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SCHUTTER CANDY DIVISION, St. Louis
it is these that are collecting most of the
nickels.
Music machine operation is described as
normal for the city and the summer season.
"Normal" here, however, is probably a
higher level than for many cities-which
is due chiefly to the fine promotion job of
the local guild. Incidentally, Bill Schwartz,
who edits the WMG Newsletter, recently
wrote that Uncle Sam is in the automatic
phono business since the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. had to take the bankrupt
Aireon Co. for being in default of a $1.5
million RFC loan. On discs, Schwartz com·
ments, "Makers of records will some day
learn that there is a difference between
home listeners and the music box customer
with a nickel in hand. Whereas, the cus·
tomer will buy a record for home use that
he liked on the music box, he will not
play any record; if he" does, that won't
happen more than once. This is what oper-
ators are learning more about every day.
This is one major reason why thousands
and thousands of new records are
scrapped."
Of the new releases, Schwartz likes Ray
Bloch's Till We Meet .;,I.gain on Signature
and Billy Eckstine's Y?u're All I Need on
MGM.
Operators in Colonial Beach, Va., are do-
ing nicely with bells because of a legal
gimmick. The beach bans bells. How-
ever, the Maryland county across the water
okays them. A Virginia-Maryland law gives
the latter jurisdiction over the water right
up to Colonial Beach. So the operators
have built piers out from the beach with
a narrow separation to be stepped over.
So, the machines are actually operated in
Maryland.
L. A. Cigarette
Hearing Fizzles
LOS ANGELES-Claiming the Assembly
public morals committee is not legally
constituted, State Senator Jack B. Tenney
on June 14th asked Attorney General Fred
N. Howser to investigate its actions and
recover any state funds it may have spent.
Tenney notified Howser there are only three
members on the morals body, which he
accused of inconveniencing .and harassing
legitimate business men.
The committee had been conducting hear-
ings on possible new legislation ~o outlaw
unsupervised cigarette vending 'machines
which minors may patronize and had as-
sembled more than 50 witnesses to appear
before it on the matter on the 14th. When
the hearing was called to order, Assembly-
man Lester McMillan, chairman, announced
a quorum was lacking and that he would
adjourn the sessions until the Assembly
Speaker appoints four more members.
32
MERCHANDISE
( Continued f rom Page 2 5 )
used by the soft drink, ice cream and candy
trades were holding firm in price at a
time when lower prices were in order. Some
of the experts are beginning to use that
word inflation again quite often.
Sugar and cocoa beans, important in-
gredients to the automatic vending trade,
have been prominent in the recent news
of price advances. Sugar refiners had sched-
uled new price advances for June and then
postponed such a step until ,July. The out-
look at present is that pressure may be put
on the sugar industry to hold off on price
advances. The Cuban crop seemed to be off
from last year as the grinding season
neared the end. The soft drink, candy, ice
cream and baking industries recently re-
newed their plea to the Dept. of Agriculture
for a bigger U. S. sugar allotment, appar-
ently hoping to stave off further ' price in-
creases.
The general outlook for sugar seems to
be that a Cuban carryover from last year
will help to prevent price advances; a big
beet sugar crop is also in sight. World
demand is still high and competing with
U. S. users, thus helping to keep prices
up. The year started off with sugar prices
on the decline but the recent trend has been
upward.
Crop reports play an important part in
the price picture currently and the latest
reports have taken a more favorable turn.
Some of the experts suggest that price
advances in the last two or three months
have been normal for the season and that
later crop reports will start declines.
There are some exceptions to the recent
picture of advances and milk is one of
them. Other items still not prominent in
the vending field have shown deciines in
price.
A review of various reports on vending
merchandise follows:
Apples-The outlook for the new crop
is considered favorable and the price trend
is also favorable, at a time when fruit
prices in general are rising. The Industry
hopes for increasing reports of apple vend-
ing this year.
Ahnonds-The big market centers re-
port prices holding firm. In Mayan official
report in the eastern markets estimated
that the California almond crop this year
would be off 25 per cent from the total last
year.
Ca n d y Bars- Reports from the national
conventions of candY' wholesalers and of
manufacturers, held early in June, will
appear elsewhere in this issue. Official
gove,rnment reports have shown a declining
trend in employment in candy factori~
but . this may be largely due to increased'
use of automatic machinery. Candy manu-
facturers have recently made protest
against low tariff rates on imports of candy
and especially chocolate products from
other countries.
Ch ewin g Gu m-Most of the"' reports
on this product continue to be rosy and
quarterly reports of major manufacturers
show increasing sales. The Mexican govern-
ment has recently proposed to stop chicle
production due to low price paid in the
U. S. and also because the increasing use
of synthetic chicle has cut the use of the
natural product.
Chocola te-The latest market reports
carry the familiar theme that cocoa has
spurted to the season's high. Earlier re-
ports in this column have shown that there
is a gradual tightening in cocoa bean
supply. Candy and chocolate manufacturers
NEW REDUCED PRICES!!
on Dentyne, Beeman's Pepsin and Chiclets
Gum sold through Mills Famous Penny Venders
We have for immediate delivery rebuilt ma-
chines, factory reconditioned, which cannot be
t01d from new in appearance and operation.
They carry Standard New Machine Guarantee.
More than 50,000 of these machines now in
operation-and for years!! More profit now
with these ·new reduced gum prices!!!
WRITE
HAL R. MEEKS
National Distributor
55 W. 42nd STREET
NEW YORK 18, N. Y.
COIN MACHINE REVIEW
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