So imagine this:
You have two children, age 5 and 6. You are in a long line at (insert store here) waiting to check out. They run away for a while, and come back. What do they ask for?
Quarters.
Why?
Gum. 25 cents for a bloody gumball from the gumball machine. This review is centered on those gumballs, and all the certain flavors, how long they last, and ultimately, if they are actually worth 25 cents.
I know in the store that I work at (Toys R US) we have plenty of gumball machines - the flavors range from melon to strawberry banana. We also have a separate globe shaped gumball machine which has no real flavor at all, and we have yet another separate globe-shaped gumball machine in which the gumball rolls down a long, spiral ramp.
As far as entertainment values go, the one that has the long spiral ramp would certainly win over an 8.5 from me, (10 being the best), because nothing can compare to the joy of seeing a gumball go around and around down that spiral ramp. I have seen other attempts at gumball entertainment, such as a pinball machine, but that scarcely works because it is either angled wrong or the flippers don't have enough punch. The whole scheme behind that, by the way, is if you can get the gumball into the hole at the very top, you win ANOTHER flavorless gumball, as I have never seen flavored gumballs be included in any sort of entertaining machine.
One thing the gumball machines have going for them is Flavor. Sure, we have pina colada, strawberry banana, and melon in my store. But if you were to go to any mall, there are NUMEROUS gumball machines with every flavor you could think of. I find it hard to reward the gumball manufacturers any less than a 9 in this respect, as "Lemon Kiwi" is certainly a testament to just how far one can go with flavoring.
All seems pretty well, but then we have the downfall of this otherwise wonderful marketing tool: how long the gum lasts. Honestly, I have tried gumballs from everywhere, from every machine, and not one has lasted any longer than 10 minutes. Sure, it's 25 cents, but so is 5 strips of juicy fruit! And with competitors like stride in the market (Jesus Christ that gum lasts forever) they really should think about giving us more bang for our.. quarter. After all, when you factor in the cost of a single strip of gum to that of your average gumball, I think you'll find that the gumball is a WHOLE lot more expensive. I'm afraid the gumball gets a 2 in the lasting flavor department.
All in all, it is a brilliant scheme. Customers usually have 2 or three quarters when they get through checking out, and a place to put them is usually hard to find for the average person. So as long as the gumball machines are there, people will continue to pump the quarters in for any possible reason.
I give the gumball a final score of 6.8 out of 10.
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