Play Meter

sic style) jukebox for the Noddle
Company . Between January and
March, without adding any additional
labor, I placed 20 ,video cocktail tables
in high-volume locations to maximize
the grosses and lessen the gamble.
The initial, unanswerable question :
"How long will they last?"
Bob Hathaway, veteran operator
and owner of Ventura County Amuse-
ment Service near Santa Barbara
Cal if ., believes they'll be around ~
while. "I think the video cockta il table
is going to be around like a piece of
furniture for years to come," he com -
ments. "The cocktail table is like a
jukebox. If they want to play it, the
game is there," he adds.
Hathaway began in late 1974 with
Mirco tables, purchased from C.A.
Robinson. He admits they started out
w ith a bang and dropped to one-half
within four months. "However, the
majority of them are still in their
original locations - mostly cocktail
lounges," he says.
He reported weekly grosses began
around $100 a week and dropped off
to about $50 in good locations. Hatha·
way, like many other operators, ob-
tained a $25 a week minimum for his
company with the understanding if the
tables dropped below that level, he
could move them to a more profitable
location.
"Our main object is to provide our
locations the service and prevent out-
side competition," Hathaway con-
cl~ed .
•
Chuck Fagelson, Jones Music,
North Hollywood, Calif., does not put
video cocktail tables in beer bars. His
company has set a policy of sticking to
cocktail lounges.
"The beer bars attract more blue
collar workers who'd prefer to shoot
pool,' Fagelson explains. "The cock -
tail lounges have a more sophisticated
clientele ."
'
Jones Music entered the video cock -
tail table market in late 1974 when
they began getting calls from their
locations under contract, asking about
the games. Direct sales personnel were
soliciting the locations or the location
owners had seen advertisements in
newspapers and became interested in
the game.
"So in a way, I think the 'pro·
moters' have helped us," Fagelson
philosophizes. Already, they have
placed 80 tables on a comm ission
basis. "
Fagelson remembers one location
owner, whose establishment provided
good yields on a cocktail table, saying
"I wish I would have bought the
machine directly from that salesman
who was here."
"The first time we had a break-
down," Fagelson chuckled, "I asked
the man, 'What would you have done
now?'''
J
"They can't go to a tv repairman
because the repairmen don't know
enough about the games and the tv
involved and their repair rates are
comparatively very high. Nor can they
go to the manufacturer because, in
most cases, the manufacturer is not
local. At best, there would be a great
deal of delay, which would mean lost
revenue," Fagelson said.
Jones Music has established a
corner in their shop for repairing video
games and has made several of their
own modifications to the Mirco tables
they are using. These include a card-
board over the PC board (that lays
flat) "in case the cash box overflows"
(which would cause a short circuit).
"The future for this market is
good," adds Fagelson. " It can only get
better. There are nine million people
in L.A. alone. This is going to be a case
of survival of the fittest."
One video cocktail table operator,
who asked not to be identified, was
introduced into the field through Na-
tional Entertainment Co ., San Jose, by
direct retailing.
This operator, whom we shall call
Jim, saw an ad in April, 1974, advertis-
ing the machines. Jim' s occupation
was a computer programmer and
thought the idea sounded like an
attractive investment.
He bought one for $2,200, which
grossed $100 the first week and was
fairly steady for about three months,
which he felt was a sufficient trial
period. He ordered nine more on
credit terms by using the cash pay-
ment for his first machine as a down
payment.
"One of the inducements to order
10 was a discount," Jim remembers.
The discount brought the price
down to around $1,800, with 10 per
cent add-on financing.
"I'm negative about the way I got
into the field," Jim is quick to add . " I
thought I researched the field and was
fairly careful, but when you lack
knowledge and are impatient, you
tend to get yourself into trouble.
Jim said National Entertainment
appointed a tv shop in his area to help
him fix machines. "When I was so
naive about the machines that I took
one in with a dropped yoke, which
dropped the video, the tv shop charged
me $18.50 to put the yoke back in."
Locations frequently told Jim of
having a "professional operator" in the
business. "They realized I was coming
into service the machines with a blank
stare.
"Finally I told one location that I
wouldn't blame him for replacing me
with a professional. And the location
did."
Jim also criticized the quality of
locations found for him by profes-
sional "locators." He had paid $100
extra per location for spots provided
for his machines. He now feels he has
learned to find better locations him-
self.
"I dream of building it up more,"
says Jim, "but realistically, even if I
keep it as an avocation, I think I will
at least come out on it, eventually."
But to get a final perspective on the
growth of the cocktail table market,
Play Meter interviewed Roger
Sherman, the first customer of Fas-
cination Ltd., one of the two
companies claiming to have marketed
the table first in 1973. Sherman said
he bought his first machines in
October of that year and added that
they " have definitely proven them-
selves.
"I'm reinvesting all the money
make because they're just getting
bigger and bigger all the time . I was a
little shaky at first," he admitted. "It
was a new business. I was convinced, I
guess, by the salesman that every
business has to start someplace and
there was a great future for this one. I
was leery, but I took a chance.
"I started out with a few units, but
I'm only sorry now I didn't start with
many more because I would have
made that much more that much
quicker. Right now I have 22 units in
17 good locations. I heard about the
machines originally through a business
opportunity seminar and that's how I
got started ."
Cocktail tables are very popular in
Illinois where Sherman operates, he
said, and interest is not waning. "In
fact," he said, "interest is probably
stronger now than initially. That was
one of my big worries; if it was a fad .
But I've determined to my satisfaction
that it is definitely not a fad . If I were
better capitalized, I would not have
22, I would have 122 because they
make that kind of money."
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