broader and often more urgent. Successful multifamily locations typically stock three distinct groups:
- Quick Fuel
Think sports drinks, protein bars, bottled water, and ready-to-drink coffee. These cover morning and post-gym traffic. - Convenience Staples
tems like milk, bread, eggs, frozen meals, and grab-and-go breakfast. Residents are more willing to pay a premium for a missing staple than to make a store run. - Indulgence & Social
Share-size chips, multi-packs of soda, or beer and wine (with age verification). These drive higher basket sizes on evenings and weekends. - Sundries and Non-Food Items
One surprising difference in multifamily markets is how often residents buy non-food products. Over-the-counter medicine, household basics, and small personal-care items sell consistently.
Including staples, indulgences, and everyday sundries gives residents more reasons to buy, and it shows up in the basket size. In multifamily, purchases often cover household needs or last-minute items, which naturally pushes transactions higher than in offices.
The Margin Play
Apartment profit margins hinge on two levers: assortment and timing.
- Assortment: Residents are less price-sensitive when the alternative is a drive to the store. Premium SKUs and multi-packs often carry stronger margins. Don’t be afraid to test higher price points than you would in an office.
- Timing: Review sales by daypart. Using ADM reporting, you can see exactly when sales occur. If 40% of purchases happen between 7–9 p.m., you can run promotions or highlight bundles that align with those hours.
This is where you can treat multifamily like a lab. Compare a “residential planogram” against your office template. Track which SKUs move, how basket size changes, and what margins look like. The data helps refine your playbook and protect profitability.
Technology That Expands Your Options
Selling in an apartment setting requires trust—both for the resident and for you. Vision-based coolers, like the PicoCooler Vision, deliver that confidence. The locked-door and computer vision flow make it practical to stock products beyond traditional vending. Residents open the door, take what they need, and the cooler automatically records and charges the transaction.
Paired with ADM, you can drill into sales by location, SKU, and time of day. That’s the data you need to run multifamily differently than offices, without relying on guesswork.
Why It’s Worth the Shift
Operators sometimes hesitate with apartments because the volume per visit can feel lower than office towers. But the upside comes from:
- All-day sales: Not dependent on a narrow lunch rush.
- Higher baskets: Larger items and multi-serve packs add dollars per transaction.
- Sticky locations: Once residents become accustomed to buying on-site, they tend to repeat the habit. That loyalty translates into consistent revenue.
- Route efficiency: Apartments can often be layered into existing routes without adding new trucks or staff.
Apartments aren’t simply a copy-and-paste of office markets. They require a shift in mindset. However, for those who lean into the differences—such as traffic patterns, assortment, and margin levers—the payoff is clear.
The Bottom Line
Apartments are a different animal. They call for flexibility in SKU mix, sharper reporting by daypart, and technology that protects margins while still giving residents variety.
Whether you’re already running accounts and looking to branch into multifamily, or exploring apartment markets as a new revenue opportunity, this channel has staying power. With steady traffic and strong apartment profit margins, it can be one of the most resilient additions to your business.
365 gives you the tools to make it happen. From PicoCooler Vision for secure, resident-ready assortments to ADM reporting for analyzing dayparts, you’ll have everything you need to build a playbook tailored to multifamily.
Free Download: Apartment Margin Calculator
Curious what the numbers look like for your own routes? We built a simple Excel tool to help you test scenarios. Enter your unit counts, estimated purchases, average basket size, and margin targets to see Monthly Sales, Gross Profit, and Net Profit after costs.
👉 Download the Apartment Margin Calculator here
Use it as a directional guide to model opportunities before you commit to your first property. Results will vary by property, placement, and product mix; however, the sheet makes it easy to determine if multifamily fits into your strategy.