Lucky or Good?

As most in the coin-op trade know, Club Lucky and Promo Nation are groups of amusement operators that have formed national consortiums to run tournament promotions. Club Lucky, in particular, is bargaining for direct buying rights from manufacturers.

Is this almost 20-person strong collective, drawn from larger-than-average operating companies, justified in asking for the special clout as major, multi-state operating businesses and arcade chains? How will local competitors of club members be affected, competitively? And how does the group fit into the larger discussion of the necessity for the industry’s middle-tier — regional distributorships?

ASI 2007, part ii: Wrap Up

What did you take away from ASI 2007? What caught your eye as interesting? What was “all hat and no cattle”?

Considering its size, was it a more focused show on the core of the industry, catering to buyers in a more intimate format, as show planners argue? If not, what was the tradeshow's main value?

Also, as a recent blogger posed, “Why does coin-op need two shows a year when a much larger industry such as amusement parks only has one (IAPPA)? Is there so much new equipment shown each year that we need two shows? If a regional show is required, why not depend on the distribution network to provide it?”