AUTOMATIC
Eight
Automatic World
120 St. L ouis Avenue
FORT WORTH, TEXA S
AUTOMATIC WORLD PUBLI SH I NG CO.
An independent, nationally circulated journal published
monthly in the interest of the Vending Machine and Coin
Operated Device Industry of America.
AARON SMITH
O. J. BRANCH
TOM MURRAY
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
Editor
Subscription Price:
One Year ............. . .................... $1.00
THREE years ............................•• $2.00
Canada, One Year ....................•....••• $1. 7 5
Advertising Rates Furnished Upon Request.
GEORGE A . GRASTORF HAS PASSED ON
George A . Grastorf has passed on. From his
hands has dropped the working tools of this life.
All the good works that were performed by this
man will continue on. The many friends that he
created while in the world will always remember
him. We that had the pleasure of meeting George
personally will continue to walk with him through
the halls of memory. He did a lot for the coin ma-
chine industry. He had taken part in association
work and was an outstanding character in coin
machinedom.
George A. Grastorf passed away on June, 21,
1932. Funeral services were held in Chicago, Fri-
day afternoon, June 24, at 4200 West Jackson
boulevard.
This journal joins the great host of friends' of
this good man in ,e xtending their deepest sympathy
to his loved ones in their hour of deepest sorrow,
and our prayer goes up for the true wife and fine
children of George A. Grastorf. May peace be
theirs and may God's richest blessings rest upon
them.
SELLING MACHINES TO THE LOCATION OWNER
By TOM MURRAY
A lot is being said regarding the "dirty" practice of
manufacturers selling machines to location owners, and
after selling the jobber a neat load of machines, turning
around and letting him have a neat shot of bacon right
in the seat of his pants by selling dir,e ct to the operator
cheaper 01' as cheap as he sold to the jobber. Yet, we
see these "stung" operators and jobbers turning right
around and buying more machines from the same manu-
facturers. Boys, you must like it.
To be real frank with you, regarding this practice that
will put operators out of business, I believe that the
recent pin games have given the store-keepers a real
,good "cobbing" and a cure that will keep their thoughts
away from the idea of buying machines.
I personally interview a number of location owners
who had purchased pin games. In my talk with them I
found that only one man had received enough returns to
pay for the machine and he said the play was falling off
and if he intended to keep the game going he was going
to have to replace it with a newer design or add some
WORLD
July, 1932
attractive feature to it. In two spots the owners had set
their machines over in a corner and they were being
used as a parking place for books, hats, raincoats and
what-have-you. An operator would have had that table
working. Location owners absolutely will not give the
attention to a machine that it really requires.
If I was a jobber and made a purchase of machines
from a distributor or manufacturer, I would certainly
arrange, if at all possible, some plan whereby said man-
" ufacturer would not slice to the operator. This could be
done on a contract that a certain number of machines
would not be paid for until a certain stated period of time,
giving the jobber ample time to turn his load. In the
event the manufacturer cut, then he would forfeit the
said machines to said jobber which might offset his loss
created by his friend, the manufacturer. Of course the
poor operator has little protection. He can buy a ma-
chine, pay for it and then get kicked out of the location
indirectly by the very firm that sold him the machine.
That's bad oats, fellows, bad oats. That's not clean
business and that thing is not going to be tolerated very
much longer by our real operators.
If operators and jobbers want to see just who really
is trying to sell locations, go down to your newsstand,
buy some drug store magazines, a grocery journal, some
of these so-called salesmen's magazines, and thumb
through them and you will see just who is protecting
you. You'd be surprised to know just how many of your
so-called reliable manufacturers carried ads in drug
store journals last month, attempting to sell your spots
r ight out from under you.
Not so very long ago every grocery store, drug store
and what-not in Fort Worth, received a letter from one
of Chicago's largest manufacturers, offering them scales
at a greatly reduced price, or what we might say, a bar-
gain. Many of! these places bought and some poor oper-
ator had to move on. In one case, we understand, an
operator's own scale· was sold. Of course this was a mis-
take and the operator was taken care of all right, but
it just goes to show and prove how some manufacturers
go after the location and say to h - - with the op·e rator.
Yet you operators keep buying from these same manu-
facturers. Who's to blame? How can anybody help
you when you don't even help yourself?
This journal has a list of manufacturers, jobbers and
distributors that have failed to carry square with us.
We have requested operators to write us, regarding eer-
tai~ firms before they purchase machines from them:
If you are about to get stung by one of these "crooks,"
we could at least warn you. A number have complied
with our suggestion and we believe that we have saved
them some, trouble and money. This service is free to
any operator. We don't lie, we tel! just how we have
been treated by these firms, and that's no lie. We see
these firms running their advertising ' right along in va-
rious journals and we know dog-gone well that an oper-
ator is in danger when he trades with them. We can
keep you from getting the "cob" in many instances if
you will write us before you buy any machines from a
firm that you don't know.
AUTOMATIC WORLD is strictly against the selling
of machines to locations. This business is an operators'
business and he is the only person that can make a suc-
.cess at operating machines. A spot owner makes a flop
every time he buys a machine and that gives the indus-
try a black-eye that has to be rubbed down by some good
operator. Kill the operator and you have killed the coin
machine industry.