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Friday, December 7, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Sales slump as Christmas nears
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — "Tisn't the season to be jolly — if you're a shopkeeper facing a Christmas shopping slowdown.
The faltering economy, fears of war in the Middle East and higher taxes are being blamed for weak economies, weeks of the holiday gift-buying season.
"Thanksgiving weekend was pretty good," C. Penney Co. spokesman said. Mur said otherwise, it is been somewhat disappointing.
Analysts said that sluggish sales pointed to a disappointing Christmas for retailers this year and that the East Coast was hardest hit.
Some storeowners said that although sales were down, they anticipated a surge in late shopping. Others were ready for drastic meas-
Child World Inc., the nation's No. 2 chain of toy stores, said Tuesday it would stop paying old bills for six years and instead buy toys to buy toys for the Christmas season.
Jeffrey Cole, chairperson of CNC Holdings, which owns the 182 store chain, said it would begin a sale on finance sale and cut prices tomorrow.
Cole said the company wanted to avoid a Chanter 11 bankruptcyl filing.
Child World, based on Avon, Mass., concentrates on the Northeast. Cole said Christmas sales for the company were poor. Child World is second in sales and the number of stores to Toys "R" Us.
The Christmas slowdown affected stores serving all ages.
Suzanne McMillan, a marketing executive at Saks Fifth Avenue, said Saks stores were experiencing a series of highs and lows.
Kenneth Macke, chairperson of
Dayton Hudson Corp., which operates several department store chains, said lagging holiday season sales, which followed a decent Thanksgiving weekend, probably tap up in the 10 days before Christmas.
The company's Target discount chain and its Mervyn's clothing stores have fared better than Dayton Hudson's department stores — evidence that budget-conscious consumers are buying cheaper gifts, he said.
Donald Trotz, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., said, "Sales seem to be running a little bit better than most observers had thought going into the season, but it's not a good season."
Kidder Peabody & Co. analyst Daniel Barry said the Northeast and Middle Atlantic states have been hit the worst. The Nortwest and oil-producing areas have had the strongest earthquakes described the Midwest as "very spotted."
The softness so far is no surprise. Retail sales slumped badly in August after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and have not recovered.
Advisers recommend financial fire drill
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — When people check up on the state of their finances in these recessionary times, many are prepared to use their disaster-preparedness plans.
It is no cheerful business to contemplate in detail what could happen to a person's pocketbook should calamity strike.
But financial advisers say people can save a lot of money and misery if they keep watch for early-warning signs of trouble and have some advance idea, however sketchy, of how to react to it.
"Financial trouble gets out of control sooner than most people expect," said John Reed in his newsletter Real Estate Investor's Monthly.
"That's because there is a slippery slope to debt. The debtor is in big trouble when he thinks trouble is still far off."
Many precautionary measures are part of the routine job of money management — maintaining insurance coverage, for example, and
saving to store up a reserve of ready cash.
However, authorities on the subject say there may be many additional benefits to running through the budgetary equivalent of a fire drill before the temperature gets uncomfortably hot.
"Debt problems can happen to anyone, at any time," said a member of the American Financial Services Association, a lenders' trade group. "Unforeseen medical expenses, a temporary job layoff, a marital breakup all can play havoc on the most stable of budgets.
"For others, mismanagement of their personal finances can lead to serious trouble in a short period of time. The problems can be compounded by how people face a budget-buster crisis."
One common pitfall, advisers say, is to ignore or deny the existence of a problem in its early stages.
"As soon as it looks like a payment might be missed, creditors should be notified."
Bankers Association in a current newsletter.
"They may be able to assist by refinancing, extending payment periods, or consolidating loans. Delaying may only make matters worse."
A second source of potential danger can be overly optimistic calculations or assumptions about the cushion that finances rest, the newsletter says.
If people have to liquidate stocks, mutual funds or other fluctuating assets during a spell of economic downturn, they tell them at exceptionally low prices.
That same hazard can apply to the biggest asset in many people's hands
— a house or other real estate property, especially now, when real estate markets in many areas of the country are depressed.
The law allows home sellers to put off paying these taxes if they buy another home of equal or greater value within two years. “But if you are in financial difficulty, you probably do not buy the requisite home.” Reed said.
If people have to move, or need to sell a house just to raise cash, the proceeds may be greatly diminished by capital gains taxes on any profit they receive above the value of the property.
The deeper into trouble real-estate investors get, he adds, the more extra costs they incur, including lawyer's fees, late penalties on debt payments, and mortgage-prepayment penalties.
Reed's advice for real-estate owners, which he said might well apply to many other people as well: "Do an if-wose控 balance sheet."
"List assets at their net liquidation-sale values and add the additional liabilities which would be triggered by defaults, prepayments and taxes," he says. "If the lose-control balance sheet shows a zero or negative number, you'd better steer well clear of losing control."
"Furthermore, take immediate action to improve your lose-control balance sheet."
Nuclear industry upset by image offered by Fox's 'The Simpsons'
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The nuclear power industry is having a meltdown about "The Simpsons."
The prime-time cartoon show's evil power-plant owner with an arbiter, the dozing employees and an employee named Blinky have all contributed to driving industry officials to critical mass. But more than anything, Homer Simpson has them glowing under the collar.
The U.S. Council for Energy Awareness, an industry information group, told the "Simpsons" producers in a February letter that hecribed to see nuclear plant workers portrayed as "bungling idiots."
"Top 'idiot' on the council's list was Homer, father of the Simpson family and an employee of the fictitious Springfield nuclear plant. Homer, perpetually in need of a shave, seems to care less about his diet and doughnuts and having enough tart sauce for his fish stocks.
In various episodes, Homer gives away the plant's blueprints to a foreign exchange student, his boss tries to bribe a plant inspector with cash, and three-eyed Binky is found swimming near the plant.
"I am sorry that the Simpsons has offended a lot of people in the energy industry," Executive Producer Sam Simpson said in a Feb. 5 letter to Carl Goldstein, a vice president of the energy group. "I agree with you that in real life Homer Simpson would not be employed at a nuclear power plant.
"On the other hand, he probably wouldn't be employed anywhere."
After they exchanged a few more letters, Simon finally sug-
Fox Broadcasting Co executives tour a real nuclear power tour.
"We had no illusion that this was suddenly going to turn 'The Simpsons' into anything resembling real life, and it hasn't." Goldstein said. "But they were interested."
In April, the group converged on the San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Clemente, Calif., 40 miles south of Fox's Los Angeles offices.
"We don't have any Homers at our nuclear plant," said David Barron, a spokesperson for San Diego State, Southern California Edison.
Simon said that the tour showed that "The Simpsons" had been right — and wrong — about nuclear power.
Although they did little initial research, he said "The Simpsons" creators seemed to accurately represent worker conditions — the cafeterias, lunch pails and radiation warning signs. The writers placed Homer in a "sector" to illustrate an impersonal bureaucracy, then discovered that some plants actually used that term.
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But Simon also said that the tour "changed a lot of peoples' minds."
"I think the facts are pretty powerful that it's a clean and safe and important source of energy," Simon said. "While some of the shows were in the works before, we really backed off that as a source of comedy. No more three-eeded fish."
But don't have a cow, Simpsons fans.
The show will continue to jab the industry in its third season next year, but in a more responsible way. Simon said.
For example, Homer is to begin a dinner grace with this: "Thank you for nuclear power, which has enabled the vitality . . . at least in this country."
Plans even call for Homer to avert a nuclear meltdown.
"He's kind of asleep at the wheel and wakes up when there's an alarm and doesn't know which button to press," Simon said. "So he goes eney-meeyemeny-mineyo and hits a button and does avert a meltdown," Simon said. "He becomes a hero and feels guilty about it. It's not a politically charged episode."
The domestic nuclear industry has been sensitive about its image since one of the two reactors at Three Mile Island was crippled in a 1979 accident that led to a $1 billion cleanup. And in 1867, Petunia Beach Botanical workers was shut down for a time, and 33 workers were fired on charges of "sleeping and/or intention to do"
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