Summer’s on. Anyone who’s been in the game operating business for more than a decade has a good handle on how he’ll do in the cash box during this curious time when shuttered schools and family vacations tend to shove things around a bit more than at most other times on the calendar. Depending upon which economic news you subscribe to, the paying public is either spending some leisure money or hoarding it until inflation settles down.
Everyone knows that inflation in goods and services is no myth. Sure, we’ve gone through this before and come out the other side intact. But let’s face it: a bigger slice of the customer’s earning dollar is going into groceries, gasoline, utilities and maybe even the kids’ allowances than operators would like. It’s bound to affect collections, other than those spent by the people who’ll spend their last dollars running up the credit cards. It’s not a pretty picture!
But, all operators. . .be they route people or game room people. . .know the summer drill in their parts of the world better than anyone else. My dice say (hope?) that this summer will be pretty much the same as last. There is a nasty heat wave expected, though, and many have eyeballs focused on a return of Covid and masking. Nothing like the first go-round, we’re sure. Right? But it could be trouble, so don’t be too surprised if that delightful subject nudges inflation aside in the summer news cycle.
I remember running more than one editorial at the beginning of summers past in which I ran out all the things big city operators might do to pick up the slack when game players headed out of town and the route guys had time on their hands (obvious stuff like pulling preventive maintenance, rotating more machines, cleaning out the parts mess in the shop, ad nauseum). I’ll give everyone a present and save that for another day.
I hope, just exactly like you do, that, come September. When anyone asks how your summer collections turned out, you can say “just fine, thank you.” Inflation, Covid and torrid heat are really out of our control, so roll up the sleeves, crank up the optimism and try to squeeze some some R&R into the summer of ’24 yourself.
