It's August and fall is in sight. The calendar is kind to crane operators and FEC's with cranes as there are a series of great merchandise themes to support crane sales. I started operating cranes in 1986, and between 1996 and 2005 operated about 450 cranes in the St. Louis area and Puerto Rico. We learned a couple of things along the way: 1) in FEC game rooms, cranes are additional sales to redemption. Players stretch their budget for a crane placed in their path (near the doorway), and with merchandise that gets their attention; 2) to get their attention, the merchandise mix has to change regularly AND be noticeably different, one mix to the next.

The fall calendar supports this. Late August and September start the football season (and maybe baseball playoffs in your town), Halloween comes on fast and should be in your cranes from mid September through the third week of October. We always went with three-week runs of two different kits from Halloween to Thanksgiving, and had a Christmas mix in our cranes from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas. This type of mix changing strategy is essential to influence customer behavior, especially in repeat visitation environments like FEC's. The objective is to get a customer to 1) Stop and Look, 2) approach the crane, and 3) reach into their pocket to play! Redemption Plus has a full line of plush kits to help you do just that. They can be seen at http://www.hipprizes.com/