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NAMA Highlights Industrys Economic Contribution In Latest Census

WASHINGTON, DC The National Automatic Merchandising Association turned the spotlight on the size, scope and value to the nation of the vending, office refreshments and micromarket industry at a press conference held at the National Press Club. The event, held just before the opening of the 2018 NAMA Fly-In legislative conference, marked the publication of NAMA's most recent Census. The study was assembled using new methodology specifically designed to provide information useful to industry advoca...

July 29, 2018

WASHINGTON, DC - The National Automatic Merchandising Association turned the spotlight on the size, scope and value to the nation of the vending, office refreshments and micromarket industry at a press conference held at the National Press Club.

The event, held just before the opening of the 2018 NAMA Fly-In legislative  conference, marked the publication of NAMA's most recent Census. The study was assembled using new methodology specifically designed to provide information useful to industry advocates in discussing the impact of proposed legislation and regulatory initiatives on the U.S. economy, and on communities all across the nation.

NAMA chairman Jeffery Smith, All Star Services (Port Huron, MI,) welcomed reporters to the conference and introduced NAMA president and chief executive Carla Balakgie, who offered a brief overview of the association (which was founded in 1936) and the diverse service industry it serves today. While its name reflects its original role of representing and helping to professionalize the new, then-unfamiliar vending industry, its members always have engaged in a wide range of related enterprises. Today, these include convenient services ranging from unattended retailing by vending and micromarket operations through professional management of coffee, pure water and workplace "pantry" programs to – and beyond – controlled dispensing of tools and supplies for industrial clients. These businesses interpenetrate the U.S. economy.

Jeffery Smith                                                  Carla Balakgie                                       John Dunham

Balakgie highlighted this overview by showing a short video, This is Convenience Services, and summarized the benefits provided by NAMA members. "We're in every community, 24 hours a day," she emphasized. "And we make a significant contribution to the United States economy." That contribution is analyzed by the new NAMA Census.

"The total economic impact of these convenience services is $24.6 billion annually generated by operators, distributors, brokers and manufacturers," the NAMA president reported. "The industry is directly and indirectly responsible for more than 140,400 full-time jobs, representing $7.2 billion in annual wages – and $3.5 billion in federal, state and local taxes." (That figure does not include sales taxes, which are paid by consumers.)

Balakgie introduced John Dunham, Dunham & Assoc. (Brooklyn, NY), who explained that his company was founded to meet the demand for credible, verifiable economic data for use in advocacy. He quoted The Economist (May 3, 2014) as  observing that "Washington's passion for data does not signal the start of a new Socratic age, in which the political classes jointly search for truth. In today's politics, everything is a weapon with which to club the opposition. Why should facts be different?" In this environment, he said, businesses need economic studies conducted to the highest standards.

"Our assumptions are standard, and defensible," Dunham emphasized. "All our data is available, and we verify it."

Any business has economic effects that extend beyond the workers it employs and the customers it serves. Every enterprise buys directly from others and pays employees whose wages go, for the most part, into local economies. The contraction of an industry (like automobile manufacturing in Detroit) has substantial effects that radiate far beyond the workers who are laid off. Not only are there "indirect" jobs – those filled by people directly providing products and services to convenience services operations – but also "induced" jobs in businesses that serve the communities in which those employees reside.

The convenience services industry is decentralized. Dunham's research identified 5,200 separate establishments, many (perhaps most) of them family-owned. On average, they represent 430 jobs for every one million Americans – and each of those jobs has the effect of creating 1.3 jobs, he said. This is an uncommonly large number for a retail business.

The latest NAMA Census is online at the association's expanded and enhanced website. It can be found at https://www.namanow.org/voice/economic-research/.