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The dilemma and needs
and those 'other' operators
By Thomas J. Poplar
Return on sales, return on investment , sales per
square foot , administrative expense to sales, percentage
of owned versus leased equipment , percentage of pinball
versus arcade equipment - something really is happening
in the entire dimension of the operator , and something
really is not happening!
I am a relative newcomer to the industry and quite
frankly didn't realize for a while that there is a rather
significant differential in the dubious classification
misnomered, " operator ."
The distributor today is dealing with an entirely
different element of operator and is manhandling him in
the same manner he has dealt and manhandled the
"route operator ."
That's right. I'm referring to the regional mall operator
of family amusement arcades . That individual who is or
who represents the owner of same in sophisticated and
dignified lease negotiation , who toils for hundreds of
hours in design and architect , who represents his industry
in front of city planning , city council and zoning variance ,
who hires, trains. pensions, and gainfully employs in
abstentia , and is responsible for the bottom line to his
employer or himself .
Where are we?
I , like you , read every publication, cover to cover,
every month . I'm read out. I'm a little sick and tired of
reading about the 60 / 40 and the 70/ 30 split or the one
play/ two bits lead stories when, in fact, nothing could be
of lesser importance to arcade operators . This should not
be confused with the advertising content, by the way .
The proverbial "operator of the month" is invariably
somebody from Timbuktu , U .S .A ., whose grandfather
started the business 83 years ago and nurtured it from
eighteen stops to ninety and still goes along with the
driver from time to time as grandad used to .
And while all this is going on, we are allowing the
manufacturer and the distributor to conduct business with
us as he has done before the advent of the regional
4
shopping mall game room syndrome . What we ought to
do is recognize what we have done and are doing to
supplement the strength of the manufacturer and the
distributor .
Can't we see we have created a seller's market and in
effect have driven the price up from manufacturer to
operator passed through the distributor!
We are vying against the street operator Virtually
begging for equipment " hot off the presses. " so to speak ,
in return . paying top dollar and rewarded in return , by
seeing a bonus . the privilege of a test piece . Who else but
us is the dumping place for old equipment when placing
an order for fifty games to fill a room , kind of convinced
to add a few " filler " pieces?
It may be the time is now for us to look for a "volume
by location differential."
In essence, or in summary , wouldn 't you, " Mr
Regional Game Room Operator" like to attend a
convention that included , instead of shop talk revolving
around "service calls at midnight to fix the jukebox,"
se m inars on the following :
A . The qualifications and minimum job description of a
store manager versus part time game room attendants.
B . Cash control and access to - the dollar bill changer ,
keys . master locks , the collection itself. and number of
tim es weekiI,' .
C . Integrity and the employee. incentives, polygraph ,
hiring in the fi eld with hom e ottice scrutiny , the recent
advent of the un metered machines , and how to use it to
advantage .
D . Reasonable data on costs and percentages of cost
to sa les. including but not limited to : building rent .
equipm ent ren t/ amortization. and payroll as a per-
ce ntage.
E. Recognize the whole busi ness of cost in our version
o f an operator versus th e cost incurred in th e stree t
operator. certainly a proud and cognizant man in a proud
and cognizant industry. but. at least. different.
PLAY METER, February, 1979