AUTOMATIC
February, 1932
The New Gem Scale
A new penny person weighing scale has made its ap-
pearance and is meeting the approval of everyone who
has examined and operated the scale. It is beautiful in
appearance, compact in size and built stunly.
This new GEM scale is the product of Mr. William
H. Kleckner, of New York City. Mr. Kleckner was with
the Columbia Scale Company for 29 years and one
would travel fa1' and wide trying to find a man who
could build a scale. better than Mr. Kleckner. He knows
just what the operator needs, he knows the kin d of
scale is needed in every variety of location. he knows
every trick and every sort of trouble a scale operator
is confronted with. Therefore, Mr. Kleckner has con-
structed a scale with all this knowledge going into it,
keeping, at all times, t he operator in the front of the
picture.
The scale is reasonably priced, both to distributors
and operators. Distributors ~hould get in touch with
the William H . Kleckn er, In c., 79 East 130th Street,
New York, N. Y., at once, asking for their Special Dis-
tributors Proposition . Operators should also write them
at once and ask for full details and informat.ion on this
new wonder in the scale field.
The GEM will not be exhibited at the Chicago show
but they want ever y operator and jobber in America to
get their prices and full information before buying scales
from anybody. They say that you can not appreciate
their offering until you see the scale, jump on it and
give it a thorough trial.
See their f ull page message in this issue of the
WORLD.
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Cloth
Manufacturers, please be advised that the Saxton
Woolen Corp., of Norwich, Conn., can supply you with
various kinds of cloth used in your manufacturing ac-
tivities. Mr. C. A. Saxton, the manager of this huge
woolen enterprise is very familiar with the coin machine
business and is capable of extending a co-operation to
the trade that is worthwhile. Write them your wants.
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Baker Machine & Plating Co., Inc.
The Baker Machine & Plating Company, Inc., of 330
Bryan Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas, is one of the South's
best equipped m~chine plants. This firm is capable of
turning out any kind of a job for the coin machine in-
dustry. They have been in close touch with the field
for several years and are acquainted with both the man-
ufacturer and operator's needs.
They are manufacturing a quality coin chute that is
making a big hit with all who have used it. They will
figure complete jobs or render any style service you
desire. A plant for the SOUTH is the wav Mr. Baker,
the manager, puts it. "We are going to apply our-
selves more extensively to the coin machine industry
and invite all who could use our service to write or
come to see us," continued Mr. Bakel'.
See their- ad in this issue.
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Legal Advice for Operators
Any legal advice you desire on questions confronting
your coin machine business, ask u's. We offer you this
service free of any charges and will be glad to have you
call upon us at any time.
THE AUTOMATIC WORLD.-
WORLD
Why
Page ''''oirteen
Do Operators Fail
By M. T. DANIELS
N
EARLY every week some one writes to me and
asks, "Why do so many operators fail or discon-
tinue?" That's a mighty hard question to an-
swer in a general way. In the past eleven years there
have been more than 200 operators that have either
failed, discontinued or moved out of this territory and
there are probably more than 100 different reasons.
Probably the most common reason for failure is
DIRTY MACHINES. Who want to buy any kind of
merchandise out of a dirty machine? Who even wants
to play a dirty amusement machine? Next to dirty
machines comes INFERIOR MERCHANDISE. I know
a man that operates more than 300 ball gum machiIies,
yet he told me a few days ago that he had not chewed
a ball of gum for more than 3 years, and this same man
wrote to one of the largest manufacturer~ of peanut
machines and said he would like to have some more
peanut machines, but that business was so poor he could
not afford to buy any more machines for several months.
Of course business is poor with him, how does he kn ow
what kind of gum he is putting in his machines? With
11 years experience operating ball gum machines and
nine years operating peanut machines I have made it
a custom to never put any kind of merchandise in t hese
machines that I would not eat or chew myself.
Next comes the operator that everybody knows as
CYCLONE. Just as soon as he has made his first visit
he vanishes out of the picture in about 90 days. Then
there is the fellow that has such a good machine that
he can pay 35 per cent or even 50 per cent commission
to the location, he usually lasts three or four months,
before he gets wise to himself and finds out that his
machines will be worn out some day and that he will
be shy on funds to reo-place them.
Two other kinds of operators that usually fail or dis-
continue are the ones that go out on their routes dr ess-
ed like tramps with dirty hands and sometimes dirty
faces an dthe ones that are just the opposite. These
HIGH-HAT guys are just as undesirable and often more
offensive to the merchant than the fellow that looks
like a tr~mp.
Space does not permit me to tell all the reasons why
operators failed, even if I knew, but why limit this
FAILURE business to operators? Do you know of any
kind of business that is SURE-FIRE? While 10 opera-
tors are going broke there are 30 groceries, 100 restau-
rants, 5 drug stores, 7 bakeries, 1 bank, 12 filling sta-
tions, 15 furniture stores, 17 print shops, 8 clothing '
stores, 1 coal yard, 1 picture show, 53 tourist camps,
and 1 department store that have also GONE BROKE.
Figure it out for yourself. Dollar for dollar (invested)
don't you think the operating business is just about as
good as anything you know of?
Some operators are continuously asking questions
from other operators, but they will never offer any .sug-
gestions to another operator, and some won't even a n-
swer questions, truthfully, that other operat ors ask them.
In other words there is entirel ytoo much JEALOUSY
among operators. Why not all pull toge ther and see if
we can't improve the operating business to such an ex-
tent that there will be fewer failures. Send in you r
ideas, they may help some new operator 1,000 miles
from . your town.