Play Meter

PERRY LONDON
Coinman of the Month
This month's Coinman, Perry London, is a
distributor-operator extraordinnaire. He got his
start in the coin-operated amusement business back
in 1950 by working for his father in the shipping
room of the Milwaukee firm, S.L. London Music
Co., Inc. Today's he's president of the company and
represents See burg, WiUiams, Exidy, Lektro
Vend, Meadow s, vaUey, and Dynamo.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a
degree in economics, he was, we think, the right
man to talk about business management, productiv-
ity, and the thousands of other hobgoblins that keep
operators awake at night.
As we said, he's also a large operator with over a
thousand pieces-mostly music and games. Ciga-
rette machines, he says, are playing less and less a
role in his business because of the growing spread
between the vending price of cigarettes and their
price at the retail discount stores.
A good businessman, he has weathered some of
the dreaded fears of the industry-location seUing,
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inflation, and even employee unions - with his
business stiU strong and viable. He has maintained
his viability because of a resourceful approach to
solving problems, and many of his solutions deserve
close reading. Here are some examples: as for the
new copyright fee for ASCAP, et. aL, he has
instituted a service charge so that the fee comes out
of the location 's take; as for increasing the
productivity of his employees, he has established
timetable averages for all of his routemen; and as
for sorting out his collections, he has turned to a
data processing service to help him there.
Perry is a man of many interests. Fishing, scuba
diving, golf, and photography (he has his own
darkroom) are among his favorite pastimes. He also
holds honorary positions at athletic clubs and
country clubs and belongs to his industry
associations.
He's a progressive operator with good business
sense and has, we think, some interesting
approaches which other operators may find useful.
PLAY METER , June, 1978