Another Opportunity Vendor?
NEW IDEAS FOR PENCIL VENDING
By George Keith
CINCINNATI- Th e Pencil Vendor
(name copyri ghted), made its appearance
here recently. It sells pencils automatically
for a nickel, and is the product of the
Cincinnati Pencil Co., 903 Broadway, h ere.
It was designed primarily for installation
in schools, offices and hotels, places whose
personnel is not equipped to sell manually.
However, the results of the first installa-
tions have been so gratifying that a lead-
ing Eastern pencil manufacturer is now
negotiating with the Cincinnati concern
with a view to expansion into wider fi elds.
~ Samuel M. and Albert A. Rogoff, broth-
ers, and both graduates of the University
of Cincinnati engineering college, designed
th e machine.
It is all metal, and measures approxi-
mately 10 by 14 inches, with a mirror-panel
front, and equipped with slug rejector, and
having a capacity of 500 pencils.
The company does not manufacture the
machines but has the parts and cabinets
made for them, and has th em assembled.
To your REVIEW reporter they seem a
natural for automatic vending operators,
and Albert Rogoff said he and his brother
are highly receptive.
Listening to him, you feel like you are
talking with an ardent NAMA officer, so
sold is he on automatic selling, and so
well versed is h e on its advantages and
possibilities.
"We are considering the automati c op era-
tor angle seriously. Right now we are plac:
ing them only in schools and universities.
" We place the machines free,M retaining
own ership ," he explained, " but with th e
stipulation that the school makes an initial
purchase of an agreed upon number of
pencils, in gross lots. This is governed by
our idea of the school's ability to assimilate
the pencils.
" After that, all we do is sell th e pencils,
and we certainly h ave bee n doin g that,
with one university selling 100 gross in th e
first three months of this year."
This firm does not manufacture pencils,
but buys them from leadin g makers. It
is probably th e largest single printer of
pencils in the country, turning out over
15,000,000 a year.
Althou gh its chief business is printin g
pencils for premium purposes, it is also
one of th e largest sup pli ers of school-
activity pencils, with a total of 42,000 active
accounts.
"What are the possibilities of profit fo r
a n autom atic op erato r, who owns the rn a·
chines ?" Rogoff was asked.
"They are excellent," h e re plied, em-
phatically. " After he ha s sold his first 25
gross, assuming a split of liS high as 50
per ce nt with the loca tion own er, his ma-
chine is paid fo r."
He said furth er that, in the event opera-
tors enter this market th ey can be assured
of a quick and plentiful supply of high
grade Number 2 pencils, with top grade
erasers, equal to any sold manually any-
where for a nickel.
" A pencil," he continued, "is a necessary
evil today. For instance, we have an in-
quiry for a machine from a plant, everyone
of whose 3000 employees needs a pencil
in his work.
"Pencils, as everyone knows, a~e easily
lost or misplaced. That is why the auto-
matic kind is too expensive for the average
pocketbook for constant use.
JUNE, 1950
"On the otber hand, if an employee
pays a· nickel fur a pencil it will be
guarded more carefully than if furnished
by th e firm.
"The same applies to schools. A student
doesn't begrudge spending a nickel for
a wooden pencil, but the automatics cost
too much, with the chan ces of mislaying
so great. It looks like there will always be
a wooden pencil, in spite of mechanical
inventions designed to eliminate them."
Schools usually order pencils in tbeir
own parti cular colors, such as red and white,
or red, white and blue, or any other com-
bination, with the name of th e institution
printed on the barrel.
One college not only dispenses pencils in
its colors, but carries the season's football
schedule on the barrel. This idea has end-
less possibilities.
Carrying the athletic motif still further ,
a college could have th e favori te yell on
the barrel. This could be featured in the
school bulletin or paper, urging all students
to buy pencils, and join in the yell at a
given signal. If the proceeds of the sale
of th e pencils were to go to some kind of
a thletic fund there would be an added in-
centive to buy.
For large fraternity houses th e name of
th e frat could be carried, with the barrel
done in eith er the frat's or the school's
colors, and the motto of the club.
An enterprising operator could avail him-
self of many ingenious ideas to attract busi-
ness. For example a school operated by a
religious denomination, of which there are
many, mi ght be interested in pencils on
which are printed the Ten Commandments,
the 23rd P salm, or The Lord's Prayer,
in either th e Catholic or Protestant version.
These are Cinpenso staples, but they will
print anything desintd which can be ac-
commodated on a pen-cil barrel.
During a rush period their linotype and
printing machines frequen tl y work around
the clock.
As an example of how speedi ly an order
ca n be_lilled, Rogoff had a slug run off a
linotype with my name on it. It took about
20 seconds to do this. It was then trans-
f\!rred, still hot, to a printing machine, and
in less than a minute, they had run off half
a dozen pencils, bearing my name in " gold,"
and all without any preliminary prepara-
tion or haste.
Rogoff is not aware of any machine in
competition with th eirs. He claims there
was a vendor invented by a German in 1922,
and which was brought to this country
later. This was so complicated in construc-
tion that the cost of making it was pro-
hibitive.
It is also a far cry from th e type of
machine which used to appear in arcades,
but has vanished from these parts, at least,
in which you inserted a coin, and then pro-
ceeded to print your name letter by letter,
by means of a dial.
The Cinpenso vendor is very simple, al-
most fool proof, and can be serviced by
anyone, however unfamiliar with mechanics.
Repairs, of course, would be another matter,
but, with careful handlin g the machine
should pay for itself many times over be-
fore it became obsolete.
For stores whi ch do not wish to bother
with a small item like a pencil, but like
to give their patrons what they want, an
N 'ew Low
Pri~e
KING OF VENDORS
Nut a nd Ball Gu m Can dy,
Cha rms, Vendors. 1 c-5c U.S.
a nd Fore ig n Coins. " Hot Nut"
Vendors .
Bigg er Profits fr o m locations
a re a natural with
SILVER KINGS
or
" CHARM KING"
BALL GUM VENDOR
Design ed for sales co mpe ll ing
eye appeal a s low a s
$10.00
in quantities
At all the Best De alers -
W rite.
or
Ask about the New " Hu nter."
SILVER-KING CORP.
622 Diversey Parkway
Chicago, III.
27