COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
12
FOR
JULY
1947
ping and residential areas might note an
almost equal decrease in business. The
usual shift appeared to be setting in this
year as this report is written.
Attempts to gauge the probable grand
total of tourist business this year are sub-
ject to the usual unknown factors. A radio
newscast at the moment has announced
ttIe possihilty of the return of gas rationing,
and that would certainly put a crimp in
summer business for the coin machine
trade all over. By the time this issue
reaches our readers, some solution may
be found. Not much publicity was given
to the growing shortage of gasoline during
the spring months, but it was happening
and independent dealers at first accused
the big oil companies of getting more than
their share.
Data on new cars at the beginning of the
second half -of the year also was not too
encouraging, although output was at a
rate of about 100,000 cars and trucks per
week. The auto industry was hoping it
could maintain the rate during the year
but even then could not meet the demand
for new cars. Then the prospect of a coal
strike began to dampen bright hopes for
auto makers.
.
Railroads contributed their share to
boosting summer travel by starting several
new and modern trains. Some of these
are even expected to introduce innovations
in coin-operated self·service in time. The
trend in the new coach trains especially
is to find more economical ways to serve
food and drinks to the traveling public.
The public would see much more in these
self·service innovations but for the short-
ages in materials. Experimental work in
developing entirely new dispensers for such
uses as modern trains has been seriously
handicapped. The railroads and machine
makers know it ca,n be done and eventually
self· service in the form of coin operation
will be on some modern trains.
Railroads threw one question mark into
the summer travel world on June 1. A
fairly general hike in passenger fares went
into effect and since the proposed increase
had been announced some days previous,
there was a rush by many people to get
vacation tickets in advance of June 1, thus
using the 90 day clause. Travel agencies
.and ticket offices tried to guess from this
at the probable volume of summer travel,
but no information of value could be de-
veloped. Railroads had to face the fact
of a 37 per cent decrease in passenger
travel for March and that was not such
a good indicator for the coming summer.
Trains were quietly discontinued but the
new streamliners added made up for the
withdrawals to some extent.
Government reports on retail trade for
April shed some light on summer business
trends. Filling stations set an average gain
of about 10 per cent in April as compared
with one year ago, and such stations are
always a good index to how much people
are traveling. Gas stations must now be
considered as among the most popular
types of coin machine locations also. The
big oil companies had plans drawn up for
building more roomy stations but the plans
will probably not be carried out this year.
Gas stations are mushrooming in number
as new onei open.
Eating. and drinking places gained
slightly in April as compared with March
and drug stores found their trade shifting
more to summer items. But some of tr.ese
gains were simply a reflection of high
prices, and 1946 was not a normal year
for purposes of comparison. The gains in
trade did indicate that people have money
to spend and are spending it in places
that cater to people on the go.
The South feels the first stimulation from
warm weather and early reports from this
section are often regarded as a barometer
of general spending trends. Operators in
the southern states have reported that
people definitely are not spending money
as freely as they did one year ago. This
applies even to- the play of coin machines.
Most reports say people go to summer
amusement spots in as great numbers as
ever, but ' the per capita spending is less.
Some operators of traveling arcades
dropped out for the season after a trial in
the Deep South.
These were early reports and the late
spring in the north central states did not
permit a norll.lal seasonal trade to make
comparisons.
The usual promotional boosts for sum·
mer travel were put into action on regular
time. More sections of the country received
publicity boosts this year than has been
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true previously, and a few more states
joined the parade of states that appropriate
funds . to advertise for tourists. But here
a lack of revenue began to show up in
some states. Newspapers said ,e astern cities
were doing more to attract customers from
the Midwest than ever before.
Canada and Mexico put on a little extra
effort this summer to attract tourists. Mexi-
co cut the border entry fees and also an·
nounced that proper health safeguards had
been set up. Canada needed American dol-
lars more than ever and so made special
appeal to tourists.
As July 1 ushered in the second half of
the year, the big question in every oper-
ator's mind related to how freely would
people spend. Wherever an operator had
a machine in a retail establishment, the
location owner would recite instances to
show that people are holding onto their
money. Machines take only small coins but
would the people hold on to these coins,
too? The customers themselves were also
talking about these things and a big psy-
chological background had been built up.
Here and there plant layoffs received wide
publicity and upset local business, but the
national level of employment stood at the
top.
The most encouraging features for the
coin machine trade, as real summer began,
were that no overcrowding of machines
existed in the amusement and vending
machine fields-and millions of people were
traveling. Music operators had already
met a considerable drop in their play and
now the summer travel was beginning to
boost a good many of their spots.
SHOW DATES
(Continued from Page 11 ).
paratively few m&mbers had voted for the
second proposition of holding the next
convention in January, as now scheduled,
and then changing to a December date for
annual conventions thereafter. The num-
ber voting for the third plan was almost
negligible, Gilmore said.
The ballot on the second proposition in-
formed members that the week of Decem·
ber 13, 1948 is ,the earliest possible time in
which convention dates are available in
Chicago hotels big enough to accommodate
the coin machine show.
On the basis of the returned ballots, with
such a big majority voting to keep the
January dates as a permanent schedule for
the annual shows, the directors confirmed
the date of the next annual convention as
January 19 to 22, 1948. The board also
decided on January 17 to 20, 1949 as the
succeeding show date, in order to make
sure of getting a reservation for the date.
CMI plans to JIlail floor plans and exhibit
contracts for the 1948 convention to mem-
bers only, so that they will have them in
their mail on the morning of September 2.
Gilmore said plans would be well laid
during the coming months, before Septem-
ber 2, to make the next convention "the
BIG coin machine show this coming winter.
All manufacturers, distributors and opera-
tors will be invited to attend and make the
convention bigger and better than ever
before."
Since a number of people in the trade
during past years have suggested an an-
nual convention date late in October or
early November, CMI officials explained
there would be many things in favor of
such a date but other trade conventions have
all hotels reserved during those months.
Due to the bigness of the annual coin
machine conventions, it is always a prob-
lem to get a hotel big enough to accom-
modate the exhibits.
,