Ggarette Machines Put Into Private Homes

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 9

Ggarette Machines Put Into Private Homes

"The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, Sept 9.

About 2000 automatic cigar-ette-vending machines have been installed in private homes in Auckland, and more are going in at the rate of about 50 a day. Mr R. Wheeler, manager of the Auckland firm of manufacturers, said it was planned to have 10,000 machines in Auckland homes in the next six years. Otara is already so heavily saturated with the machines that the business of dairies and milk bars has been affected. Other suburbs in which residents have the machines iri their homes are Onehunga, Glen Innes, Tamaki, Ponsonby, Grafton, Mount Roskill and Mount Albert. They have also spread to homes in Mount Eden, Kohimarama, and Meadowbank. . Milk-bars Worried The Auckland Dairy, Milk Bars and Confectionery Retailers’ Association is worried about the trend. Other persons in the vending machine business believe the boom will not last, as there is not enough return from individual sales. The machines are singlecolumn dispensers holding from 24 to 28 packets and with slots for Is, 2s and 2s 6d coins. “We are only interested in selling the machines,” said Mr Wheeler. “We canvass a district and when we have 40 or 50 sites we sell the group as a business for £7 a machine. “The person who buys it then provides his own supplies of cigarettes and keeps the machines filled and clears the money. “He should make about £ll a week profit, depending on the area and luck.” The firm has been supplying the machines in Auckland since January. Mr Wheeler said that the firm had “swamped” Otara, where the machines were “in every second house.” One In Every 14 “It has affected the retailers there and we won’t do that again,” he said. “We plan to put one in every 14 houses in the other suburbs. “The machines are in-

stalled at no cost to the householder and they have a continual supply of cigarettes.” Mr A. Cobb, organiser of the. dairy and milk bars’ association, said that in Otara retailers had dropped up to £6O a week in turn-over in cigarette sales. “People have even been asking dairy proprietors to change money into coins for the machines,” he said.

“The people who are buying these cigarette runs are not registered traders. They are private individuals making a few extra pounds in the domain of the dairy and milkbar proprietor.”