Play Meter

for a show in the mall to start and they'll come in to
playa quick game of pinball or foosball or pool.
PLA Y METER: How do the kids react to pricing
changes?
GETTLE: We've never changed our pins. We've
had occasion, however, to change or foosball in
some locations from 25 cents to 35 cents. It usually
doesn't present a problem if you'll change the
equipment when you change the price, but if you
take the same table and raise the price on it, you're
going to decrease the number of plays; you may not
decrease the total income on the table, but you'll
decrease the number of plays on it.
PLA Y METER: You do allow food and drink in
some locations and not in others.
GETTLE: We allow no food in any location. We do
allow Coke machines in most locations, but we allow
no outside drink to brought into any location .
PLAY METER: And again, smoking is allowed in
some locations and not in others.
GETTLE: Yes.
PLA Y METER: How is this determined?
GETTLE: Many times it's dertermined by the
lease. But it would be more properly determined by
the area we have to work with. If we have an area
that we can set aside for a smoking and b verage
area then we do that. We set that area a ide and
that is where the kids can take a break, have a
smoke, have a Coke. But there are no drinks or
smoking in the playing area.
PLAY METER: Are there any age limits imposed
on who can play your machines?
GETTLE: In the state of Kansas, there are no age
limits on who can play pinball, foosball or pool.
PLAY METER: Do you operate jukeboxes in your
fun centers?
GETTLE: We do not operate jukeboxes in any of
our locations.
PLAY METER: Why not?
GETILE: We don't think it's necessary. If a kid
comes in with $2.00 or $5.00 to spend, he's going to
put it in your machines. If one of your machines is a
jukebox, he'll put part of it in t here. But, if you
provide music, he's still going to put the $2.00 or
$5.00 in your other machines. So it's just one more
machine to divide t he total income by. And it's a
maintenance problem and an expense problem, an
unncecessary expense problem.
CARSON: There's one more thing. If you take one
of our fun centers and turn off the music there, the
music we have playing full -time, and you have
maybe only one person in there, the place is dead.
That's what happens with a jukebox. II kids aren't
putting money in it, there's no noise. I think our
theory has always been that we want music, we
want noise any time anybody goes in there, any
time of the day. Activity creates activity. There
may be no movement but the noise i there and it
create activity. It's omething that we offer free.
GETILE: Music is part of the decoration just as is
the carpet and the lights.
PLAY METER: You don't think then that a
jukebox might bring more girls into a fun center.
GETILE: If you have music that appeals to the
kids, it doesn't matter whether it froma jukebox or
you provide it, the kids like it. We did have, when
we first stated, jukeboxes in some of our locations,
and we had other locations without, and the kids
travelled between locations. Some kids feel almost
offended that they have to pay for music if they can
go somewhere else and get it free.
PLA Y METER: What do you think are the major
advantage of operating just fun centers? All your
machines are in fun centers, right? None or on
location?
GETTLE: None at the present time. And we don't
actively or even inactively go out and try to acquire
other locations. But if someone was to come in and
ask us to set up in what we considered a very good
location, we probably would. But we have not had
that happen. There are only so many hours in the
day, and we feel that we would like to do what
we're doing now and better than anyone else. So we
try to zero in on one area of the amusement
business--and that's fun centers--and do the best
job that we possibly can. Also, if it's good enough to
have 50 per cent of it, it's good enough to have 100
per cent of it.
PLA Y METER: How does the local political
structure view your operation?
GETTLE: Very well. We've been extremely careful
since we started to try to have good public relations
with city officials, especially the local police
department in any town that we operate in. We
co-operate with them fully. I think our situation' can
probably be t be de cribed by using as example a
fun center that we recently closed down. We were
asked a few days after it closed down if we would
'epopen it. The sheriff of the community asked us if
we would reopen. We told him that we had had a
lack of bu iness up there, but if the local residents
wanted us to, we would . We were then presented
with a petition to reopen the fun center.
Twenty-nine familie , husbands and wives, had
igned the petition a king us to reopen this fun
center and provide entertainment and adult
upervision for their kids.
PLAY METER: Where wa this?
GETTLE: Thi was in Park City, Kan., a town of
approximately 4,000 people that does not have a
wimming pool or any type of recreation other than
what we had provided for the children.
In addition, we have had one minor zoning
problem. We operate a fun center in Arkansas City,
Kan. We lea ed a 7-11 store thte thinking that it
being a retail location there would be no problem;
but ju t prior to opening, we found out, much to our
urprise, that in thi particular city fun centers
were zoned the ame as circuses. We had to have a
public hearing in front of the planning commission;
then we had to have a public hearing in front of the
council.
Th city council, by a 3-2 vote, gave us the right
to do bu iness for 90 day in a non-conforming
district. After 90 day , we had another hearing in
front of the council, and it took about one minute
before we had a unanimou vote to issue us a
permanent non -conforming use permit. Members of ]
the city council had conducted their own personal
inve tigations of our business and of our manager, ~
and they voted unanimously in our favor.
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