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Coinman Interview:
AI Rodstein
AI Rodstein, president of Banner Specialty Company, is our Coinman this time
around. AI is one of the leading distributors in the country today; so we wanted to
talk with him about the health of the distributing business today in order to see how
the changes within the industry are affecting the supplier link . His interview, we
belieue, offers some perceptive insights into the industry from the viewpoint of the
distributor.
Our Coinman entered the coin-operated amusement field in April, 1935 as an
arcade operator. He quickly branched out to a street operation in Philadelphia
where he operated music and games and later added on a separate cigarette
operation. Then in 1938 he opened a jobbing seruice known as ARCO Sales
Company, a company which was to help him through the war years. In 1941 when
the war started, ARCO went into the business of refurbishing old pinballs into new
ones. There was a great market for refurbished pin balls at that time because all non-
essential production - such as the manufacture of pinballs- was forsaken for the
benefit of the war effort.
After the war, he started operating uending equipment under the name of Variety
Vending Systems and games under a company known as Amusemat Corp. Then in
1949 he joined Banner Specialty as uice president. About ten later, he bought the
distributorship and by 1961 had sold both his uending and amusement operations to
The Macke Company. He took leaue of absence from Banner at that time to serue as
senior uice president for Macke. In 1971 he returned to Banner in the capacity of
president.
Banner, which was established in Philadelphia in 1917, added its Pittsburgh
branch in 1937 and, under Rodstein, exp/anded to a Baltimore branch office in 1973.
Our Coinman serued at one time as president of the Pennsylvania Automatic
Merchandising Council and, in 1964, received NAMA 's Chamber's Award for the
nation's outstanding legislative effort. The NAMA recognition was giuen to him for
his help in leading the successful effort against a moue in Pennsylvania to leuy a $50
per uending machine tax per year.
Actiue in ciuic and business organizations as well, he serues on the board of
governors of the Federation of Jewish Agencies and on the board of the Israel Bond
Organization. An auid golfer, a spectator of all sports, and a fan of Philadelphia
teams- A/ is also a trustee of the Pop Warner Little Scholars national junior football
conference. He is married and has three children, all of whom at one time or another
worked in some capacity for Banner.
PLAY METER , September 1, 1981