Hazleton Area Business Citizen March 2014 - Page 7

Promoting a free market in the Greater Hazleton Area

Located in Lattimer Mines, General Vending
Co. is headquartered in a building which
houses the offices, warehouse, and workshop
of the operation. No part of the building is
quite specific to any one of those areas. Upon
entering the building, the first impression is
that of a still photo from a moving picture—
constant activity on brief pause.
What is specific is the notion of its activity
of hard, persistent work—the quality that
has most contributed to General Vending
remaining as one of the few locally owned
and operated vending operations in the area.
HABC’s interview with Dave DeLessio, the
second generation leading this 63-year-old
family company, covers the colorful history
of a local company surviving and thriving in a
very challenging industry.

HABC: The competitive nature of business
in the Hazleton Area is quite different now
as compared to a few decades back. How
has this change in competition affected the
vending industry in general and your business in particular?
Dave DeLessio: Thirty years ago there were a lot of
independent vending companies. There were at least
twelve, a lot of them family owned, some smaller than
General Vending and some a little bit larger. Most have
vanished through attrition and by being bought out by
larger companies. Now the large companies are being
bought out by regional companies! What we’ve tried
to do and what we try to maintain since the business
was started by my dad, is to offer good service. Hopefully this will maintain our current clientele and help
us achieve new business.
HABC

March 1, 2014

HABC: When did General Vending begin and
what is the story behind the beginning?
Dave DeLessio: March of 1951. My dad worked for
‘Kleen Dairies’ which branched off into ‘Kleen Vending.’ One of the accounts was unhappy with their cigarette vending machine company and said to my dad,
Al DeLessio, ‘You’re so good and you always keep the
milk machine running, why don’t you just put a cigarette machine in for us?’ My dad couldn’t afford to go
and buy a new machine so he found a used machine
for twenty-five dollars. He financed the machine a dollar and a quarter per week until the machine was paid
off. That’s how ‘General Vending’ started!
HABC: When your dad began the company in
1951 was there much competition, or was the
industry in its infancy?
Dave DeLessio: Back in the fifties, the industry was
mainly cigarette machines. It wasn’t really until the sixties that vending really took root in our area. There
were always candy machines. Some people might remember the machines with the mirrors on front where
you’d put in a nickel or a dime in and pull a knob. They
had been around but, vending, like food and everything else, really hit this market and started to get big
in the sixties.
HABC: So even the vending industry has seen
technological change and improvement.
Dave DeLessio: Oh, absolutely. And it’s been ongoing
and it hasn’t stopped. My dad was the first guy this side
of Pennsylvania to have an electric cigarette machine!
Today the latest thing in offering refreshment services is
something called the micro-market. We were the second
micro-marketer in the state of Pennsylvania. The first
one was out in the Pittsburgh area. Basically the micromarket is like having a mini-market inside a facility. It is
an open rack system where larger servings are available
and where the vending company can offer “specials”.
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