SLOT SELLING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 27

SLOT SELLING

Machines to Vend Anything

AUTOMATIC MARVELS In five years, or less, the consuming public of the United States will be able to obtain standard, nationally advertised small merchandise at any hour of the day or night, says a writer in an American journal. In all cities and large towns we shall have arcade stores, brilliantly lighted and fully equipped with change making devices, devoted exclusively to automatic vending machines. This may sound a hit far fetched to those who have not kept pace with the growth of automatic merchandising. But the development is certainly coming as the result of the effort to sell goods more cheaply. For in some lines, it now costs more to sell goods than to make them. Even in the chain stores where merchandising has been highly developed, it is being recognised that a salesman’s time is an economic waste when his sole function is passing out goods already sold to customers who know exactly what they want. Mr. Harry Alexander, who is a pioneer in the application of vending equipment to new lines and knows more about it than any other mail in the world, was first interested in the Photomaton Company, controlled by a group of financiers who had paid a million dollars for the patents on the now T widely known automatic, coin in the slot, self-photographing machine. This company was having difficulty because it was necessai y to maintain the development liquid in the machines at exactly 65deg. Fahrenheit to get uniform results. With his engineers, Mr. Alexander worked out a refrigerating machine and cooling tank that did the work perfectly.

“A little further study of the relation between refrigeration and automatic merchandising,” says Mr. Alexander, "developed the fact that temperature control is essential in other vending machines.” SALES PSYCHOLOGY Mr. Alexander saw a great opportunity in vending liquids, and formed a company to manufacture a beverage dispenser for fruit juices which contained all the features of successful sales psychology—including motion and animation to attract attention, complete display of the product, and constant control of the temperature. “There are so many other possibilities in automatic vending that it is difficult to list them,” he says. “The field has grown so fast that there are

few statistics, but unquestionably the volume of sales runs into scores of millions of dollars every year. For Instance, one company handled 3,000,000,000 pennies taken last year from its weighing machines. “The variety of service is amazing. A company manufacturing electric washing machines, for example, changed the style of its product and found Itself with a large stock of the older but still useful type. In trying to dispose of it. the company found that the trend toward apartment life had cut heavily into its market, since few apartments have room for this equipment. So it fitted its machines with .a coin device, under which cooperative use was possible in the basements of apartment houses. The charge -was a quarter for 35 minutes of laundry work. This company’s schedules now call for the installation of 10,000 such machines during the next two years. “It should be noted that manufacturers of coin equipment have now perfected machines which have eliminated what was at one time the major problem—that of the slug. The great, loss in slugs is not actually the merchandise obtained by dishonest per-

sons, but the stoppage of sales caused by the jamming of the machine.

MINIMUM DISHONESTY “The constant of honesty which makes business possible in this as well as in other fields is well illustrated by the experience of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company of New York. These lines carry 2,500,000 persons a day. When the coin turnstiles were first introduced the number of slugs occasionally reached 3,000 a day, or approximately one-tenth of one per cent. More recently a “bull’s eye” has been installed in the coin device which makes every coin visible for a few seconds after it has been inserted, until other passengers have passed through the stile. This has reduced the slug average for the entire system to 600 a day. “The problem of slugs, of course, is merely one of demand. When machines were confined to penny in the slot machines there was not sufficient loss to commend the necessary engineering brains to perfect slug ejectors. Machines now in use will discard all but a minor percentage of the slugs generally in use. To defeat such ma-

chines it is necessary to make a very good counterfeit of any coin. Most of the slugs used are things made for other purposes, such as washers. The percentage of counterfeit coins' in circulation is too small to be of any more consequence to automatic machines than it is to any other form of selling.” PAPER MONEY TOO! Machines which will accept paper currency and give change have nor, yet been developed, but almost certainly will be if they are required. The job could be done in several ways. A chemical might be prepared which would have no effect on good money, to destroy or mutilate the bad. The mutilation could be tied up with a mechanical device to return the bill, as slugs are now returned in various machines. Or it might be possible to use a photographic reaction of some kind to detect spurious notes. “The United Cigar Company,” says Mr. Alexander, “has a rather large installation of automatic eigarettte vending equipment in one of its New York stores. Unquestionably there will be an enormous development in this field. Elsewhere throughout the country

sales are being made of tooth brushes, together with a tiny tube of toothpaste Others are dispensing toothpaste, shaving cream, combs, wash cloths w-ith a bit of soap and a comb, and perfume. There are bottle machines equipped with refrigeration which will accept return of the bottle. Hundreds of ideas are springing up daily. “Another company is installing coin-in-the-slot gasoline stations. This may he regulated according to the prevailing price of gas to deliver so much for half a dollar. It brings in revenue night and day. The Government is experimenting with stamp-selling machines to relieve clerks and give service at all hours and on Sundays and holidays.

“To-day manufacturers are paying more attention to making the merchandising equipment itself attract've. Vending machines are being made of steel and porcelain, and decorated with the latest and most attractive colour effects. Machines must be rain proof, chip proof, and substantial to protect themselves from mischievous small boys as well as petty thieves. There is a feeling of stability and security in their appearance for the in-

vestor of a nickel, dime, quarter, or half-dollar. Some machines are built so that their internal workings are visible, and this has proved a point of public attraction. Others say ‘Thank you!’ after a sale. "Machines will operate In big department stores under st—irways and in other out-of-the-way places where a clerk and a counter could not be accommodated.” In the many lines where there is uniformity of product, and where advertising has alreday “sold” the article to the consumer, automatic selling is bound to come.