Farmers stream into stores and banks with
their cash returns. Taverns are overAowing
and coin phonographs have been jumping
to a shower of ready coin . Tobacco is
king and people thereabouts are happy
subjects. For a three-month sale period,
th e little town of 2,000 is a thriving beehive
of activity. It' a good chance to cash in
for many peop le.
Northern Musi c, Inc., with H . H .
Wedewen, pioneer music man, serving as
president and trea surer, and the appoint-
ment of the firm as Wurlitzer distribu tor
for the Cleveland-Columbus area, wa s
announced by Edward Wurgl er, general
sales manager for Wurlitzer.
Video still cuts into much local pin game
receipts, with many operators still holding
out for the expected decline in intere t in
the new inven tion. Busines is settling down
into the "watchful, waiting" phase, with
ordinary profits not th e expected re ult.
Shuffleboard has met much th e same fate
as the pin games and other similar coin-
operated amusement devices. The early
gains have been stal emated and placements
of the game has been slowed considerably.
Old devotees, like old Indians, " never seem
to di e."
Prices on coffee have been soa ring with
dizzy speed, like a jet-propelled plan e.
Retail prices on th e ca nned beverage have
hit perilously close to the dollar mark.
about twi ce as high as they were. With
40 cups to the pound as an average, this
mean cost of coffee alone is two or more
cents per cup. Restau rants have been hikinl!
the price from five to seven or ten ce nts.
Venders have been hit hard, wi th less
amount in a cup the logical answer, unless
a dime slot is install ed. Many operators
hesitate to raise the price here.
oft drink sales have benefited as so me
purchasers hesitate, too, to pay more for
java, when a ni ckel will buy a Coke or
other drink.
Christmas always mean s a boom in gen-
eral candy sa les, especially now that the
really good ca ndies are available once again.
and in larger sizes. Th e easing of prices
has meant more profits for the operator.
Chocolate products continue in good and
high quality supply.
Cigarette sale took a late year upturn,
after going through two to three months
of relatively slow sales. William D. Bailey,
supervisor of the excise ection of th e Ohio
Department of Taxation , said that sal es
of cigarette tax stamps durin/! the month
of November, 1949, total ed $1,505,300, as
comparee with $1,455,558 in the preyious
year's similar month. This is an increase
of $49,742.
For th e year through th e first eleven
month, total ales were $16,229,287 in
1949, while for th e same period la t year
total sales were $16,062,288. This is an
increase this year of 1.04 pel' cent. So, it
looks like more people a re smoking eve ry
day.
The popcorn bu iness, which ha bee n
stymied a little by the la ck of really good
corn in ome cases, was set back further
when 28 ton s of popped corn was sprayed
onto th e St. Marys, Ohio, co untryside during
a fire which destroyed th e St. Marys pop-
corn processing plant. Loss was estimated
at 25,000. Th e compa ny has contracts with
growers in th e area for 2,000,000 pounds of
popcorn and plans to mak e good on th e
co ntracts.
Nut vendors did a better busin ess in
December. Ice cream vending machine
slacken ed off somew hat , probably because
of cooler weather.
cales took an upturn after Thanksg iyin g
and stamp ma chin es profited by th e holiday
rush.
JANUARY, 1950
BUSINESS BAROMETER
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DECEMBER
1949
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Columbus ........... N
Los Ang eles .. _ .... N
51. Louis_ .......... __ N
5 eattle ______ .. _ .. _ .... _N
5pokane .. ____ .. ____ .. B
Wash .. D.C._ ..... __ N
B
A
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B N N N N N N N
B BAN A B N A
N B B N N N N N
ANN B B N N
B N NAB N N
B N BAN A N
B
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N- NORMAL
A- ABOVE NORMAL
B- BELOW NORMAL
Los Jlngeles
Reported by PAUL BLACKFORD
Nineteen Forty- ine was slippin g out
o[ th e local operating picture as thi s issue
went to press without any sign of creating
any records of any kind . Operating in
general has been so-so with most of th e
boys optimistic as to what the n ew year
will bring. Sorely missed will be th e
January, 1950, show and the shot-in-the-arm
it generally gives with the varied display
of new equipment.
Those returning from th e AMA Atlantic
City affair praised th e layout but were
disappointed in th e lack of new equipment
shown. "A few new models of old ideas,"
is th e way one operator summarized the
show.
Generally speaking most types of coin-
co ntrolled equipm ent ex peri enced average
business the past month although down co n-
si derably from 1948 and th e lush years of
the war. One distributor stated " othing's
wrong with business. We' re just slowly
getting back to what is actually normal.
It's time the lad s put out more new equip-
ment and did a little merchandising with
th eir machines. Less growling and more
work will kee p th e hom e fires burning."
Cou ld be!
Shuffleboard play has la cken ed somewhat,
as has th e patronage of beverage vendors.
Music holds its own as th e chilly nights
keep patrons inside taverns and night spots.
th e Springfield co urt decision referred to
above, which met with a lot of enthusiasm
on th e part of the as ociation's pin game
men.
An important point brought up by Morris
during the meet was the fact that it is
going to require many new machines,
changed far more often, to hold good exist-
ing locations and to win new ones. Recent
experience of many operators with shuffle-
board, for whi ch almost e\'e ry location
owner ca n find space, ha proven that
new ga mes with a lot of public approval
are th e solution to unwillingn ess. "Lo1:ation
owners are getting increasingly uncoopera-
tive," Morris indicated, " declining to use
pace in their stores or tavern s for amuse-
ment machines whi ch might be used for
merchandi sing the ir basi c lines. However,
when you give the location owner so me
ma chin e whi ch stimulates heavy play and
gets imm ediate attention everywhere, the
chances are that hi s enthu siasm will be
quickly awakened."
Regional business report for December
indicate that cigarette vendor receipts have
fallen off sharply, while candy vending is
"slightly down." Play on pin games, phono-
graphs and gene ral amusement dev ices, on
the other hand, has been on th e increase,
with many more people out on Christmas
gift shopping trips. In general, the
t.
Louis ituation is described as "stable" by
most distributors an d operators.
Seattle
Reported by W. A. PERINE
Outlook is that 1950 will be a better
business year for Seattle and Washington
tate than 1949. Cold, hard ca h to the
tune of 80,000,000 will be poured into
circulation by the state in the form of
veterans' bonus money. In addition, the
state's share of th e $2,800,000,000 G.I. in-
surance dividend melon will provide ready
cash for thou sa nds of veterans, during th e
fi rst pa rt of th e year.
Seattle will have no critical unemploy-
ment during th e rest o[ th e winter, accord-
ing to a labor department prediction,
although Tacoma and Spokane and Port-
land won't be so lucky.
Pin ball collections should cO)llinue to be
good in the state, unless adversely affected
by the recen t Supreme Court ruling which
ruled that some machines are gambling
devices and illegal. (The machines in ques-
tion were in use in the ci ty of Spokane).
In Seattle, no action is contemplated by
th e City Council to ban pin ball amusement
machines, according to COllncil President
David Levine. The ruling did not affect
Seattle beca use Seattle bans machines with
automatic payoffs. Th e city ordinance re-
gards non-automatic payoff machine as
amusement devices.
In creased activi ty in straight amusement
Reported by ROBERT LATIMER devices, such as United Shuffie Alley, wa
Important n ew in th e St. Louis area wa s
reported by George Trambitas of Western
th e recent finding of the Springfield, Mo. , D istributors, Inc. Buying in pin balls was
Co urt of Appeals, which resc inded all
at a temporary stand till due to th e uncer-
form er deci sions regarding regular free
tainty of th eir future in Washington. H e
games on pin ball games. Th e court rul ed
stated th ere wa s a strong trend toward
definitely that th e five-bal! model wa s not
free-play machines in the U . . , with Wash-
a gambling game, and thus operators are
ington being one of th e la st big te rritor ies
free in central and eastern Missouri. Mu ch for th e automatic payoff type.
newspaper publi city has been relea~ed due
Report : 274,359.82 in parking meter
to the decision, during whi ch operator M. E.
revenue has been collected to Decem ber in
Orchard, of th e Orchard Mu sic Co.,
. ea ttl e with ovember showing a ubstan-
pringfield, wa s free d of charges of operat-
tial gai l) over October.
ing a gambling machine on a tave rn route.
Candy vending is good, with 1950 ex-
The decision wa handed down by Judge
pected to be even better. Expanded fa cilities
William L. Vandeventer of the Springfield
a nd promotional work are expected to help_
Co urt of Appeals.
The recent removal of Bellingham re-
Th e Missouri Amusement Machine Assn.
stri ctive ordinances, regarding cigare tte
met in early December for a bri ef resume
"ending, was a happy moment [or local
coinm en with sa les really booming.
of th e year's business and to button up a
few undecided motion s of th e past 12
This was offset to some ex ten t by the
month. President LOll Morris a nnoun ced new 2-cent ex tra tax on cigarettes to help
St. Louis
9