Steph Norbury considers the importance of vending and merchandising to amusement locations.
VENDING and merchandising machines are a hard-working part of the amusement mix within the arcade and beyond.
Offering an attractive shop front to players, these machines can also present varying degrees of amusement before delivering the prize.
It is a widely varied sector, as prize values can differ greatly, from a gift worth a few pennies in a capsule vendor, to an electronic prize with a high-perceived value. Just as the prizes have become more desirable, so too have the cabinets themselves, becoming more attractive and durable.
“We designed our Prize Cube cranes to look more like retail stores. With our bright LED lighting package and our newly designed interior, operators have traded out their older cranes all year long for our Prize Cubes,” says Jim Chapman from Coast to Coast Entertainment.
In fact, there appears to be a trend for the merchandising and vending machine to move from the outside of the venue right into the heart of the location as a centerpiece attraction in its own right.
“The trend toward large-scale, centerpiece games is one we are capitalising on,” says Marshall Ashdown, CEO of LAI Games. “At the recent IAAPA Expo, our new Mega Color Match models enjoyed a fantastic reception by operators. The games are over three metres high, with glowing multi-coloured lighting effects, and they command players’ attention.”
Coast to Coast is combining its modular prize vending machines in order to create more impact with players. “Among our hot sellers is our Side Box and Monkey Bizz-Ness,” says Chapman. “This product gives the player a chance to win an additional prize. We have seen incomes increase from 54 per cent to as much as double when adding a Side Box to a game. Our Monkey Bizz-Ness is a single prize vender that can dispense an egg or two-inch capsule.”
Read the full article in the January issue of InterGame
