would levy a $1 per machine fax eX'piring
in June of each year.
Within St. Paul, an ordinance requiring
$5 lIcense on each candy and bulk vendor
location is pending. Although applicable
to locations, many will not pay the fee,
claiming it &hould be paid by operators who
in turh claim business is too bad to stand it.
Commenting on the situation, LeRoy
Johnson, president of Minnesota Automatic
Merchandisers' Assn., said 1948 net operat·
ing profits were only 1.8 per cent while as
of February 15 business was down 14.5
per cent over last year and March sales
are nearly 25 per cent off from March 1948.
Also in St. Paul, an ordinance to license
shuffleboard and bar its playing by minors
has been introduced in the ' city council.
It would impose a $50 annual location Ii·
cense, plus a $5 fee on each shuffleboard.
Ordinance would establish same license reg·
ulations on shuffleboard as on pin ball ma-
chines and if owner already has a location
license he would be assessed only the $5
per machine fee.
Au tomatic phonograph business is pick-
ing up gradually and the first quarter of
the year fared nearly as well as a like
period of a year ago. However, amusement'
games, with exception of shuffleboard, are'
getting only fair play, but the resort season
opening will bolster this substantially, most
operators and locations feel.
Beverage vendors, cup variety in particu-
lar, have fallen off and the answer seems
to be new types of equipment as well as
locations, according to operators and soft
drink firms.
Shuffleboard activity continues to grow in
this area, after getting off to a slow start,
and is taking hold by operators and public
alike in fine fashion. Many locations are
getting heavy play, but frequently to detri-
ment of other coin devices, except music.
Television in taverns, bars and public
places is dying in this area and the threat-
ened competition no longer disturbs coin-
men who are now taking hold of a coin
TV machine for operation soon in this area.
Vending operations have steadily declined
during first three months, but are climbing
slowly back up and the cost-price squeeze
is easing up.
-N. F . W ood
Washinglon, D. C.
General business in the nation's capital
has been slow, with Commerce Department
and Board of Trade generally agreeing re-
ceipts are running about 5 per cent below
last year. Miserable weather cut down the
throngs who were expected to visit the
Cherry Blossoms, and the summer tourist
rush is still a ways off. Summer, however,
should be good. Several hundred conven-
tions have been booked by the Board of
Trade, and that always means more cash
in town. District Government workers should
be getting a $330 raise shortly, and that
will help.
One warm week-end raised the hopes of
soft-drink operators. One stated that the
week-end brought in almost as much money
as the best three-day period in all of last
summer. Several operators are beginning to
shift candy machines to vend cookies and
cakes. Placed near a beverage dispenser,
these items have been doing well.
Arcade business is proceeding nicely, and
this helps raise th~ gross of amusement
games for the city as a whole. The new
pistol machines have been doing very well
in the two or three arcades that have in-
stalled them. Colored films in the movie
machines have spurted grosses, though they
are so expensive that most machines are
still using black-white films. Other types of
machines are rocking along about th e same
as usual according to most reports.
MAY, 1949
No other Ball Gum Vendor like it!
Operator usually nets up to 75c ~ut 'of every
$1 the "Hunter" takes in!
A real money-maker from the moment you install it!
That's what operators say about the new "Hunter." But '
that's not all. Look at these two features: I-No
coin return. 2-No gum dispensed unless the
player wants it. That's why many report a
net of 75c out of every $1 the "Hunter"
takes in . Can you beat that for a
"Gold Mine"? Order now
through your jobber or
write for illustrated litera-
ture.
SILVER·KING CORP.
622 Diversey Parkway
Phonos, however, seem to be doing a
spotty business. Some operators claim their
business is poor; others say they can't com-
plain.
-Roy S. R amsey, Jr.
Right Time to Get
Into Pop Corn Biz
CHICAGO-Operators will find the cur-
rent season an excellent time to get into the
pop corn merchandising business, accord-
ing to Harold Schaef, head of the Victor
Vending Corp., which recently announced
Hot-Pop. The new device is a merchandiser
for dispensing hot pop corn, not coin-
operated but ideally suited to operators
who have the right experience to make a
go of routes, Schaef said.
Growers produced a big crop of corn
last year, of high quality, and that means
operators have the chance to I!;et into the
business when the supply field is very
favorable, he added. Prices are also favor-
able and the consumer demand for hot pop
corn is already so well established that an
operator does not have to worry about cre-
ating demand.
The locations for pop corn dispensers are
also well known and operators can solicit
such establishments with the assurance that
owners and managers already know the
product and how the public demands it.
Schaef mentioned taverns, drug stores, soda
parlors, candy stores, bowling alleys and
school stores as choice types of locations.
Operators who have long been accus-
tomed to using coin-operated devices show
hesitation about taking on merchandisers
that do not have a coin mechanism, Schaef
said he had learned since introducing the
Hot-Pop. "I am coin machine minded my-
self," he admitted, "and felt some concern
about departing from the old paths. But the
success of this' merchandiser, without a coin
•
Chicago 14, Illinois '
chute, has been full proof that operators
can well handle a route of such dispensers
and make good money."
Schaef said the operation of such a busi-
ness is simply that of a route business, just
as a man may have a coffee or cheese, or
milk route. The idea has been tested in the
business world for many years and every
operator will know men who have built up
a small independent business with such
routes.
In the pop corn business, the operator or
route man places the dispensers with the
locations free of charge as the best means
of attracting customers and selling them
the product, at a good profit margin. By
placing the dispenser, the operator retains
ownership and is the sole source of supply
for corn sold through the dispenser.
The main points of difference between a
coin-operated route and the non-coin type
is that the operator collects the wholesale
price for the merchandise upon delivery
and the location also fills the dispensers.
Thus, the operator is relieved of service
calls which would amount to a big total in
the course of a year.
In the pop corn trade, the merchandise
is usually supplied pre-popped in bags,
holding about 21h pecks, and the price
range to the operator is about 75 cents and
he sells to the location at $1.25 per bag.
The location will usually get 27 lO-cent
sales from each bag of corn. The Victor
plan recommends that operators count on
each dispenser selling a minimum of 7 bags
per week. It is also recommended that op-
erators start with about 25 machines.
The firm says many operators will pre-
fer to go more completely into the pop corn
business and pop their own corn. In buying
pre-popped corn the operator may expect
to make about 50 cents per bag in profit,
( See RIGHT TIME, Page 50)
43