Play Meter

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TERRY: No, except the radio. Usually my wife is
the one who does the main buying. If you go and
buy fifty of this and five of that and then come back
to the office, there's no way it's going to work out
because the next week you'U have to go out and get
another fifty of the same record for the rest of the
route. If you believe in a record, buy it. I don't care
how good you are at buying records, you're always
going to slip up and swear that a record isn't going
to make it, but it does. Nobody's perfect.
PLAY METER: That's interesting hearing about
your wife being a full-time employee in the
company.
TERRY: I believe a lot in women as route people.
They're a lot more conscientious than men. My
daughters have gotten into my business. One of
them used to work for me, with cigarettes. Men are
good at moving; women will never be able to
replace them at that. But women will try harder to
please a customer. They can get the point over. For
instance, my supervisor will say that on some days
my wife will show him up on the routes. Another
thing you might add is that my sister started to
come work here full-time about six months ago.
PLA Y METER: How many servicemen do you
have?
TERRY: I'm a serviceman. My supervisor is a
serviceman, and I have a serviceman who deals
with electronics service, and another who makes
sure all the pool tables are done. And then we have
two people that do nothing else but clean machines,
and I have two others that do nothing but move and
deliver. And then, of course, we've got the office
help.
PLAY METER: Since you're a serviceman
yourself, what do you look for when hiring service
men to work for you?
TERRY: If you're going to hire a mechanic-and
I've hired several electronics people-this is what
I've found out: hire Navy people. It seems like
they're sharper for some reason. You might try the
Air Force, but for me the Navy people have been
sharper. The reason might be that in the Air Force
they change the boards, but in the Navy they're on
the ships and they have to do their repairs right
there. They can't just send off for another board .
PLAY METER: Now, as a service man, what
changes would you like to see the manufacturers
incorporate in their equipment.
TERRY: The only change I can see is that they
could offer more schools or make the schools a little
bit longer. There should be areas in the states
where service men can go to the manufacturers and
attend school for a week or two.
PLA Y METER: You have some pretty definite
ideas about schooling for mechanics then?
TERRY: When I was in Florida, I taught some
trainees and explained a lot to them. And then I left
them and told them I would be back "h about two
weeks. I told them, in effect, that it was sink or
swim. All the stuff they'd been hearing me tell them
that sounded Greek would come to pass inside of
that time, and then we would be able to sit down
and talk about it all over agin. And then they',
know what I'd been talking about. And then we'd go
over the whole machine again. That's the way I
trained every single one of them.
PLA Y METER: But other than the addition of more
schools, I take it you're fairly well pleased with the
equipment manufacturers are turning out today?
TERRY: Well, they're using a lot of plastic I really
don't like. But I think the boards in general are
good boards. We've got a lot of parts that are failing
on the boards, but I can't blame that on the
manufacturer unless they're buying a cheaper
grade. I think the boards are doing real good . We
don't buy off-brand machines though. We buy name
brands. There are a lot of manufacturers out there
who are starving to death to get recognized, but
they might be putting in a cheap board. I've tried
one of them, though, Venture Line in Phoenix,
Arizona, and they're making a damn good board.
We just tried it because we wanted to take some old
games in the back that we couldn't do anything with
anyway and figured we would try to revamp them
and make some modern games. And it's worked out
for us. By the way, we found out about Venture
Line from an advertisement in PLAY METER. And
since I'm on the subject, there's another thing about
your magazine. That paper you send out in the
middle of the month, Update. When we were just
starting out trying to get Play More Games
Distributing Company going, we put a free ad in
there. Really, we didn't know what it would do. But
let me tell you, we've gotten two phone calls from
New York and California and everywhere in
between. And people have been sending in from
everywhere wanting to get onto our mailing list. I
didn't think it would be like this. I was very
surprised, but they came in from all over the United
States. And it didn't cost me a cent.
PLAY METER: I'm glad to hear that. Now, since
you're going into the distributing business, you
must move a lot of pool tables and pinball games
into the homes?
TERRY: Yes, we sell a lot of pool tables and
pingame to homes.
PLA Y METER: Do you find that you can get a good
pric for them?
TERRY: Well, we get it where we're not too high,
but we' e got a fast turnover. You can get too high
and price yourself out of the market.
PLAY METER: What is a good price to expect from
the home market.
TERRY: $395, that's the market right there for a
u ed one. You can get $495 for some of the real good
ones. But at $395 your market won't stop. You can
sell them all day long.
PLA Y METER: Does that have a service contract?
TERRY: We give thirty days, and we'll service
th{'m anytime after that for a charge of $35, plus
parts.
PLAY METER: I understand that you have a
communication system that is sort of unique, could
YOll tell us about that?
TERRY: I think it's unique because I can get out
heI'e at 125 miles from town, and I can still call back
in. The weather's got a lot to do with it, but 125
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