Automatic Age

THE AU TO M ATIC AGE
VOL. 6
-
CH ICAGO, A U G U ST, 1929
No. 1
A U T O M A T IC R ETAILIN G IS N O T
A L L ROSES
By J. H. ST E V E N SO N , President, Automatic Retailing Corporation
(Reprinted by permission from “ Printer’s Ink M onthly.” )
The remarkable interest in
automatic merchandising which
as been demonstrated during
the last year or so has led a
great many manufacturers to be-
leve that they have found a new
and profitable outlet for their
Products. Many o f them, indeed,
ave found just that but others
aye encountered nothing but
sadness and grief in their efforts
°^sell through this outlet.
Nobody realizes the pitfalls
and advantages as well as the
manufacturers o f automatic mer-
g a°dising m a c h i n e s .
Mr.
evenson is such a manufacturer
and his article should be o f help
n°t only to advertisers who are
considering automatic retailing,
ut also to the companies which
make the machines.” — Editor.
^ Successful automatic retailing
ependent upon just three things:
right product,
he right machine,
he right organization.
is
th t
*S really
there is to it;
a plus ordinary business common-
^ nse> governed and controlled by
* ^ ll-k n o w n rules and limitations
•
which every good business man
thoroughly familiar. But it is all
rajv*e^ore> somewhat difficult fo r the
av Gr new anc* ^ttle known and,
is
manufacturer to get at. How
e to judge the righ product or the
right machine, and how is he to go
about setting up the right organiza­
tion?
This article is offered fo r what it
may be worth to the manufacturer
who has, or who may think he has,
or who may find it worth while to
produce, a product suitable fo r auto­
matic Lale. It is but a humble effort
to guide his interest along practical
and systematic lines, to the end that
he may take profitable advantage o f
his opportunities, or else avoid the
costs o f misplaced enthusiasm and
misdirected effort.
The time to study automatic retail­
ing is before, not after taking; the
place to analyze it is in the labor­
atory rather than in the field.
Referring back fo r a moment to
the three essentials o f automatic re­
tailing, namely: the right product,
the r'ght machine and the right or­
ganization — it must be understood
at the outset tnat all tnree are the
“ most important.” Weakness in any
one will seriously jeopardize the suc­
cess o f any undertaking as a whole.
They are, in a word, essentials.
It is obvious that our consideration
o f this general subject should start
with the product; there is no use "in
going further if the product is not
right. This phase o f the subject be­
comes somewhat clearer and more
comprehensive if we approach it first
from the angle o f unsuitable mer­
chandise, rather than to list solely