use it for a lot of accounts receivable functions-
loans, loan balances. That way we have our
information and our reports rapidly. We can do a
printout on all that ourselves, and not have to pay
for that service.
PLA Y METER: You must have done some research
and found that the computer could do all this for you
in -house.
STORINO: Right. As for the cost, when I ~ad
finished up, I was over $56,000. The programmmg
ran us around six thousand dollars, leaving us with
fifty thousand in hardware. This we got on a
lease-purchase type of deal. It's a five -year lease
and comes out to around $750 a month.
PLAY METER: And you don't have to go out,
you're not time-sharing with anybody else's
computer?
STORINO: No, this is strictly right in the house. In
fact, we can actually do work for other people.
PLAY METER: Did it eliminate anybody's job?
STORINO: No, as I said, we used to send the
payroll out to be done, and it has saved us on that.
But I wouldn't say it has saved us any people. What
it does mean is that we can now do a lot more
business with the same number of people.
PLAY METER: You said it keeps track of all your
equipment at all your locations. What kind of report
do you get?
STORINO: It gives us a customer file, and that has
the name and address of each customer, all the
machines in that location (by type and description),
the date the machine went in, the date the machine
went out, the date the location contract expires.
And it gives you the year-to-dating from each
location beside each machine listing. That's all on
the customer report file.
PLAY METER: Does it give you any information as
to how often the machine was serviced?
STORINO: No, we do not get into that. At a later
date, I could program that into it, but when you
start with something like this, you've got to start
small because it's a lot of work with this thing.
PLA Y METER: Are there any other functions you
have the computer performing for you?
STORINO: I do have another report which I call a
machine file report. That gives me the machine's
description, the date the machine was acquired, and
the co!j~ of the machine, and its lifetime income.
We've had the computer running a little over a
year; so our machines that are three, four, or five
years old don't have all that information. Their data
goes back to when the computer started. The
computer also keeps our location -to-date income. In
other words, since you moved that machine into the
location how much has that machine taken in. Then
it prints out what was collected for the past four
weeks, giving four different totals. So, by looking
at It, you can see if the machine's earnings are going
up or going down. And in the last column of the
machine file report, I have the year-to-date receipts
on the machine. So you can see how it did this year
so far and compare this to its lifetime earnings and
its weekly earnings on location.
PLA Y METER: So with a machine you bought last
year and that you trade in, say, five years from
now, you would be able to go back and see what it
has earned for the past six years?
STORINO: Yes, then we have a pre-printed form
that prints out the collection ticket for each of the
routes. It will print out the whole week's collection
tickets, the name and address of the location, and
the machines that are in the location. So when the
collector goes to the machine, he won't have to
bother writing down each machine. All he does is
put in the meter reading. Then we have a collection
report done at the end of the day when all the
tickets come back to the office. We get back a
report that gives the name of the location, how
much was in the machine, how much was refunded
off the machine, how much the machine netted, the
name of the machine, the meter reading. And since
I want to see the weekly average of that machine,
we get that too. That way, when the machine comes
back with $125, we can look at the weekly average
and see if it's up or down from its weekly average.
PLAY METER: And, as you mentioned earlier, it
also does your payroll and bO
STORINO: That's right. It keeps track of all the
accounts receivable, the accounts payable, makes
all the checks. In fact, if I had to keep the computer
strictly for a bookkeeping function, it would still
pay me .
PLA Y METER: Are there any other applications
that this computer can be used for?
STORINO: It could be programmed for whatever
you wanted it for. At one time I was thinking of
putting all my part on the computer, but then I
decided against it. You could program it for every
time you get a service call. But that all takes time,
and, a I said, this is still something new for me. It's
like handling a new baby. For the first year or two,
I want to walk with it. It has a lot of capabilities for
me.
PLA Y METER: What are your feelings about the
off-beat manufacturers?
STORINO: It depends on who the distributor is. If I
have a good di tributor who is going to back up the
game and who, if the game doesn't work out, will
take it back at a fair arrangement, I'll try the game .
But when I layout the money they are asking for
game today, I make sure every game I buy is a
winner. Very seldom will I buy an unknown game.
PLA Y METER: Let's talk about your route some
mor , your music route in particular. What are
your feelings about the copyright law which is now
going into effect?
STORINO: Obviously, I don't feel too good about it.
You know the size of my music route, and you can
times that by eight, and that's what I'll be paying.
But eight dollars isn't that bad; after all, at one
time, they were talking about a lot more. I'd like to
say this, though . The entertainers are getting it on
the other end too. Every time you buy a record,
you're paying for the copyright too. The copyright
i included in the price of the record. So really
they're getting it twice .
PLA Y METER: Sort of like a double taxation?
STORINO: Exactly. We push the entertainers.
They may get a lot of exposure on the radio, but we
give them a lot of exposure on our jukeboxes as
well.
PLAY METER: How is your music route holding
up?