WHAT I DID OH MY SUMMER VACATION: GRAZE!
If you wandered into the conference center of the Anatole this summer, you might have slum-hied upon what looked like the world’s largest convenience store. The hall contained mock-ups of 7-Eleven stores slocked with everything except gas pumps. The people who brought us Slurpees and Big Gulps put on 7-Eleven University every summer and invite store owners and managers to .study new products. We decided to audit a few courses for munchy extra credit. Here’s what we found:
New soft drink dispensers. They look just like the old ones, but when you pop your cup under the nozzle, you can add a squirt of cherry, vanilla, or lemon. Take that. Highland Park Pharmacy.
Hamburgers shaped like atube steak. Commuters increasingly eat on the go. So why not a one-handed hamburger? Cheeseburgers, too.
On the impulse aisle, panty hose in lipstick-sized tubes. The hope is that ladies wilt keep a couple of these nouveau L’eggs in their purse for emergencies. Just pop off the lop of a new tube and take on the world. One piece of advice: Don’t change your mind. You’ll never gel them back in.
The student body was treated to the “salad-in-a-cup” concept, 7-Eleven’s response to McDonald’s scheme to add vegetables to our rush-hour diets. Just don’t choke on the cherry tomatoes.
And finally, the one new idea we’re a little reluctant to embrace. “Meals-ready-to-eat,” C-rations to another generation, are being introduced as a line of “shelf stable foods.” The entrées are tasty enough. I’m just not sure 1 want to eat something that, under normal ci re urns lances, can sit on a shelf until the next war breaks out.
SO LONG, HALLIBURTON?
David Lesar was recently named chairman. CEO. and president of Halliburton. How could a major Fortune 500 company react so quickly? Because insiders tell us that Lesar has been running the company all along. Dick Cheney’s been Mr. Outside while Le-sar’s been Mr. Inside.
The biggest corporate development during Cheney’s five-year tenure was that monster merger between Halliburton and its chief rival. Dresser Industries. The union was pulled off in 1998. and analysts tell us they have yet to see the benefits that were promised. Lesar feels that the benefits will be seen when (he industry goes through a “sustained uptick in the oil market.” Given $30-barrel oil, those synergies ought to he showing up soon.
Fallout: Chances seem pretty good that Dallas will lose another Fortune 500 company to Houston, where most of Halliburton “sassets and employees reside.
IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE AN UPSCALE RETAILER, 86 THE HOT WATER HEATERS
The Great Indoors, Sears ’ answer to Home Depot’s Expo Center, opened near the Galleria this summer. Dallas is home to (lie third store in the chain and it’s quite a bit different from earlier versionsin Scottsdale, Ariz., and Denver. No hot water heaters and garage door openers, for example. The Dallas store is focusing on the needs of middle and upper-income nesters by offering bedding, kitchen products, and home theater units. Higher margin stuff”-no blue light specials.
Sears committed more than $1 billion this year to lock up real estate for The Great Indoors. That’s enough for 150 to 200 stores to be built over the next live years. If you want a new water healer, better call Dallas Plumbing.
MULTILEVEL MARKETERSGET NO RESPECT
Coppell-based Mannetech has the distinction of being the 109th largest public company and also among the most obscure in Dallas-Fort Worth. The multilevel marketer (see also: Excel. Mary Kay. and Amway) sells nutritional supplements through a quarter-million independent sales reps all over the world. The stock of multilevel marketers has never been greatly appreciated because it’s counter-cyclical-it goes up when investors are in a foul mood and dad just got laid off and down when things are good and fewer people need second jobs. Mannetech’s stock price has dropped 90 percent in the past year and they want to do something about it,
I’ve got a suggestion: Require each of those 250,000 reps to buy 100 shares of the company’s stock. That works out to 25 million shares-and we all know what happens when demand exceeds supply. There’s one potential problem, though. When the reps all call their brokers to take profits, the answer may be: “Sell? To whom?”
STATS
1,900,000,000
1999 revenue for Sky Chefs Inc., the top Dallas-based private company.
1,500
Sky Chefs’ total DFW employment.
30,000
Sky Chefs’ total employment.
1,030,000,000
1999 revenue for ClubCorp Inc.
1,825
ClubCorp’s total DFW employment.
23,000
ClubCorp’s total employment.
1,000,000,000
1999 revenues for Mary Kay Inc.
1,759
Mary Kay’s total DFW employment.
3,250
Mary Kay’s total employment.
959,000,000
1999 revenues for VarTec Telecom Inc.
920
VarTec’s total DFW employment.
1,177
VarTec’s total employment.
SOURCE: www.dallasnews.com
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