Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

Vending Corp., New York , as follows :
" 1. A lack of con tinuity in the business.
The Chick company is protected by a
five-year contract with th e New York City
Board of T ransportation. Other vending
machin e operators on city property are
similarly protected. Private locations, how-
ever, are open to raids by rival operators.
To snatch away choice spots, r aiders simply
bi d up eommissions; and
"2. Little capital, relatively speakin g, is
required to embark on a vending. m~ ch~n e
business. This serves as an open InVItatIOn
to the uninitiated, who fail to observe th e
most impor ta nt rules of the game-play fo r
high volume and cut corners."
Evidence of th e success of the Indu stry
is shown in th e annual gross business of
Automatic Canteen last year, reaching a
total of a bout $35,000,000. One prominent
operator is quoted as sayin g th at his drink
machines h ave averaged $12,000 a year ,
a gross much above the average route.
Vending machines are said to sell between
17 and 20 per cent of th e total cigarette
volume and about 15 per cent of total
nickel candy bar sales.
As last year, the article quotes trade
leaders as emphasizing the fact th at vendors
do not really compete with retail stores
but give manufacturers of merchandise
a plus business. Super markets, drug stores
and department stores are getting more
consideration as f uture locations.
Hi gh costs in th& operating fi eld are
explained by sayi~ that weekly wages
of servicemen vary between $55 and $75.
A Spacarb official is quoted as saying that
servi ce must be maintained for 16 hours a
day and seven days a week. Commissions
paid by operators vary widely, the article
states, ranging from 5 per cent up.
In spite of high costs and oth er problems,
the Journal states that the tide has of late
turn ed in favor of the Industry, and for
the following reasons:
" 1. The nationwide consumer a c-
'ceptance of vendors, a s r e ve aled in
soaring sales;
" 2. Manufacture r s, la rge and small,
have turned to vendors a s a highly
d esirable plqs outle t ;
"3. Big name business organizations
have h e lpe d underwrite the r especta-
bility of automatic m~rch,~ndi sers­
b y the process of adoption.
To illustrate the third point, reference
is made to an export offi ce of Ford Motor
Co. in New J ersey which has installed an
automatic in-plant feeding service ( Rowe)
for its employes. The battery of machines
dispenses milk, cold sandwiches, pas.try
-and pies. Other big firms are also trYIng
vendors, including th e report th at the A
& P ch ain is considering single-brand
cigarette machines for its stores.
The last 'of the series of articles, by-lined
by Milton Al exander , refers to some ex-
periences of operators on consumer buy-
ing habits:
1. Males are said to spend more freely
in vending machines than females.
2. Working people are the vendin g ma-
chine's best customers.
3. Volum e of vending machin e sales
seems to vary directly with in com e level.
This last point is one that THE REVIEW
has been trying to trace for th e last two
years and discover how quickly and how
much the patronage of machines .rises or
falls in relation to reports of varyIng con-
sumer in come. Operators, in their re-
ports have tended to stress the effects of
short~r work weeks on vendi ng machine
-sales rather than any change in wages. A
shorter work week amounts to a redu ction
in income but operators seem to t hink it
is th e shorter time in which workers have
to patronize th e machines th at cuts sales
rather than the less income.
Region IX Names Milner
DALLAS--The meeti ng of Region IX,
of NAMA, elected Herman Milner as chair-
man to succeed Tom Vaughn, of New
Orle~ns Cigarette Service Corp. Miln.e r
heads the Milner Mechanical MerchandIS-
ing firm of Austin , Texas .. Gibbe McD an i~l ,
City Wide Cigarette SerVIce, San Anto~lO,
was chosen as vice-chairman by the RegIon
IX group.
Refresh-O-Mat For Chi Subway
CHI CAGO- M echanical Merchants, an
operating firm here, is placing at least
50 of the R efr esh-O-Mat bottle type vendors
in subway stations in the city. The vendors
are ma de by Automatic P roducts Co. of
New York the firm also manufacturin g
the S moke;hop cigarette machine.
Al W. Blendow, sales manager of Auto-
matic Products, reports that display of the
two vendors at the recent ACMMA con-
vention produced an excellent response
from operators. H e says the Chicago oper-
ating firm conducted months of labora tory
tests of the bottle vendor -and on basis
of these tests accepted the vendor uncon-
ditionally. He said the machin e is being
considered also by fran chised bottlers of
Nehi, Orange Crush and other well known
soft drinks.
Robert Waggoner, form er president of
CMAC and an executive of the Distributing
Corp. of Illinois, completed th e ? eal for
Au tomatic Products for the op era tIn g firm
to install the Refresh-O-Ma ts.
T he drink vendor was invented by Sam
Kresberg and E. 1. St. L~uren ce .and the
Smokeshop cigarette machIne w as Invented
by Arthur Gross, of th e Gross-Given Manu-
facturing Co., St. Paul.
OAf 1Jt~ AcAih9 Blick! "
New York State statistics prove that
most industrial accidents are hernias
caused by lifting and handling!
THE VENCO LOADER
THE VENCO LOADER for pick-up
trucks stops accidents and cuts the
cost of your truck operation by 50%.
It is easily installed and eosily oper-
ated. Capacity 600 pounds.
Write lor the name
01 your nearest distributor! -
~THE
26
YEN CORP. • 2828 Newell • t. A. 39
THE NORTHW E STERN CORPORATION
816 E A ST
AA M STAO~G
Sf
•
1110111115
IllIIIQI:;
COIN MACHINE REVIEW