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experience with coin machines they buy any old kind, poor, bad
and indifferent, and then proceed to stick them every place they
can find anybody to take them, give any kind o f commission the
location owner asks them for, don’t know how to repair them
when they get out o f order, yet still leave them on the locations,
which in time sicken ; the location owner o f machines in general,
thereby making it tough fo r a professional operator with
thousands o f dollars worth o f R E A L machines that are kept in
perfect order. Indianapolis has many o f the kind mentioned
above. True, none o f them stay in the business very long, but
they stay long enough to do plenty o f damage to the operating
business. I have had the pleasure o f killing off several o f these
enterprising amateurs in the past ten or eleven years while they
were yet young, and never miss an opportunity of d o:ng so when
ever I encounter them, as I have met too many locations that
have been ruined by just such fellows. Whenever I find one o f
them try'n g to encroach on my locations I give their bum ma
chines so much opposition with good machines that they gener
ally pull out in a short t'me or else let their bum machines set
month after month until the location owner runs them out
himself.
Far be it from me to want to start amateurs in the business
I have all my money in and years o f hard work and close ap
plication, too. I most certainly wouldn’t furnish the knife to
cut my own throat— no one but an idiot would do that.
W ell, I only intended to aek you to send me the copy o f the
A U T O M A TIC AGE, and here I have written an article.
Yours very cordially,
B. W . S.
The above letter frankly raises the
question o f how shall we welcome
the beginning operator into the ex
panding field o f our business. It so
happens that we were privileged to
publish a communication from a
progressive young operator in Cleve
land in our September issue, which
gives a different ilant on this ques
tion and this letter in part is as fo l
lows:
.
“ Just recently, 1 have made nu
merous friends o f mine think about
the future o f automatic vending ma
chines. They can sec what a penny
can do.
It makes the dollar all
right. l»ut many hesitate when they
;:sk about slugs— and find out that a
machine will take a slug. They say
that th!:: should he stopped. This is
© International Arcade Museum
exactly what is holding thousands o f
interested persons back!
“ Let us; hear more fr o m . experi
enced and unexperienced operators
o f vending machines, and also from
manufacturers. T h i ; magazine— OUIi
magazine — the A U T O M A T IC AGE
— is the best one that exists in the
United States. Let us make it bigger
and greater in advertising power be
cause it belongs to us, and it is our
‘ General Agent.’
“ I would be glad to hear from an
operator who is making a success in
h o line. Rut I find that the m ajor
ity o f operators are more content in
running their business— and keeping
quiet. This is not the way to con
duct a bus’ nejs. The very first es
sential to business success is that
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