“...a vending machine route in NYC constantly trying to be taken by the mafia.”
REALLY?
Vending machines vending — what??
Cigarette machines have been history for years.
Either vending machines are WAAAY more profitable than I thought, or the Mafia have been reduced to scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Not all vending machines are cigarette machines, by far. And most of the cigarette ones, even in bars, are no more.
Vending machines are one way that organized crime has been known to use to get a foothold in a business -especially small businesses. Then they just press their way forward, create havoc, and subvert the small business for all kinds of nefarious activities.
I did not know that still went on, but it was kind of widespread knowledge among small business owners in the 60’s and 70’s.
Right about the vending machines. They had almost total control. Some no neck fat guy would come into a place of business and recommend the owner place their machines in the place. Hard to disagree when thugs backed it up.
Owned an asbestos removal company in NYC and it was way worse. They tried just about everything to get me to pay them off. Staged protests, threatened my employees, broke windows in my office, etc. Went to the feds and got wired. They never expected a woman business owner to fight back...lots of jail terms including the unions.
The mafia was into vending machines. Including coin telephones & arcades. The food vending machines in big plants were almost always control by the mob, especially if they were union shops.
http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/2010/03/the-vending-machine-racket-lives-on.html