net Co., Tri-State Automatic Candy Co_ and
others_
The case seems to be similar to the FTC
proceedings against major cigarette manu-
fa cturers some years ago, in allegation in-
volving price discriminations to vending
firm ; the case dragged through the courts
for many years and finally was decided in
favor of the FTC.
Due to recent Supreme Court deci ions,
many think FTC will be upheld in the pres-
ent candy case _ A new angle has also been
added in a ca e involving charges against
Automatic Canteen_ Wm_ A_ Quinlan, at-
torney for NCWA reported that the FTC
charges implied that "Canteen sets about
deliberately to insist on lower prices from
manufacturers_"
He sa id FTC planned to mak e a real
test issue of the Canteen case to establish
the guilt or innocence of the buyer in cases
involvin g price di crimination_ The guilt of
sell ers in cases of price discrimination has
been accepted, but the guilt of the buyer
in cases of pri ce discrimination has not vet
been established under existing law. The
Canteen case will have important meaning
for all lines of business, Quinlan suggested.
Ve nding Trend
Th e official action of NCWA in pushing
price discrimin ation cases that involve large
vending firms mi ght give the impression
that the group is oppo ed to vendor . The
hnard did drop all strictly vendin!! firms
f rom its member -hip, after discoverin g that
~ome vending firms that have no jobber
busine~s had joiner! the group_ Otherwise,
the organization is fighting price discrimina-
tion, whether by chains, syndi ca tes or large
vending firm s, as a matter of policy.
Some manufacturers of ca ndy vendors
had representatives in attendance at th e
convention and all reported that ca ndy job-
bers are defi nitely getting into th e vending
machin e business; th ey state that ca ndy
jobbers are now turning to vendors just as
toba cco jobbers turned to cigarette vendors
so me years ago.
One vendor manufacturer sa id most of
his sales for some months had been to
ca ndy jobbers_ He ex plained that th e aver-
age operator of ca ndy vendors, who had
been in th e business for some years, had
been so hard hit by the high price on
ca ndy bars that he was not buying many
new machines_ Candy jobbers now at-
tracted to the vendi ng fiel d are providing
a market for new machines.
Size of the candy jobber trade was indi-
cated by an official of CWA who said the
organization now had about 1650 member _
Candy jobber lists have about 6500 names
in addition to the firms that are already
members_ He expressed th e view tha t total
number of candy jobbers in the U. S. that
measure up to trade standards would prob-
ably be 2500 to 3000_
Candy jobbers say they sell about 50 per
cent of the candy produced by manufa c-
turer ; official government report on 1945
candy sales puts the total for jobbers at
nearly 50 per cent of ca ndy manufactured_
Chain stores, against which jobbers com-
plain mu ch, were given credit for about
14 per cent of total ca ndy sales made in the
1945 report.
Jobber opinion, as expressed during the
co nvention , sugge ted some unea iness but
leader said this was due to general condi-
tion s more than to candy trade problems.
One leader said "jobbers are elling more
ca ndy than ever but they are also doing
more complaining." A majority seemed to
agree that sales are high, as compared with
1940_ but that ratio of net earnings to ales
is decidedly off by comparison.
On points of unfair competition, the or-
ganization had since its la t conven tion de-
veloped a code of ethi cs and had same ap-
proved by the FTC, with the government
agency coopera tin g in enforcement of those
provision that come under fair trade laws.
This step puts NCWA in the front ranks of
associations that undertake the problem of
eliminating unfair comp etition . Another
year will have more to tell about the candy
code and its operation .
Jobber had before th em the De pt. of
Commerce report for April which showed
total ca ndy sales in dollars dropping 17 per
cent from March and 2 per cent below
April 1947. (Candy bar sales, however,
made good ga ins in April as compared with
April 1947: for th e first four months of
the year also, candy bar poundage was 15
per cen t abo\ e the same period last year
and 39 per cent in dollar value.)
The exhibit list co ntained names of 80
firms; number of display booths had been
limited, or the total display would probably
INCREASE YOUR SUMMER
SALES
WITH
SWEET SHELL
VENDINe CANDIES
LICORICE GEMS
775-800 Pieces to the Pound
25c per Lb. - F.O.B. Chicago, III.
It's New and Sales W ill Amaze You!
FERRARA CANDY CO., Inc.
2200· 10 WEST TAYLOR STREET
CHICAGO 12. ILLINOIS
40 Years of fine Quality Confections
42
have been larger. Of the 80 exh ibitors, 32
of th em had nickel items sui table for vend-
ing machines- and candy bars were shown
by most of the 32_ Several new bars were
shown but mo t of these have already been
announced in trade papers.
Trends suggested by the displays show
ba rs gaining in variety, in number of manu-
fact urers entering bar field, and in total
volume of bar ou tput. Price trends are defi-
nitely downward on bars, with 72 cents per
24-count being most often mentioned_ Firms
are all interested in vending machine trade
and vending pack is increasing_
Packaging advances also mean now that
almost any small confection can be packed
for vending mach ine sales; the possibi ] ities
in this field were well ill ustrated by the
d isplays. Nickel cartons (vending size) of
a great variety of confections were hown to
be increasi ng in number.
Schutter Launches Match
Book, Car Card CampaiC)n
CHI CAGO-Schutter Candy Coo, man u-
facturers of Old Nick and Bit-a-Honey
candy bars, has launched the most inten-
sive match book and subway card advertis-
ing campaign ever conducted in a single
market. New York City is the locale and
40 million match books and 5,500 subway
cards per month are the amm uni tion_
Keynote of the campaign is the copy
theme, "Old Nick Is An Energy Food,"
and "Bit-a-Honey Is An Energy Food_"
Robert B. Barton, president of National
Match Book Advertising, Inc_, who handles
the account, says: "We are watching this
experiment carefully to determine the re-
sult of a sustained campa ign spearheaded
by mal.('h books and subway cards. It may
well ~". a new pattern for the promotion of
low-priced products sold on a Darrow
margin of profit to the rna s market."
STONER
UNIVENDOR
CANDY and ASSORTED
MERCHANDISE VENDOR
In T he T erritory of
OREGON, WASHINGT ON
IDAHO, MONTANA,
BRITISH COLUMBIA and
ALBERTA, CANADA
CONTACT
DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE
DON H. BURCHAM Co.
917 S.W. Oak Street
Portland 5, OreC)on
ASSOCIATES:
W. E. Earl
R. M. Laughrey
917 S.W. Oak St_ 2530 Warren Avenue
Portland 5, Oregon Seattte 9. Washington
COIN MACHINE REVIEW