12
T h e a u t o m a t i c A ge
small card tray or cabinet to fit your
cards. In addition, buy twelve in
dex cards with the names o f the
months on them and thirty-one cards
with the days o f the month. Put the
monthly index cards in your card
tray in their correct order. I f it be
August the tenth, put your daily in
dex cards from ten to thity-one in
back o f the August card and the
daily cards marked one to nine be
hind the September card.
On the top o f the card o f the ma
chine which you have just serviced,
you have made the notation, “ 20-
D A Y M A C H IN E .”
The date o f
your collection was, “ Aug. 10.” As
it is a 20-day machine, you should
service it again in twenty days.
Count twenty days from August 10.
This gives us August 30. N ow place
the record card behind, the index
card marked “ 30” which is located
behind the month “ A U G U S T.”
When the 30th o f August rolls
around, take out any cards that are
behind the corresponding index card,
arrange them in the most efficient
route by reference to your location
map, as explained in the August ar
ticle, and you are ready to make
your collection trip fo r the day. You
will find most o f the machines near
ly empty and will waste very little
time with machines not worth while
collecting from on that day.
When you get home that night be
fore replacing your cards in the in
dex fo r the next collection, check up
on your figures and see if your “ 20-
D A Y M A C H IN E ” is going along at
the same rate. It may be necessary
to change its rating if its daily av
erage has changed and gone up or
down.
When vending such perishable
productras salted peanuts it is ad
visable to list all o f your peanut ma
chines as 10 or 14-day machines and
go back to service them at these in
© International Arcade Museum
tervals regardless o f sales. You can
not leave a peanut machine stand un
til it is empty unless it is a very
good location, as the peanuts may
spoil.
I f you list a peanut machine as a
10-day machine and go back in -the
ten days to find it only half empty,
it is better to never fill it more than
half full. In this way your custom
ers will get fresher goods.
B efore leaving on a collection trip
see that your route cards are ar
ranged in such a manner that you
go to each location with a minimum
o f mileage. Make sure that you are
taking enough merchandise along fo r
the day. T oo much is better than
too little. Y ou will need a screw
driver and a pair o f pliers fo r minor
adjustments, a canvas bag fo r your
money, a pencil fo r making note o f
your collections, a rag to wipe the
machines off with, and a bag or box
to carry your supply o f merchandise
into the location in. I f you are hand
ling bulk goods like salted pea
nuts, you may prefer an empty fifty-
pound lard can and a scoop, or a
carton with one corner cut out fo r
pouring directly into the machine.
A cigar box with holes a little
smaller than a penny drilled in the
bottom o f it is handy fo r dumping
the collections in directly from the
machine prior to counting them. I f
the pennies are wet or dirty, shake
them around in the box and the wa
ter or dirt will fall out through the
holes.
Some operators carry a coin count
ing and wrapping machine. Alumi
num models are available fo r about
fifty dollai’s which are light to carry
and quickly pay fo r themselves by
the amount o f time saved.
Coin stackers may be purchased
fo r about two dollars which stack
the coins so that they may be in
serted in a tubular coin wrapper, for
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