T
he
A
u t o m a t ic
temptation to vandals. It behooves
the manufacturer to concentrate his
attention on 1-cent or 5-cent pro
ducts and to consider 10 to 25-cent
merchandise only when machines can
be restricted to safe locations and re
main under effective surveillance.
Fifth, slow moving products should
not be sold by machine.
In auto
matic retailing the profit per sale is
small; many such small profit tales
must be made in order to yield a fair
le turn on the investment in mechani
cal equipment. Even the fastest sell
ing products, such as chocolate nut
oars, will not average on large opera
tions more than eight to ten sales
Per day. Slower-moving merchandise,
such as handkerchiefs or collar but
tons, may not average that many a
Week; that sort o f thing, by and
ar&e, simply does not pay.
Sixth, p oor quality or low value
merchandise is distinctly unsuited to
automatic sale.
The machine is
argely dependent upon the patronage
° f those people who have tried its
Product, liked it and come back for
more, i f
cjuality o f the product
ls not high, the public simply w.'ll not
°°m e back to buy more. It would,
Perhaps, be considered unetnical to
mention by name poor quality p ro
m ts which have caused the failure
?
automatic retailing en terp rise,
find SU°^ examPle3 cre not ;f“ Teuit to
Seventh,— and last,— machines can-
P* sell successfully that merchan-
^ e in which the public lacks con-
ence. An entirely unknown pre
set can build up its good-will
ll0u8h sheer merit, aided by the
u licity afforded it by the machines
^ emselves, but the process is.slow .
^eitaJnly the most potent method of
a"eating that confidence is national
^ ^ is in g . A nationally advertised
Uc^ discovered by the public in
a es~machines is bought with con
© International Arcade Museum
A
ge
13
fidence
and
without
hesitation.
Furthermore, the locating o f ma
chines is accelerated when they sell
products with which the owners o f
locations are thoroughly familiar.
I f a manufacturer’s products fall
into any o f the foregoing groups, he
may just as well give up any idea
o f selling them by m achine,; fo r the
present at least.
I f a product is small; and fast sell
ing; and low priced; and restricted
to one or two sizes, styles, colors!,
etc., then it may be suitable fo r auto,-
matic sale. That “ may” is necessi
tated by the fa ct that there are still
other qualifying conditions. F or ex
ample:
The automatic retailing o f perish
able products is justified only when
circumstances are particularly favor
able. The sale o f sandwiches and
pies in factor'es, schools and offices
is a losing proposition because o f the
h’gh cost o f rervicing the machines
daily, plus the inevitable percentage
o f unsold and stale merchandise. Yet
the Automat restaurants have been
an outstanding success fo r many
years.
But all this comes down to nothing-
more than ordinary businecs judg
ment. The manufacturer who is fo r
tunate in having one or more pro
ducts suitable fo r automatic retail*-
ing, or who can make up such mer
chandise specially fo r the purposes,
will have no unusual d!ffculty in de
termining their practicability fo r the
new market.
T o round out this part o f the pic
ture, sat sfactory merchandise may
be broadly classified as follow s:
The Right Product must be:
1— Self-selling (the sort o f thing
which people buy on sight):
2— Individual (sufficient unto itself
without variety o f sizes, colors,
styles, etc.).
•
(Continued on page 17) '
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