Play Meter

UPDATE EDITION
July 1, 1980
Volume 6, Number 12
'BeHer servicing In plans' -
Atarl source
Atari cuts off some distribs
By RAY E. TILLEY
Atari , Inc. has enforced a new
" limited distribution" realignment of
distributors , cutting
off
several
domestic handlers from the product
line and adding three Europeans and
one new Florida distributor.
The total of Atari handlers is now
80. said a company spokesman . The
domestic addition is Rowe Inter-
national , Inc . in Jacksonville, Flori-
da . Atari 's plan was to have " more
order in the network" and to tie
service in formation from the factory
more closely to distribution of the
games .
Atari National Sales Manager Don
Osborne said the adjustments would
"en hance the quality of distributor-
ships to better handle the Atari line ."
Along with limiting its network -
which did not produce exclusive
regional handling of Atari product in
all cases - the company was also
gearing in early May to establish
higher standards of servicing and
repair of its game line, according to
Osborne .
The Sunnyvale , California manu-
facturer was evidently moving to-
ward exclusive-distributorship mar-
keting of its games. And this
approach left some of the reduced
handlers less than pleased .
One of the cut-out handlers , Dan
G. Perrotta of Allcoin Equipment in
San Antonio, commented to PLAY
METER : ''I'm not appreciative of the
changes - but I can understand it if
you say money is all that matters ."
[AIIcoin has handled the Atari
product line for more than five
years .]
Osborne , however, said there
were several advantages in Atari 's
plans for the select distrib network .
Schooling will be provided , he said ,
on service of Atari games , from the
technical basics to the more sophisti-
cated technology in the latest videos
and pingames - for example, service
schools will deal with "the unique -
ness of the Quadrascan x -y monitor"
[manufactured by Electrohome Elec-
tronics] . Atari hopes to beef up the
" responsiveness" of the factory to the
buyers of its game line, said Osborne .
New distributors other than Rowe
of Jacksonville were : Lars Berg ,
Trodheim, Norway ; Raha -automaat·
tiyhdists , Helsinki. Finland ; and
Music Hire Group , London .
Among the reduced distributor-
ships which made comments to
PLAY METER , the consensus of
opinion seemed to be that Atari , Inc .
was selecting those handlers which
could buy "carload " quantities of
games. Slow delivery of equipment
bought in smaller quantities, such as
twenty. was another comment from
th eir side.
One said a move to exclusive
distributorships indicated a trend in
th e industry: " I think the manufac·
turers are blowing us little distributors
out of the way ." This source relies on
his own exclusive line of jukeboxes
more heavi ly than his game units .
However , he said he saw his removal
from the distributor network as
" heavy-handed. "
In the recent National Air Hockey Championships in Pennsylvania , Phil
Arnold (left) of Hou ston edged No . 3 -ranked Joe Campbell of Phi/a·
delphia . Victorious over all was Jesse Douty of Philadelphia in the event
set up by Play -a-Way Arcade in State College, Pennsylvania . See story.
page 7.