The Greenlake Motel

The Greenlake Motel is being shut down with little notice for health and safety reasons, putting many of the long term tenants in a tough situation.

The reminds me of a subchapter in my life when I had something of a relationship with that dump:

A few years ago, I started a vending machine business. I didn’t feel like my job was going anywhere and I had dreams of building an entrepreneurial empire. I overpaid for the machines, and they never brought the types of income ‘promised’ by the folks who sold me those machines from the ‘Business Opportunity’ ad in the newspaper.

I hired an older gentlemen who specializes in this sort of thing to find locations for the machines. One of these locations was the Greenlake Motel. These weren’t giant, complicated machines. They sold small candy (M&M’s or whatever) on one side, and peppermint patties on the other. I had endless problems with that peppermint patty side. The candy tended to melt and get smashed, gumming up the works and leading to an unsatisfactory experience for my customers, not to mention maintenance hassles for me.

Most of my locations made little money. The better ones earned maybe $6 per week, some less than $1. The machine at the Greenlake Motel, however, was my golden egg. That thing made $20 - $30 per week. I could barely keep enough candy in the thing. If they all performed like that, I probably would have stayed in the business.

One week, I serviced the machine during the week, rather than on Saturday, which was my normal routine. The owners of the motel happened to be there, and saw me shoveling the pile of quarters into my bag. The next week, the manager (an obese, but nice guy who sometimes told me stories of slum motel goings on), said that I had to take the machine away, orders of the motel owners. Apparently they didn’t want anyone else making money inside their cheap motel.

I wonder if they ever put a different machine in their lobby. The tenants probably didn’t have a whole lot of simple pleasures in their lives; I hope my little $.25 handfuls of candy gave them a little something more to look forward to each day.