What We Need Is A Darned
Good Survey!
by
,
Henr y Murchiso n
(In this amusing article Murchison
contends that "for want of a survey
the Industry is still small time." Satir-
ically written the deductions may, or
may not, be of any value but at least
the subject is humorously treated and
should provide a chuck le or t wo.-
EDITOR)
A
: COIH'
M ACHIHE
REVIEW
12
: 'FOR
DECEM'EII
1943
FTER months of thinking I've come to
the conclusion that the one thing need·
ed to make the Coin Machine Industry a
big· time affair is a surveyor analysis of all
its customers. Take breakfast foods, for ex·
ample. Any manufacturer worth his puffed
rice can tell you, quicker than you ca.n
"crackle, pop, snap," just who buys hiS
product, and how many, and why. Take
radios. Any broadcastll1g statIOn can rattle
off statistics on 'listeners so that your head
will swim and you'll listen for one of the
next commercials that advises what to take
for headache and an upset tomach. Take
automobiles. Anyone can tell you how
many 1943 automobiles were made and
exactly who bought them (ex<;iud~ng cars
for the armed forces, of course). But who
can tell about the Coin Machine Industry?
Practically no one, inside it or out, and
that is undoubtedly why it's not become
as important as radio or breakfa t foods
or automobiles.
An item in the papers recently asserted
that the average movie·goer's age is now
24 and that last year he (or she) was 26:
th~ reason for the change i,s. the additiol\ of
so much pocket money to the exchequers of
the pre·draft group of 16 to 18 year olds,
who brought down the age level. Things
like that are significant. They can't be over·
looked. And the movie producers, who have
been making films for 12 or 13 year olds-
Qr so we h ave heard-undoubtedly will now
reduce their level, very properly, and make
films for 10 and 11 year olds to meet this
downward trend. You don't think the fact
is important? Well, let us tell you the dis·
covery was made by no less than a sub·
sidiary of the Gallup Poll. ow will you
believe us when we ay it's important?
And whom do we have to report for the
Coin Machine Industry? Not a statistical
bureau, not a high figure within the indus·
try whose findings are based on long,
extended study, We have the manager of
a telegraph company-and the Kansas City
manager, at that. From him it may be
gathered that so long as anyone chases
fire engines, he's a probable, or at lea.st
prospective) patron of marble games. (Will
someone try to stop Mayor LaGuardia for
a moment? He ought to be one of the
best.)'
No' doubt you'd like to know what led
this telegraph manager to this conclusion.
It seems he hired 60 retired local business·
~en to act as messengers for his company.
They ranged in ages from 50 to 83. After
trying them out he made the surprising
discovery that "They are con cientious and
are not distracted from their jobs by fire
engines and such things. Pinball machines
don't even interest them."
There was another item in the same
paper, ju t below this startling pronounce·
ment This other item was a comment by a
WAC technician, 5th grade. She said: "He's
a strange animal, this soldier. He thinks,
if you date him more than twice, you're
trying to go steady. But if you date some·
one else, he thinks you're fickle. If you
have a boy friend at home but date any·
way, you're faithles . If you don't have a
steady boy friend at home, he thinks you
haven't anything on ths baIL" That is a
very good commentary on life and love,
but unfortunately it doesn't get us any·
where with our survey of the Coin Machine
Industry.
We do recall, now that you 'point it out,
that there have been a few surveys made
of the industry, Why, even such an august
body as the United States Chamber of
Commerce went around and counted rna·
chines in the various tyes of location, or
something of the ort, and of course the
manufacturers and the reliable trade papers
can tell you just about how many operators
there were la t week (they haven't had
time to note the changes yet this week,
we're sure) in each state of the union. But
those things are taken for granted. That is,
anY industry will do that.
What is needed here is a count of the
number of u ers of equipment, and all the
facts about them. The movies can tell 'you
that they have 70 million or 90 million
-or anyway some million-moviegoers a
week. That makes them big time, see? Not
the fact that there are millions of 'em, but
the facl that they've gone to the trouble.
And necktie 'manufacturers can tell YOIl,
before they slart out each season, that
bright blue or red neckties will be very
popular, and at the end of the season,
sure enough, they'll pull out their sale
charts and show you just how many gross
of bright blue and how many gross of red
necktie were ordered and how many were
cancelled. You see, it's all very conclusive.
Now what manufacturer in this indu try
would dare to make a prediction in advance
a to how many bright blue Or how many
red vending machines would be bought?
(We understand, by the way-just as a
matter of interest in reporting style trends
-that khaki neckties are still very popu.'
lar.)
Let's take something else, now. Let's
take toothpaste, for example. Do you think
everybody buys toothpaste? Certainly not!
Some people buy tooth powder, and some
old fashioned folks are so old fashioned
they use salt or baking soda or (we ac·
tually saw this at first hand) even soap.
And the manufacturers can tell you what
percentage of the population uses each
type of product. But they go much farther.
They can take their own product and tell
you how many people buy it in a small
drug store, how many buy it in a medium·
sized drug store, and how many buy it in
a large drug store. Undoubtedly all of these
are successful drug stores because they
carry their product, no matter whether
they're large or small stores, so if you're
thinking of starting a drug store on the
side you'd better investigate and stock thb
item. You ee how important things like
thi are.
Of course every operater i apt to know
his best locations; probably he can tell you
(but won't) that the small spot, or the
medium· ized spot or the large spot i best
for him, because--. But that still doesn't
make the industry really big·time. No.
Any other industry would not only know
which pot was best for the product, but
would have made endless surveys to learn
how many left·handed people and how
many right.handed ones buy the product.
You see, you never thought of that. Per·
haps, after all this time, some one may
discover that a preponderance of left·
handed clients in certain sections justifies
the creation of left·handed marble tables,
instead of making them a hundred percent
right·handed models.
Then getlinl!: back to this business of
color, since color is so important in mer·
chandising. Has this industry taken the
trouble to determine the extent of the ef·
feet of color blindness on the u e of its
equipment? I daresay not. Some extensive
research might well reveal that there are
people who don't play marble games be·
cause they can't distinguish the differences
in the scoring in the color on the back-
board. It is even possible that some poten·
tial customers, affiicted with color·blind·
nes , pass right by certain pieces of equip·
ment thinking they must be something
el e. Ah, color is important, gentlemen-
but perhaps it had better not be red. Re·
member these elderly gentlemen, reported
on earlier in this discussion, not only are
not distracted by pinball machine, but
don't chase fire engines and presumably
are not interested in fires. Thus the color
red is ruled out for at least one large group
of prospective amusement cu tomers, and
r KEEP;if CiPERATING 1
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WRITE FOR LATEST PARTS LIST
FOR ALL MAKE'S OF COIN-OPERATED
EQUIPMENT
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I ATLAS NOVELTY COMPANY I
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• 2200 N. Western Avenue
Chicago 47, Illinois I
The House of Friendly. Pe rsonal Se rvic e
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Mention of THE COIN MACHINE REVIEW is y our b est introd uction to our adv ertis ers
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