COMMENTARY
Business principles
and practices
Dear Play Meter:
I would like to share an experience in which my
business was recently involved . Perhaps other opera-
tors have found themselves in the following situation
and felt it useless to protest. Well, as a woman , I am
saying " not mel" The competition between an opera-
tor and distributor on the streets is an unfair, unethi-
cal , and outrageous situation .
The business is competitive enough between
operators, .but now do we have to face distributors
who pay ridiculous amounts for locations? To top
that, they claim that no one can compete with their
" first class" equipment. For years operators have
been supporting the distributors, and now we must
do battle with them on a daily basis. The distributors
have first pick of all equipment at greatly reduced
prices giving them an edge over any operator. Then,
when the equipment runs its course, or faces a close-
out, they can sell the pieces used at extremely high
profit prices to the hard-working operator.
I operate ·a route and recently had a disagree-
ment with one of my distributors. It seems that the
man 's route manager went and solicited a location
with whom I had a previous agreement to place three
video games in its ice cream parlor. The temptation to
the business owner was the usual front money " loan "
that this distributor offers. My games were ready to go
in, and I found out that $1 ,250 bought the space
reserved for them.
When confronted with the situation , the dis-
tributor gave me a lot of sugar-coated double-talk. I
went so far as to offer to buy the location from him
and settle the matter profitably for both of us. It all
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amounted to my location being taken right out from
under me by a man I had dealt with for years as a
customer. There I was helpless at the hands of a large
d istributor. The matter left me bitter and disgruntled,
but in the true fashion of the video business, I picked
myself up and went on to bigger and better locations.
Upon reading the April 1 issue of Play Meter , I
was given hope that all successful men in the coin-op
industry are not heartless and ruthless, as well as
deceitful and unethical. The interview with Chat
McMurdie (p. 94) was a ray of sunsh ine in regard to
my situation as he said : " I've never believed that it' s
good for a distributor to compete with his cus-
tomers ... We have always felt that the operator is our
bread and butter."
That is a quote which I feel all distributors should
have etched upon their walls. Mr. McMurdie went on
to say he might be a little behind in his thinking
regarding that belief! I feel he is a man ahead of his
time! After all, if an operator cannot look toward his
distributor for good business principles and practices,
what is this industry com ing to? Are we operators left
to be swept away like a dirty penny on an arcade floor
by the distributors whose mercy we are left at?
Sincerely yours,
~~
Anita Irene Puehl
Tilt Amusement Company
Mount Kisco, New York
Pt.A Y METER. June 15, 1984