Whether these games are good or bad, they still split the
available income so that your per game average is dropping.
Gullong
GUEST EDITORIAL
The coin-op industry tomorrow
By C. Barton Gullong
As you know, our industry is in trouble. So many games have
been produced , and so many non-professionals are purchasing
one or two games to go into the business that the saturation
point is near or has reached all over the country.
In the small strip shopping center, where your game stood
alone in the deli, now there is a knock-off next door in the pet
store, two games on the other side in the jean store, and another
two down the way in the barber shop. Whether these games are
good or bad, they still split the available income so that your per
game average is dropping.
On the other hand, the smaller manufacturers are going out
of business or on the verge of bankruptcy. Soon only the majors
will be left, and they , more than ever, will decide what you pay
for games.
Your location owner doesn't care to hear your problems. If
you won't put the hottest new game in a marginal location, there
are three or four part-time "operators" with money to burn who
are more than willing to make the foolish investment.
Now you must seek out the unique location that bears high
traffic and is impervious to competition. The old bread and
butter. non-glamorous pool tables and other small investment,
long-term return items are suddenly looking good again . The
operator of tomorrow, the survivor, will not just be the man
with the cash reserves to wait until the business opportunity
entrepreneurs lose interest. He will be the creative, but cynical
businessman who can swallow his pride and say goon-by to the
unprofitable location that he has carried for years; willorerate
fewer games, in only the highest traffic areas; and can operate
efficiently in a compact geographical radius.
It is now apparent that the next few months will see some
takeovers of major distributors by major manufacturers. The
major distributors hold the paper of most of their operators.
When "Black Tuesday" comes for the operators who have
bought too much, too high, at too heavy an interest rate, who
but the distributors will be taking over their routes, and who
will own those distributors? It seems that the circle is com-
pleting itself. What will you be doing for the next few months?
C. Barton Gullong
All -Weather Amusements
Westhampton Beach, NY
The operatoroftomorrow, the survivor, will not just be the man
with the cash reserves to wait until the business opportunity
entrepreneurs lose interest.
10
PLAY METER, September 15, 1982