According to LAI Games' Peter Gustafson, who is based at the company's US office, FEC operators have been quietly admitting that the recession hasn't been such a bad time for them as expected.According to LAI Games' Peter Gustafson, who is based at the company's US office, FEC operators have been quietly admitting that the recession hasn't been such a bad time for them as expected.
It would, however, seem that the street operator is still having a hard time of it, with Gustafson telling InterGame: "Some operators’ takings are down by as much as 25 per cent - but then you have to look at the reasons why. Back in the summer gas prices were up so people weren’t stopping and filling up as much as they might have done in the past. This has meant that street operators are no longer buying; they are trying to shrink their business to a manageable size in order to survive."
Meanwhile, FECs are benefitting from the "staycation", which is seeing more and more families stay closer to home, taking day trips rather than vacations.
With regard to product from LAI, it is continuing to invest in innovation and products on show included a range of Stacker machines including the Mini model and the Double Stacker as well as the Star Blitz photobooth, which has an additional feature that allows users to download their images to a mobile phone via Bluetooth and is continuing to perform well in the States.
