Automatic Age

124
AUTOMATIC AGE
February, 1938
Stamp Vendors Are Old Stuff ?
- - Not This Variety
“ J F the plan of a V irginian goes
through we may have stamp pack­
et machines installed in Penny A r­
cades, at no distant future” says an
article in Weekly Philatelic Gossip, a
stamp
collectors
magazine.
“ His
plan,” says that journal, “is to have a
general and country packets in a ma­
chine capable of holding a hundred
packets each, of ten to fifteen different
kinds, the assortment to be changed
each week or ten days in order to
make the one-time purchaser a repeat-
customer.
“ The Penny Arcade business at the
present moment is staging a revival
of popularity, due principally to the
unemployment situation, which makes
the public seek amusements that cost
but a few pennies, as against the dol­
lars they formerly spent in the same
length of time.
‘‘The coin-in-the-slot amusement
vendors were not slow to see the pub­
lic trend toward cheaper amusements,
work, its net is said to be around $800
every week.
but fully realized that more up-to-
date devices must be placed before a
public interested in baseball, football,
horse racing, etc., and they set about
to adopt the ancient bagatelle to each
mood of the customer. The one-cent
peepers w ith the flashy ladies in dis­
habille have been shoved into dark
corners to make room for sporty re­
incarnations o f bagatelle.
“Penny Arcades are successful be­
cause there is no admission charge,
and the machines serve as the only
salesmen on the floor. People wander
in to get out of the rain or to satisfy
their curiosity about the groups of
gaily colored machines that are visible
from the large open doorways. They
are victims of suggestion.
“A record of one arcade on Sixth
avenue, New York City, shows they
are popular with the jobless, for this
one is in the heart of the employment
bureau district. Though patronized
almost entirely by men looking for
“Although our memory of the Pen­
ny Arcades of the past is not exactly
conducive to our being enthusiastic
about this new plan for selling post­
age stamps, yet we realize that the
arcade of today is not the sawdust
infested, illy-lighted, barn-like room
of our youthful memory, but — far
more cleanly, less bawdy, and con-
spicious only by its tinsel and garish­
ness. We must push memory into the
background and accept this plan as a
legitimate way to make more stamp
collectors, and— if p u t into practice
to offer it our moral support from the
angle of the good it may do for our
hobby.
“ We m ight even offer a plan for
making this packet machine more
popular than otherwise, by suggest­
ing that every tenth packet or so in
the machine contain an extra prize
(if that be legitim ate).”
* * * *
“ Wihat did your grandfather say
when they amputated his leg?”
“ He yelled, ‘Hey, what cornin’ off
here?’ ”
Dual 1c Merchandiser
A n Operator s Machine
Fastest Money M aker
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Manufactured by
X. L. Coin Machine Co.
1353 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.
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http://www.arcade-museum.com/