PLAY METER: What' the secret to success in this
business?
STORINO: You really have to know what you're
doing. Each piece of equipment has to earn on its
own merit. It seems that many operators are
soft - oaped into buying a lot of equipment that they
don't really need. And they place equipment in the
wrong location, which is bad . I've watched some of
the e routes that we've acquired when they were
on the downhill, and I've seen them lose locations
and not try to pick up any other business to make
up for the 10 . Another thing, many operators will
place the wrong equipment just to get somebody off
their back. For example, a hot novelty item comes
out, and just because the owners of a good music
and pool table location emphasize that he wants
that novelty piece and even though it makes only
ten or twenty dollars a week in there, believe me,
operator will keep it in there, just because they
are worried about their other pieces in there. This
i where it takes a little success to go talk to these
people and explain dollars and cents. You've got to
make that decision, whether to pull it out or keep it
in . I'm not saying you have to be one hundred
percent hard -nosed about it, but you have to know
what you're doing.
PLAY METER: How do you go about deciding just
what new games to buy?
STORINO: I'm friendly with operators in our area
and throughout the country who test games and
they tell me how they're doing. And I'm friendly
with arcade operators throughout the state, and
through talking with them, I can learn which are
the good pieces. And servicewise, I try to find out
which piece are mo t likely to give me trouble.
Then I'll evaluate what I need, what the lifetime of
the game is, and then I'll make my move.
PLA Y METER: So you make your big order mainly
off the feedback you get from other operators?
STORINO: Well, I'll get all this preliminary
information, then I'll get one or two pieces. Then
within a week I'll see how it is doing in my area. '
And if I like it I'll jump on the piece.
PLA Y METER: What is the biggest problem you
are faced with?
STORINO: One of our major problems here in the
east i the lending problem, lending locations
money. I'm sorry to say that ours is a lending
bu ine s. And in the state of New Jersey, it's more
or less out of control. A lot of the loans can go sour
on you. With the good locations, though-and I'm
talking here about when you get into loans of
thousands of dollars-you have to make a decision.
If you're making a good income out of the location,
you have to decide if the location is worth the
gamble. If a fellow is already into you for six or
seven thousand dollars and he needs another
$1,500, you have got to make that decision . Will I
bail him out a little bit? Will the income at his
location reduce that loan, plus what he owes me?
It' a big decision.
PLA Y METER: Do you have any way of protecting
that large of an investment?
STORINO: Yes, we use location contracts that hold
up in court. When you loan someone five or ten
thnusann nolJars , you have to protect it. A few
PLAY METER , January. 1978
y ar ago, I took a con ervative attitude, and I
wa n't lending any money, and the route income
went down. 0 you really have to take a hard look
at it. It' a neces ary evil in our bu ine s .
PLA Y METER: Do you lose money on the e loans?
TORINO: Not rally. You figure it' a way of
picking up business. It's a business expense.
PLA Y METER: Do you charge a high interest rate?
STORINO: No, these location are not fly -by -night
operations. They have accountants doing their
book . If you give them a loan and ('harge them a
higher interest rate than the bank, th eir accountant
tell them.
PLAY METER: You work on a straight fifty -fifty
plit?
STORINO: Well, we do get ~ome terms on certain
mu ic location . Say you have a fancy new cocktail
lounge that wants a new piece of music, but it
gro ses only thirty -five dollars per week, you can
go in t here and tell them you have to get forty or
fifty dollars a week. So, many times the location
will agree that you can take the first forty or fifty
dollars. Therefore, what you're doing basically is
taking all the money out of the machine. It's not a
bad deal, but it's worth it to some of these locations.
They want fancy equipment that costs money, and
they don't care about the money it takes in because
that' secondary to them. They're looking to make
their money over the bar.
PLAY METER: We understand that you employ a
computer in your operation, is that right?
STORINO: Yes, that's correct. It's a Philips P359
with a P142 disc .
PLA Y METER: How did you decide upon the use of
a computer in your operation?
STORINO: We felt that with the size of our
operation we needed something to keep track of the
machines, to make it a little easier, and to keep up
with what our machines were earning. And we felt
the computer was the way to go. It also does all our
bookkeeping functions right in the office. We used
to have our payroll done by a computer firm, but
now we do all that with our own computer. And we
CoinrTULn Vincent Storino and his office rTULnageT
Marie Glutting check the print-out from the computer
which can be programmed to handle any phase of
his operation
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