Automatic Age

T
he
A
u t o m a t ic
temptation to vandals. It behooves
the manufacturer to concentrate his
attention on 1-cent or 5-cent pro­
ducts and to consider 10 to 25-cent
merchandise only when machines can
be restricted to safe locations and re­
main under effective surveillance.
Fifth, slow moving products should
not be sold by machine.
In auto­
matic retailing the profit per sale is
small; many such small profit tales
must be made in order to yield a fair
le turn on the investment in mechani­
cal equipment. Even the fastest sell­
ing products, such as chocolate nut
oars, will not average on large opera­
tions more than eight to ten sales
Per day. Slower-moving merchandise,
such as handkerchiefs or collar but­
tons, may not average that many a
Week; that sort o f thing, by and
ar&e, simply does not pay.
Sixth, p oor quality or low value
merchandise is distinctly unsuited to
automatic sale.
The machine is
argely dependent upon the patronage
° f those people who have tried its
Product, liked it and come back for
more, i f
cjuality o f the product
ls not high, the public simply w.'ll not
°°m e back to buy more. It would,
Perhaps, be considered unetnical to
mention by name poor quality p ro­
m ts which have caused the failure
?
automatic retailing en terp rise,
find SU°^ examPle3 cre not ;f“ Teuit to
Seventh,— and last,— machines can-
P* sell successfully that merchan-
^ e in which the public lacks con-
ence. An entirely unknown pre­
set can build up its good-will
ll0u8h sheer merit, aided by the
u licity afforded it by the machines
^ emselves, but the process is.slow .
^eitaJnly the most potent method of
a"eating that confidence is national
^ ^ is in g . A nationally advertised
Uc^ discovered by the public in
a es~machines is bought with con­
© International Arcade Museum
A
ge
13
fidence
and
without
hesitation.
Furthermore, the locating o f ma­
chines is accelerated when they sell
products with which the owners o f
locations are thoroughly familiar.
I f a manufacturer’s products fall
into any o f the foregoing groups, he
may just as well give up any idea
o f selling them by m achine,; fo r the
present at least.
I f a product is small; and fast sell­
ing; and low priced; and restricted
to one or two sizes, styles, colors!,
etc., then it may be suitable fo r auto,-
matic sale. That “ may” is necessi­
tated by the fa ct that there are still
other qualifying conditions. F or ex­
ample:
The automatic retailing o f perish­
able products is justified only when
circumstances are particularly favor­
able. The sale o f sandwiches and
pies in factor'es, schools and offices
is a losing proposition because o f the
h’gh cost o f rervicing the machines
daily, plus the inevitable percentage
o f unsold and stale merchandise. Yet
the Automat restaurants have been
an outstanding success fo r many
years.
But all this comes down to nothing-
more than ordinary businecs judg­
ment. The manufacturer who is fo r ­
tunate in having one or more pro­
ducts suitable fo r automatic retail*-
ing, or who can make up such mer­
chandise specially fo r the purposes,
will have no unusual d!ffculty in de­
termining their practicability fo r the
new market.
T o round out this part o f the pic­
ture, sat sfactory merchandise may
be broadly classified as follow s:
The Right Product must be:
1— Self-selling (the sort o f thing
which people buy on sight):
2— Individual (sufficient unto itself
without variety o f sizes, colors,
styles, etc.).
•
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