Concession Stand Operation in a Centrally-Managed Program

Abstract

The article by Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, “The Eighty-third Congress and the Blind,” which appeared in the January New Outlook discussed, among other matters, legislation relating to vending or concession stands. Dr. tenBroek is certainly correct that changes brought about in the vending stand program by Public Law 565 are confusing and are a mixture of progress and retardation. However, we feel that Dr. tenBroek's strong negative reaction to the control type program needs to be balanced by facts which come from experience with both individually-operated stands and a centrally-managed plan. Further, there is a lack of reference material in our literature relating to vending or concession stand operation, and we hope that this article, together with Dr. tenBroek's, will stimulate increased thinking about an enterprise which offers one of the most feasible employment opportunities for visually handicapped individuals. Mr. Johnson, now the manager of our Cleveland program, has had fourteen years of experience in concession stand operation with Ohio State Services for the Blind and with our agency. He has written the following story of our operation in Cleveland which we submit in the hope that our experience may be of some interest to others.— Allan W. Sherman, Executive Director, Cleveland Society for the Blind