Convert Your Old
Midway Game
to Cosmic
Invaders
$475
Convert any Midway
Game after Gunfight.
Including: Maze,
Checkmate, Extra Inning,
Doubleplay, Dogpatch,
Boothill, Spacewalk
Includes new game board,
set of proms, new button
panel and parts for wiring
including instructions for
modifing mother board.
Ridge & Butler Pikes, Plymouth Shopping Center
Conshohocken, PA 19428 Phone: 215 / 825-8030
DISTRIBUTORS WANTED
CHICKEN EGG VENDOR
INSERT A COIN-
THE CHICKEN CLUCKS-
OUT POPS AN EGG FILLED
WITH ASSORTED TOYS!!!
Complete with base
$249.95
Without base
$219.95
CALL OR WRITE
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Also looking for distributor
of our 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent filled
and unfilled toy capsule line!
A & A COMPANY
1930 Greenspring Drive
Timonium, Maryland 21093
(301) 252-1020
14
the way to get around all their problems. They-d gi e the
locations the keys and let them pay us $25 a week and
not worry about what they did. But this was wrong
because the locations would play the phonographs
longer , and so the machines got more wear and tear on
them , and the operator, for his end, wasn 't making any
more money.
Now , what I can see, instead of a flat rental is a lease ,
but it should be like car rentals , where you're charged so
much a day and so much a mile . It should be $10 or $12
a week for the use of the machine, plus a charge of, say ,
two or three cents per play . That would have been a
more equitable way. If we would have done that , instead
of going to th e flat rental , we would have made more
money , and music would have remained profitable . The
locations would have had the keys , and we would have
gone in only to read the play meter and multiply that
times the formula to see what the location owed.
And there were also other problems which contributed
to the problems with music. So many places were turning
to tape decks and FM radio stations and were taking out
their jukeboxes . So the number of music locations started
to decline. All of this contributed to the decline of music
in my area. As I said, we operate only seven jukeboxes
now, but at one time we operated 240 .
PLAY METER: Have you taken any measures to insure
efficiency among your workers?
ANDERSON: Yes , I have. Some time back I took my
total route in the Portland area and my two arcades and
assigned each serviceman so many locations and so
many machines , and this has helped our efficiency. The
reason I did this was that I wanted to get away from the
attitude among my people that although they know they
should do something they won 't do it because they're in a
hurry or figure they'll just let George do it. As I said, I
wanted to get away from that . I found that I was running
too much into the same problem where a serviceman said
he thought another serviceman was going to take care of
some call, and so the repair was never made . My present
setup, however , has eliminated that. Each servicemen
has particular machines and locations that are his
exclusive responsibility, and he knows he had better take
care of them or else he 'll hear from me about it.
PLAY METER: What was the servicemen's reaction to
this change?
ANDERSON: They actually kind of liked it . They found
out inside of a very short period of time that they were
eliminating calls. Our call sheet went from one page a day
to about one page to cover the entire week.
PLAY METER: How many calls do you have a day?
ANDERSON: We hardly have five calls a day now, and
that's counting change calls , too . With this new system, I
leave it up to the individual servicemen as to how much
time he should spend on each machine. He has to fill in a
report every day , and here in the office we break that
down to see how many actual calls he 's had . I want to
know when he's bee n called back to a location more than
once in a week so we can check and see if he's having
repeat calls on a particular machine. If he is, it's his
responsibility to get to me and tell me that machine has to
come into the shop for repair.
I can also look at that report and check for driving time
and see if he's bee n doubling back. There's a space for
time unaccounted for. And there's a space for time spent
on preve ntive maintenance. I'm very interested in that ; if
there isn 't e nough tim e spent on preventive maintenance
I can expect to see his service calls start going up.
PLAY METER: So your servicemen are required to fill
out some forms themselves?
PLAY METER, . August, 1980