Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

ThmkMoreolmeCoRsumer
by Walter Hurd
The Coin Machine Industry is not big
-enough to set precedent for other industries,
but in this world of complex situations it
.is not lagging behind on such important
ideas as that of labor-management relations.
The advertisements which manufacturers
place in local newspapers for skilled help
have for a long time provided an excellent
index to the many advantages which coin
machine firms offer to employees. Along-
side the advertisements of bigger manufac-
turing industries, it could be seen that the
larger industries, and the leading firms in
them, had no better incentives to offer than
does our Industry.
Many specific examples could be reported
but propriety in most cases has suggested
keeping the publicity at a minimum. In
the last issue of THE REVIEW mention was
made of the profit-sharing plan followed by
the Coan Manufacturing Co. for its em-
ployees and of the large sum of cash that
had recently been distributed among them.
In the summer of 1947 one of the lar~e
manufacturers of amu ement machines hit
upon an unusual incentive plan which, in
short order, worked miracles in boosting the
output of the factory. The plan was such
that it put extra pay in the weekly envelope
of every employee as production reached or
passed certain quotas.
Still another manufacturer of machines
has practically every employee benefit idea
!known in the business world today, includ-
ing an annual wage. The story was so
complete and unusual that the manufacturer
considered releasing it to newspapers and
to the trade papers, but legal counsel ad-
vised against it.
The idea of better employee relations ex·
tends on through the distributing and oper-
ating divisions of the Industry and every
firm, whether large or small, has individual
ideas of advancing in this field as new
ideas ·and plans become available. When
operators get together for conferences at
conventions, the question of employees is
usually an important one. Discussions show
that operators are well informed on modern
methods and ideas.
And some of the ideas held by Industry
members on economic subjects are original
and thought provoking. The writer will
never forget the idea suggested by a manu-
facturer of coin machines whose name has
for years been almost a by-word in the
trade.
He was thinking of the consumer, ant!
of employees as consumers. He said in sub-
stance that our nation has become so medl-
anized that people cannot consume all the
goods our factories can produce. He en-
visioned the time when the industrial setup
of the nation must be so adjusted that
workers are on the job only half the week,
will get the same pay as for a full week,
but will have half the week in which to
spend what they have made. He said i n-
dustry is already mechanized to the extellt
that such a system should be in effect now,
if we are to have real prosperity.
So, the pur po e of this article is not 10
debate methods of labor-management I"ela-
tions in the Industry, but to propose givin~
more attention to the ultimate consumer and
how the busine s management of the na-
tion can help consumers to consume more.
Dealing as they do with the production
of luxury items, the manufacturers and dis-
tributors of amusement and music machine~
may not think so much of the ultimate pa-
tron or consumer who puts coins in the mao
chines. The vending machine trade is com-
pelled by the very nature of the business
to think more directly of the consumer.
Most people in the trade now have ex-
perienced two extremes of economic con-
ditions on a national scale, and in both
periods the earning power of coin machines
has suffered severely because the consumer,
by the millions, has been so pinched that
he didn't have the money to spend freely
in patronizing coin machines. The Big De-
pression (1929-1932) hit the Industry pretty
hard and there were many more people
predicting the end of the business then
than there are now.
Inflation has also hit the coin machine
trade pretty hard and in many ways the
difficulty is traceable indirectly to the con-
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10
sumer and his lack of free spending money.
It is true that operators of coin machines
could have taken inflation in much better
stride, if they could have increased prices
on a level with consumer prices in other
trades. And yet evidences are beginning to
show up that the volume of patronage for
most types of coin machines is not what it
should be today .
Tavern owners say the coin machines in
their places of business don't get the volume
of play simply because the traffic in taverns
is down. So many of them grab at tele-
vision in the hope that it will bring in
customers. Three-for-a-dime candy bars as
they begin to come into the chain stores
will tell on the patronage of candy vendors
in factories, at a time when housewives
must count every penny to make ends meet.
Price cutting in cigarette circles will tell
on the patronage of the vendor.
Yes, the consumer is important to the
coin machine trade although the manufac-
turer, the distributor and the operator hard·
ly come in contact with him. The location
owner is expected to take care of the con-
sumer but in too many cases they do not
think constructively about him.
The real reason for labor-management
cooperation is in order that consumers may
have more to spend for goods and also
some security while spending it. Employees
must always be thought of as consumers
and, although they may not buy your own
product, somebody else's employees do. Na-
tional prosperity requires tbat sort of a co-
operative chain in which every firm gives
the be t to its employees, hoping that all
other firms will do the same and in that
way consumer spending will reach such a
volume that all trades share amply in the
profits that result.
There are many ticklish questions in
business, national and also on a world
scale, and it is easy to lose sight of the
millions of people classed as wage earners,
usually meaning they are in the lower in-
come groups. They have problems too, and
must always be counted in plans for making
prosperity stable in this country. They will
always be good coin machine patrons, if
they have the coins to spend freely. In try-
ing to decide the many issues before the
country, it is well to think of how the
future will affect them and their spending.
The consumer is" now worried most about
high prices, which is another way of saying
there is a lack of balance in the economic
system. There are all sorts of theories
that try to explain what is happening, what
is wrong, and what should be done about
it. Some of them rub pretty close to the
coin machine trade, enough so to make
coinmen sit up and think.
One is automatic machinery. If the
present stimulation of busines through
European aid, war plans, etc., does not last
long enough, the nation is very likely to
run right into a serious unemployment
problem due to automatic machinery. It is
called technological unemployment, but
whatever it is called, it plays hell with the
consumer-and all the fine theories about
machine creating jobs do not help the
jobless in their predicament.
The coin machine trade uses the word
"automatic" freely, as automatic music,
automatic merchandising, etc. Petrillo has
given a hint of what may show up in his
opposition to mechanical services. This
warning is not meant to be too serious; it
is just something to think about in the event
our mechanized civilization fails to provide
maximum employment.
Of all the trades in the country, the coin
machine trade will want to make our mech-
anized civilization succeed, and that is why
it is important to think more about the wel-
fare of the consumer, his job, and the
COIN MACHINE REVIEW