awful bad for the jukebox operator. It's not just in
equipment, but everything along the way.
Whether it be licenses, equipment, salaries,
insurance, automobiles, gasoline-the whole thing.
And it keeps eating away at our net profits. And
we have no way to recoup this because we can't just
go out and arbitrarily raise the price to 26 cents or
30 cents. So what we have to try to do is cut down
on expenses in some way. Or do more volume.
PLAY METER: Were you able to cut down the
cost in other areas of your operation?
LAWSON: Well, you know, two years ago, when
the gas shortage came on , we began to look around
at what we could do. We bought smaller vehicles to
give us more gas mileage. We looked, of course, at
the bottom line of how much it cost us per-mile to
operate the vehicles.
PLA Y METER: Did you buy new vehicles, ones
that were more efficient?
LAWSON: Well, yes and no. We purchased a
Datsun and are happy with the little pickup trucks.
I think that they are very economical. The Datsun
710 is only a fraction of a cent more economical than
the Chevy Novas that we're now using. We did use
Dodge Darts. They served us real well. But in the
last few years, it seemed that our cost per-mile was
increasing, and we found that the Chevy Nova is
serving us as well as any car we could find.
PLA Y METER: What are some other things you
did to cut costs?
LAWSON: At one time we cut off completely from
buying parts. Now we're just buying what we
absolutely have to have, no stockpiling whatsoever.
Our routemen used to leave the records with the
location.
PLAY METER: The records taken off the jukebox?
LAWSON: That's right. Well, when the records
took an increase of 17 cents at one time, we
instructed them to bring all the records into the
office. And then we found an outlet for used
records where we could get seven or eight cents.
And this helped us on our record expense. We also
began to keep our library, so that we had records
here to supply on request or fill -ins, so that we
wouldn't have to purchase them.
PLA Y METER: Have you ever experienced any
fluctuations in the jukebox business?
LAWSON: Well, as a matter of fact, a few years
ago it was quite !l concern to me, the music part of
the business. What, if anything, we were doing
wrong. We just couldn't seem to get the volume up
there. The games were in a boom, but the music
continued to drop. I'm talking about per-machine
volume. Our overall volume has increased, of
course, because we have increased the number of
pieces and enlarged our territory. But when we
went back to each individual location, I couldn't
figure out what was the problem. This was a
terrible concern that I had. And I talked with many
people throughout the country, and I learned that it
seemed to be the music business in general. It was
either on the decline or else barely holding its own.
That gave me a little bit of satisfaction, knowing
that there were other people who were having the
same problems. It made me think that maybe we
weren't doing everything wrong. So we began
August, 1977, PLA Y METER
doing different things to try and increase the
volume of business.
And after analyzing
everything, I finally came to the conclusion that the
discotheques and the live music places were to
blame. They were taking away plays from the
jukebox. I think this is what was happening to us.
Well, this had to have time to run its course in the
smaller lounges and discotheques and whatever.
And when they found that it was not profitable for
them to provide live music, they went back to the
jukebox. As a result, our jukebox business has
picked up a little bit. It's not a great deal, but at
least we're not on the decline.
PLAY METER: Well, good. Now, how do you go
about buying records for your jukeboxes?
LAWSON: Well, I have a man who has been
buying records for about 25 years. We use the
trade magazines, for the ratings. We buy according
to artist. We buy to requests. We have certain
locations that like certain artists or certain types of
music. We buy mostly from one stops. We have a one
stop in Miami that does a fantastic job for us. If he
has something that he thinks we could use or need,
he either sends it or requests that we use it, or
whatever, you know, that type of thing. We run
our route, for our music machines, mostly every
two weeks, though we have some locations that we
check every week.
PLAY METER:
And your pricing is what?
LA WSON: Our pricing is two for a quarter. We've
been on two for a quarter for a number of years. I
can't remember how long ago that was. But we
were the leaders in Florida. In fact, our county is,
I believe, the first county to go 100 percent two for
a quarter.
PLAY METER:
What is the commission
arrangement?
LA WSON: We operate on a 50/ 50 basis, less a four
percent sales tax the State of Florida charges the
location. Florida interprets our commission as
being a rental; therefore, there is a four percent
sales tax on commercial rentals in our state. We
deduct the four percent from the location share and
turn it back to the state for each individual location.
PLAY METER: So, in fact, you are merely
collecting the sales tax. The locations are actually
paying that.
LA WSON: That's right, the locations are paying it.
PLAY METER: What about front money. Have
you been able to get front money?
LAWSON: Not in our area. We don't deal with
that at all. We haven't come up against it. Like I
said, we're just country folk here, and we just act
dumb when they talk about that.
PLAY METER: You mentioned that the state
looks upon your operation, the relationship
between the location owner and yourself as a rental
agreement. As a matter of fact, that is not the case.
But are there problems in your area with regard to
rentals?
LAWSON: Yes, there are. We do have one
particular competitor that is very bad for my
business at the present time. We've never been big
on rentals. I think in the entire operation, until a
few months ago, I have had only one rental and that
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