COINMAN OF THE MONTH
This month's Coinman, Joe Robbins of Empire
Distributing, Inc., Chicago, is weU known through-
out the industry.
Joe began his involvement in the coin machine
world shortly after World War II. When he got out
of the service in 1946, he told Play Meter, he went
to work with the Seeburg organization in New
England as a sales representative. "The or-
ganization was distributor for other -manufactur-
ers as weU as See burg products," he said.
Joe was on the road, working for the famous Bert
Lane and competing against such notables, he said,
as Dan Brown, Marv Gold and Dave Bond.
In 1948 Robbins went to the S.L. London Music
Company in Milwaukee, also as sales representa-
tive. He remained there until 1955 when he came to
Empire as Sales Manager. He became a partner in
the company in 1961.
Joe and his wife have three boys, the oldest in
business in Houston, the middle one in medical
school and the youngest just beginning high school.
Robbins is active civicaUy, particularly involved
in charitable work for the Jewish United Fund,
Israel Bonds . He is also -few people know this, he
told us - "the oldest active hockey referee in the
State of fllinois . ..
8
Joe also gets exercise on the golf course. He
fishes and now and then does a bit of duck hunting.
Our interview focuses on marketing throughout
the industry, but we wanted first to get Joe's
opinions on the state of the industry in general.
PLA Y METER: It is generally believed that the
industry is in a boom period. Do your experiences
bear this out?
ROBBINS: I don't think we're in a boom period. I
think we've come out of a boom period. We've
passed the peak and we're in a plateau area.
Certainly the video games have peaked and they're
in a plateau. Many manufacturers have left the
business or are in trouble; you've only very few left
that you could call "meaningful" video or arcade
manufacturers. You do, of course, have to separate
the parts of the games industry: one part is
flippers, the other arcades, novelty and such. These
are two distinct divisions. You've absolutely
plateaued in the arcade end-novelty, video,
etc.-so that you've got a lot of little manufacturers
who are no longer with us, and you have a lot of
others that are still with us but are in distinct
trouble.
PLA Y METER: Why do you think that is?