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Non-Tech : RAINFOREST CAFE
RAIN 6.480+9.6%Dec 18 3:57 PM EST

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To: Czechsinthemail who wrote (3975)2/8/1998 10:07:00 PM
From: Dennis Vail  Read Replies (1) of 4704
 
Baird, you wrote:

>>Thanks for the recap. Did the conference call address the slow growth of revenues? I have some concern that the company isn't doing a very good job of maintaining sales momentum, which may be a key part of dropping same store sales: people may come back to the restaurant but not buy any retail items.<<

Brimmer admitted that marketing wise heretofore RAIN has just placed the Units in high traffic malls and trusted to word of mouth and lots of passersby to generate business. He stressed the #1 initiative this year would be marketing. He feel that there were lots of ways to attract first time customers and to induce them to return. Besides the current kids meal deal he mentioned such things as booking private parties at Animal Kingdom after it closes at 9 PM. They are testing breakfast food now at MGM so its ready for the AK opening but it may stay at MGM as well. They are doing another exit survey on their customers. And they are changing the retail mix at each unit to match its perceived demographics. Thus they've found that at traditional malls the adult attire items do go very well but that toddler clothes and gift items do. At the Mills outlet malls the customers are more price conscious so they plan on cutting back the price and quality of the merchandize. (In other words they spoke of things that should have been apparent a year ago)

On another front Brimmer talked about doing a couple MOA sized units this year hoping to get cost of opening a unit down to $4 million and thought that might be the best size in terms of return on investment. Thats one experiment thats going on. He also thought they could cut costs on construction and save 10-15%. (I know why didn't they do this before....Duh...) Brimmer also admitted there were a lot of inefficiencies (overtime, purchasing etc) in putting up all those units in the last quarter. Finally they did hire Steven Cohen (a real estate lawyer) to find the best sites for future units.

Again I think they are moving in the right direction. (Of course it would be better to get to the storm cellar before the tornado hit but hey...)

Regards,
Dennis
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