Big Ops, Middle Ops & Little Ops
Bill Johnston
Johnston's General Store
Buffalo, New York
SCROOGING
My favorite new buzzword is Scrooging (Ed
Adlum, Dec88 RePlay Page 8). and I'm happy
to report that there are plenty of operators
still scrooging out there! I just talked to a
small operator in Texas who's still pissed
about Tradewest lying to him about dedi-
cated-only when he bought an Ikari Warrior
from them, only to tum around two weeks
later and be faced with their kits!
In the bigger cities, the crap hits the fan right
away, but I'm also getting calls from rural
America who's just getting onto titles now
pushing two years of age. No operator in
America likes to feel like he's been screwed,
believe me, and plenty of operators in middle
and rural America feel that way.
PCB FOOD CHAIN
The big city operator buys the games literally
at any price to keep up with the newest rota-
tions. He's sweating out the competition,
and under the gun from his locations -most
of which are operating without contracts
and he's basically living on fear.
The BIG CITY OPS buy anything that has a
coin slot and a video display, regardless of
price! Their used pieces are either trades to
a pipeline distrib or get sold cheap to very
lucky middle size ops who are shopping for
prices on used pieces and are glad to know
the big town ops.
The MIDDLE SIZE OPS are working for a
living, their techs are either brilliant or
brainless, and they are juggling the busi-
ness, a wife and x number of kids (where x
is inverse to their IQ). Long hours, an at-the-
mercy-of-the-manufacturers feeling, and an
urgent need for fast delivery and service
mark the middle sized op as a man who
needs a vacation, soon.
Now comes my favorites: LITTLE OPS. Some
little ops have arealjob, with routes at night.
Talk about scrooging, these ops are mindful
of a buck, buy right, and call everybody with
an advertisement in a trade mag before
making a decision to order. These guys are
my favorite customers, because that's where
i'm from, too.These little ops can wait two
years for the dust to settle on the hype of a
new title. They can spin a yam of incrediblr
ROI for buying right against a great average
weekly gross on titles that half of America
has in the PCB dumpster, and they know
how to make money ... and you know what
their secret is ?
..t DON'T SPEND IT SO DAMN FAST!
.A CONSIDER EVERY PURCHASE CAREFULLY.
.A DON'T GET NEW GAME FEVER!
.A SHOP AROUND FOR PRICE
AND AVAILABILITY!
***
Murphy's Law #1011
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