should remain rather stable, observers pre-
dict-
With cool weather, candy sales have
picked up. The advent once more of the
chocolate - covered bar has taken place.
Summer candies are being cleaned up and
the "gooier" confection is taking its place
in the vending channels.
William D. Bailey, supervisor of the ex-
cise section of the Ohio Dept- of Taxation,
disclosed that cigarette tax stam p sales
for the month of Augu t were up 147,978
over the same month last year. Total sales
for the month this year were $1,660,165,
while ales in August 1948 totaled 1,512,187.
For the year to-date, total sales of the
tax stamps are $11,811,398. For the similar
eight-month period of 1948, sales amounted
to $11,613,860. This represents an increa e
for the period this year of 1.70 per cent-
Beer sales for the month of August for
the .entire state were up slightly, but for
the eight-month period, Bailey reported
sales of the 3.2 product were off more than
10 per cent- For higher a lcohol beer, sales
[or the first eight months are up almost
eight and one-half per cent- This shows that
tavern business has not suffered so greatly.
In the nut and chewing gum field busi-
ness has been around normal for the season,
with some Labor Day activity. The latter
holiday helped stamp machine business
somewhat, but the coming holidays will do
more in that line. Scales are doing as well
as can be expected, with more people keep-
ing tab on what the summer red ucing
.
schedule did to their waist lines.
J. P . Seeburg Corp. has appointed Shaffer
Music Co_ in Columbus, Wheeling, W. Va.,
and Charleston, W . Va., to cover territory
formerly covered by Southern Automatic
Music Co., Inc., along with the S. L. Stiebel
Co. of Louisville, Evansville, Ind., and Nash-
ville.
W. C. A rthurs
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Los Jlngeles
The fall up-grade in bu iness i making
itself felt in most branches of the Industry.
Music has crawled out of its low-gross
hole and aided by declining television-in-
bar intere t, is moving forward: Shuffieboard
continues to hold up exceptionally well in
comparison with other types of amusement
devices. Two large operators peg the aver-
age gross from 20 to 25 per week.
The end of the torrid spell and incoming
cool weather brought forth a sharp hypo
to candy bar machines, while cigarette
gro s remains steady and healthy.
St. Louis
An "unseasonal" increase in coin machine
equipment sales was in evidence in St. Louis
during Augu t, most distributors reporting
an unsuspected demand for machines which
seldom occurs during the "dog days" of
hot summer weather. Buying was I!eneral,
with the need for new vending equipment
particularly pronounced, according to Olive
ovelty Co., Ideal ovelty Co. and other
major-scale distributors. While normally
vending routes are reduced sharply during
hot weather, the large amount of air con-
ditioned outlets in the St. Louis area has
made it possible to vend candies which
otherwise would melt during June, July
and August.
Shuffieboard sales have cooled off a bit
during the past four week, Universal Dis-
tributing Co. reports, largely as tbe result
of saturation of logical locations. Almost
every tavern in the St. Louis and St. Louis
County di tricts, which is large enough to
accommodate a shuffieboard table, i already
equipped, and selling organizations are con-
centrating on electric automatic scoreboards
and other accessorie . The new St. Louis
Shuffieboard League, a conference which
will include and organize play in all St.
Louis locations, began play September
12th. Location owners are being furnished
rule book and score sheets by five dis-
tributors in the city, and there will be
scheduled play 011 two to five nights per
week at most locations. Tom Collins, of
Universal, aided in setting up the system,
which has the sanction of the national
as ociation.
A notable sufferer in collections during
August was the penny arcade field, in-
cluding those at Chain of Rocks Park,
Highlands Park, etc., which usually hit
peak volume in the month. Becau e of a
sharp increase of polio in the St. Louis
area, and grave newspaper warnings, most
parents are keeping their children away
from congested areas, such as public parks,
and the penny arcades have suffered. Carl
Trippe, Ideal head, reports far more adults
in each arcade than children, a highly
unusual situation.
Offsetting this, a boom crop in cotton
in Southern Missouri, routes from St. Louis
south to Cape Girardeau have shown record
collections, and many music operators are
extending their strings in that direction.
Jefferson City Amusement Co. in Jefferson
City, has bought 24 new phonographs for
location in Southern Missouri towns.
Bitter complaints against the falling off
of phonograph collections in taverns equip-
ped with televi ion are voiced by C. W.
Cermak, veteran St. Louis music operator.
"Collections are down as much as 75%
in some locations," he stated. "Particularly
where the tavern owner operates the tele-
vision et from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 or 10:00.
We know that many people would rather
listen to tbeir favorite tunes than see a
televi ion performance or baseball, and have
been asking location owners to check their
customers, to see which they'd rather have.
Invariably, the group in the tavern prefers
the music, with the exception, of course,
of Cardinal baseball games during the pen-
nant drive going on right now."
Cermak is planning to mimeograph some
forms on which tavern customers can check
either "television" or "juke box" when the
slips are distributed around the bar or
booths in tbe late evening. This system,
he urges other operators, will help to bring
collections back to normal. "If something
like this isn't done, the operator in television
equipped cities will find that a lot of his
phonographs won't pay their way" he said.
R o bert L atimer
Washington, D. C.
With fall in the air in the nation's
capital, operators are awaiting the expected
relief from a generally poor summer. Re-
sumption of activity in bowling alleys,
billiard parlors, skating rinks and other
indoor activities is expected to help a lot.
Those operators with vending machines in
schools are ready for a bang-up sea on,
since more kids tban ever before are
crowding corridors.
An exception to the poor summer season
must be noted for beverage dispensers.
Helped along with above normal sales for
the hot months, Spacarh of Washington
chalked up its highest grosses in the past
ten years for the first eight months of
1949. Aiding no little was the performance
of the dispen er located in Keith's Theater.
According to manager Bayne Phipps the
machine put out 2,100 drinks on a recent
hot day and regularly averages close to
1,000 daily.
For the winter season, Spacarb expects
to have ou p dispensers on location. The
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COIN MACHINE REVIEW