Play Meter

PLAY METER: What information do you require and
how do you use it to make your operation run efficiently?
ANDERSON: The information I'm looking for is on the
collection tickets we get in daily . They are coded by
location; so when they come in , I can go over them to
keep on top of things. That's when I make my decisions
as far as which machines .have to be pulled out and where
we need to add more machines. We do quite a lot or
rotation , by the way, especially on our flipper games .
PLAY METER: So you're looking for the machines'
earnings, but do you keep track of what each machine
costs you?
ANDERSON: I've found that after all my years in the
business , it's better if I go by some rules of thumb ,
instead. It's pretty hard to say a certain machine should
do a certain amount of money. It might do that in one
location , but at the next location maybe it just doesn't
have the traffic to generate those dollars . So the rule of
thumb I go by is if I don't get a minimum of $25 per week
per machine at my end, that machine isn 't going to stay
there , no matter what .
PLAY METER: Are there any other record keeping
indicators you use to keep track of what is making you
money and what is not?
ANDERSON: Well , with us , everything is on computer;
so once a month I get a printout of what each of my
locations is doing . At that time I can look over the
printout and see what all my locations are doing . That's
when I evaluate locations . When I see that a location has ,
say, three machines and is averaging only $100 per
month per machine , I'm afraid that guy is going to lose
some of his machines, either that or else he's going to
have to find somebody else to do business with .
PLAY METER: But do you really pull yo ur mach ines out
if the location owner balks?
ANDERSON: Yes , I do . A couple of years ago , after a
Notre Dame Seminar in Chicago , I finally came to the
realization that I couldn't afford to be a nice guy like any
longer. I made the move to sixty percent and e ven added
on service charges We now get an awful lot of service
charges , varying from five to ten dollars per week , per
location-before we start counting out for the location
split. And it's worked for me. I just can't afford to be a
nice guy today.
The example I like to use is of a place we'll call Joe's
Bar. Everyone , it seems , has something like this . The
business at Joe's Bar hasn't been what it should be ever
since the plant next door folded up , but you like Joe so
you don't have the heart to pull the machines out. Well,
you can't let the fact that Joe's a nice guy interfere with a
busi ness decision. You should be able to go straight to
Joe and say , "Look, we've been friends for a lot of years ,
but I just can't afford you anymore. Here's the phone
book . There's a lot of competition that could probably do
you a better job than I can because r just can't afford to
put the stuff in here that you deserve. So , rather than put
in some old stuff and make you mad, I'd rather you got
someone else ."
The reason is that if you put older stuff in there you 'll
have a tendency to say to yourself, "I've got three service
calls to make today , and this one here from Joe . But we
don 't get that many plays over there anyway ; so we take
him last. " And then maybe you don't get around to
it at all. That's bad business. What happens when a real
go-getter comes along and buys Joe's place and starts to
work miracles with the place? He's going to see all the
antiquated equipment you put in there, and he's going to
think he doesn 't want that operator in there . So you'll
end up losing the location anyway . That's what happens
when you continue to operate in a place even when you
can't afford to-it reflects badly. on your entire operation.
PLAY METER: When you stopped being a "nice guy"
and started holding the line against locations , what effect
did that have on your operation?
ANDERSON: I started to make some money. We used
to operate way out in some little towns that were 40 or 50
miles away . And we'd have to send a servicemen down
there and while he was there he'd go around to all the
rest of the accounts in that area , just to make sure
Mount St. Helens : A neighbor too near to Anderson, in Portland
10
PLAY METER, August, 1980