Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

Permanent Change May Have Happened
To Some Types 01 Popular Locations
NEW YORK- A lot is being said these
days about beer, liquor, and th e taverns,
cafes, res ta urants and establishments where
drink are sold for on-premise consumption_
Th e wet-dry issue and territory is also in
the news at intervals, still checking on wha t
happened in the elections last November.
Opera tors of mu sic and other typ es of
machin es have shared in the gen eral de-
cline that has hi t locations whi ch depend
chieAy on sales of drink , and maybe these
operators have wished there i som ething
they cO\1ld do to aid taverns and similar
places to get on an upward trend again.
An authority in th e liquor trade here
recently, after surveyin g what may be the
underlying causes of th e general slump in
th e trade of eating and drinkin g places,
suggested th e following as about th e only
tep that could be taken now:
"Many outlet could improve their busi-
ness by raisin g th e quality and size of th eir
food and drinks and by pricing th eir meals
and beverages at levels wi thin more reason-
abl e reach of the peopl e in th e neighbor-
hood they serve."
Many an operator will wi sh the trade
leader had also said th at such locations
provide good phonograph music and the
diversions of shuffleboard and other amuse-
ment gam es.
In th e regular reports on loca tion s, whi ch
appear in TH E REVIEW at intervals, most
of them last year called attention to the
general fa ct that busin ess in taverns and
eating places was down from previous years.
Operators who had machines in such loca-
tions kn ew this already, of course, but tb e
official reports helped to concentrate at-
tention on tryin g to find the reason.
A liquor trade paper says re ports from
many sections of th e country show that th e
continued slump in on-premise sal es of al-
coholi c . bev~ra ges has "reached alarming
proportions. Th e paper continu es to say
th ere is no reli ef in s ight for this year, and
that decided changes in th e national life
and economy m ay prolong the slump for
such locations. Such a report, of course
will be discouragi ng to many operators. '
During Twenty-Two Years
of Leadership
Th e reasons given for Ie tra de in such
loca tions i interestin g. First, th e high
pri ce of distilled spirits hurts busin ess, and
excise taxes help to keep such prices high.
It i pointed out also th at competition for
the consum er's doll ar is now greater than
eve r and luxuries are po tponed for neces-
siti es.
It is also pointed out th at marriages and
the birthra te have in creased and thi s cuts
down the u se of spirits and beer because
new famili es must bu y hom es, furniture and
many oth er thin gs. Even televi sion ets for
th e home cut down on traffi c in locations
because people who buy th e sets will stay
at home.
Some of these reasons may see m thin ,
but they come from an auth ority in - th e
beverage trade who should know mu ch
about the real conditi ons th at affect tav-
erns, eatin g and drinking pl aces. Actually,
offi cial r eports show that sales of beer and
liquor have shifted decidedly to pack age
sales for home use. Total sales of beer for
the nation h ave not shown a ny slump but
h ave shifted to take-home sales.
Trade authorities say th ere has been a
real increase in th e number of estaBlish-
ments serving drinks in r ecent years, and
yet th e total busine
does not cl imb in
proportion. Th e downward trend in busi-
ness, it is said, in creases th e violation of
legal regulations and also leads to unfair
trade practi ces.
F inan cial circles report on th e brewin g
industry that th e bi g breweri es are findin g
b usiness on the increase, while the small
breweries are findin g conditions to be get-
tin g gradu ally worse. It is th e small brew-
eries that major in draught beer and, if
th eir husiness is bad, th e co nclusion is th at
taverns are affected by thi s trend. The bi g
firm s major on beer f or take-home use and
such sales are in cr easing enough to hold
total beer consumption for th e nati on at
pretty mu ch th e same level in recent years.
P ackaged beer accoun ted for 20 per cent
of total al es in 1935, but was up to about
70 per cent in 1948 and is expected to ac-
count for 80 per cent this year. Beer, of
Has Built
A.merica' s Most
Profitable Games!
Originators of
course, com petes with distilled spmts and
win e, but the beer industry is beginning to
talk more and more about th e competition
of soft drinks.
A recent survey of the beer trade, made
by a bi g research agency, produced the
conclusion that since 1930 beer has met
increasing competition with the beverages
in the soft drink field .
Anoth er an gle th at must be considered
along with th e r eports on beer consump-
tion remaining static, distill ed pirits de-
clinin g, etc., is the fact that population is
showin g bi g increases, enou gh to boost con-
sumption in some lines considerably.
H en ce, consumption of beer and liquor doe
not eem to be makin g gains in keepin g
with population increa es. In fa ct, per
capita use of liquor seems to be declining.
As to the extent of wet and d ry territory,
81 per cent of th e popul a tion is now said
to live in areas where distilled spirits can
be sold ; 18 pe r cent live in territory where
onl y package sal es are permitted. Seven-
teen states permit the sale of di tilled spir-
its all over, whil e 29 states have som e
wet and some dry areas. K ansas recently
chan ged to th e wet side, leavin g two sta te
still on the dry side.
At th e beginnin g of th e year th ere were
2,111 co unties in the nation th at permit the
sale of distilled spirits and 959 counties
that ban suc);. sal es. Lo cal option election s
in the first four months of the year showed
a small majority of uch elec ti ons go in g
over to th e wet side.
It ha s been discovered that in all but two
of the states whi ch have some wet and som e
dry areas, th e dry counties share in th e
state revenu e from liquor just as the wet
counties do. So, it is bein g pointed out
now th a t all r evenues from beer a nd liquor
should go only to tho e areas th at permit
its legal sale.
Keeney Oilers Automatic
ShullIe Scoring Device
CHICAGO- John Conroe, vi ce-pres ident
of .J. H. Keeney & Co., says th e automatic
fram e scorin g device on its new shuffie-
board scorin g board, M odel 4, is attract-
in g much attention. It a utomati cally jumps
to the next fr ame in a few seconds after the
points have bee n registered, in stead of de-
pendin g on the p layers pressin g a butto n
to advance to the next frame.
Th e autom atic fea ture ca n a lso be ad-
justed to increase or dec rease th e number
of required f ra mes, Conroe a id, to take
care of sin gles matches or doubles. Th e
autom a tic device may be had as an acces-
sory with Keen ey's M odel 3 scoreboard ,
th e automati c unit bein g 2 fee t by 4 inches
in size. Th e M odel 4 ca n be used for oth er
ga mes pl ayed on shuffleboard tables. Th e
firm also emphasizes th e ease with whi ch
its sco reboards can be insta lled.
FLIPPER BUMpERS
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14
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