Play Meter

nobody is going to get behind it. You've got all
those small operators who are going to come in and
who are going to pay fifty percent, and that makes
it look like nobody is ever going to get sixty
percent.
PLAY METER: That's a shame. It seems that when
it comes to charging a higher price or a better
commission arrangement, the operator is his own
worst enemy.
TERRY: That's right. In pool tables, for instance,
we find that we can't go to fifty cents because of all
the smaller operators. So we've gone back to
thirty-five cents, but what we're doing is we've
gone down to the middle-sized pool table rather
than the 4 by 8. The public doesn't realize it but the
games will be quicker. So we've just gone ahead,
not saying anything about the price, and went on to
the middle-sized pool table.
PLAY METER: Are you getting sixty percent from
anybody?
TERRY: We've got maybe two locations, and that's
all.
PLAY METER: How did you manage sixty percent
in those places?
TERRY: They said they wanted electronic
equipment, and we told them they could have
it- the late-model electronic equipment- but that
we would have to get sixty percent. Locations, you
see, may decide to buy their own equipment, but
they will never buy in the electronic field to amount
to anything because they'll never fix them.
PLAY METER: What pricing do you have on these
electronic games?
TERRY: Twenty-five cents per play.
PLAY METER: And your pinballs are on five -ball
or three-ball?
TERRY: Three-ball. We've been hit by some pretty
hard competition when we went to three-ball.
Companies will come in, but we know that these
companies will eventually go broke if they don't get
on the bandwagon and do the same. It might not
take one year but five years, but it'll finally catch up
with them. We've always tried to go on into
one-player, three balls.
PLA Y METER: What is your pricing on
phonographs?
TERRY: Two plays for a quarter. We have been
going slowly into a quarter a play , though.
PLAY METER: Do you have any phonographs out
on a guarantee basis?
TERRY: Yes we do and we get a minimum of $25
per week.
PLA Y METER: How long do you hold onto your
jukeboxes before selling them off or trading them
. ?
m.
TERRY: The average time is about four or five
years. We're going into the new console phono-
graphs. We're going to have about thirty of them.
PLAY METER: That's the rich-looking wooden
cabinet models you're referring to?
TERRY: That's right. The new ones are out now
and we're going to start soliciting a little bit.
PLAY METER: There was talk when the console
phonograph came out that you'd be unable to move
it out. Has it fared out like that?
TERRY: In one group of locations, that's right. We
14
tested and tried to change one man's mind, for
instance. We put in a brand new model last year,
but we had it in there just two weeks, and we had to
take it out.
PLAY METER: Does it make any more or less
money?
TERRY: I think an upright makes more money
sometimes.
PLAY METER: Because it attracts more attention?
TERRY: That's right. We have done that, and then
have had to pull them out. We've had to talk people
out of them and put something flashy in there
instead. We'll look at a phonograph and if we see
that it's dropped off, we'll see about maybe
swapping it around. When we take one in to our
shop, we completely tear it apart and service it, and
it looks like a brand new one when it goes back out.
A lot of people will come to our shop and say, 'My
God, you've lost your mind!' because we use soap
and water on it and detergent and get every bit of
grease off of it and make it look like a brand new
phonograph. But that's the only way to do it if
you're going to operate.
PLAY METER: How often do you do this, once a
year?
TERRY: No, we do it every two years unless it's an
exceptionally filthy place.
PLAY METER: And then after four or five years
you're going to sell it.
TERRY: And then we're going to shop it out again.
We make the phonographs look like new when they
leave us.
PLA Y METER: How do you go about determining
how many new phonographs you're going to buy?
TERRY: We don't have a set number. Tomorrow,
for instance, our needs might change. We might
pick up some new accounts , or we might need five
for one reason or another. We're going to be buying
more phonographs and keeping our route updated
because it's going to be worth so much money
regardless. An updated route will make money .
PLAY METER: You have no set rule of getting new
phonographs for your top spots once a year, then?
TERRY: We just change it when we feel like it.
Unless the customer really wants one, that's when
we add. We let them tell us. We don't like to brag
about a location or tell a location about how good it's
doing because when you do that, you'll find that
you've put your foot in your mouth. If a customer
wants a different phonograph, we'll get him a
different one, but we don't just go in there and say
they need a different one every year because they
run a hundred dollars a week. You give good
service, good records, and good personnel, and they
are not going to say that .
PLAY METER: But you mentioned a little while
ago that it helps to change the appearance of the
machine .
TERRY: Right, in other words, we'll take one out
and just bring it into the shop and completely go
over it and move that one to a new location.
PLAY METER: So, it's part of your overall
maintenance program and as a result of that they
may get themselves a new phonograph?
TERRY: Yes, we have certain customers that
might get one, but it might be two years unless
December. 19n . PLA Y METER