Hi John, I am reposting a message that I sent to Mr. Ken Brimmer on the Motley Fool RAIN thread yesterday. I will sell some of my holdings today for a tax loss situation which should help against the Roth IRA tax bite that we have to pay. This should give me about 3K to write off against the Roth taxes over the next four years. Now all I have to do is find a nice stock to buy with the proceeds that will do well next year to recoup these losses... Got any suggestions? I may just buy some more IOM as it looks like it has some good short term potential and the stock price is still at a reasonable price. Smith Barney just came out with a Buy Recommendation on it and projects a price of 11 to 12 over the next year. Just wish I could find one of those here to now "undiscovered" Internet stocks that is selling for under $5!!
So John here's to a Super 1999 and hope that the Y2k Bugs don't Bite! All the best, Mel
Repost follows:
Subject: Re: Unit Operations Date: 12/29/98 1:44 PM Author: WSProspector Number: of 818 Mr. Brimmer, Thanks for asking about things that might be worth changing to help in improving sales at Rainforest Cafe. As I recently posted here, we had a very good experience at the store in Arizona Mills in Tempe, AZ. Food was good and portions were huge as usual and service was good overall. Here is my list of possible ideas which might be considered:
1. Put out a small catalog of retail specials and place these on each table... Make one specifically for KIDS, as nothing will work better than to put a nice attractive picture of something for them to have Mom and Dad buy after they finish their meal. Of course there could be another page for the adults showing some of the newest retail items or ones on sale. This should be a handout that they can take home with them for later sales...from your Web Site! It certainly has worked for SkyMall (sales up 600% due to Internet site sales) Free coloring books for the kids with special "Rainforest Cafe" labelled crayons would be a nice free give away, but the items to be colored could be actual retail items and designs with Web Site addresses on the coloring sheets too!
2. Give out FREE REFILLS for Soft Drinks and Ice Tea. Certainly hasn't hurt T.G.I. Fridays. This is not going to cost much and gives a good feeling about the Rainforest experience. Little things do count as far a getting return customers.
3. The bar stools are cute with their colorful paint and tails, but I found them to be uncomfortable and hard. It wouldn't take too much padding to make them more "user friendly". There might also be some quality control regarding the juices. I did not care for what was advertised at "freshly squeezed" orange juice. I just did not have the flavor of what I have known to be freshly squeezed. Although the Margorilla is a unique mix, mine was watery and not too well made. I did try the "Spotted Chocolate Monkey" and found this drink to be excellent. Consider having Specials on "the Drink of the Day" at a Special price, maybe a 10% to 15% discount for that drink. Change the Special Drinks throughout the week. This will give and incentive to try new ones and maybe the customer will like it and order it again in the future. I have read on the net that some of the bartenders were inattentive and tended to be more interested in talking to one another than in Rainforest customers. I did not notice this myself. However, when we were in AZ Mills for lunch, there was not one customer in the Mushroom Bar. But then the weather was cold outside and it was early in the day too.
4. The Rasta Pasta we ordered at the Downtown Disney store was not what I had expected. Maybe they ran out of REAL chicken that day, but the "chicken" in our dish seemed to be "canned chicken" with regard to its consistency and taste. However, when we recently ordered an addition of chicken to our Wallaby Wok at AZ Mills, it was very good and was certainly real chicken this time.
5. Service has usually been pretty good, but there have been exceptions with longer than usual wait times and mix ups in orders. By the way, I seem to have detected a lowering of sound levels during our recent visit and I'm not sure, but there may have even been less frequent rainstorms this time. I do know that I found it easier to converse with our guests at the AZ Mills RFC.
6. The salt water aquariums are quite nice, but must be expensive to maintain. Having been into the hobby for several years, I can speak from experience here. This must take quite a bit from the bottomline, but I realize that it is now part of the Rainforest makeup. I know the fish tend to be stressed out when the lights are kept on past sundown, when they need to find places to sleep according to their own built-in biological clocks. Having the restaurant open late into the evening and keeping the aquarium lights on may cause undue stress and may result in higher mortality in your fish. Not sure what to recommend here, maybe a change to dimmer or red filtered evening lighting would help, but bright lights can be a problem. I know that your people take great care in maintaining the health of your birds, but you might consider getting a marine aquarium consultant on how to take better care of your salt water fish.
7. Make it known to customers just how much money does go to protecting the rainforest. This would be good public relations. Again, have this information at the table for folks to read while waiting to be served. Not too many words, but it will help to know just what Rainforest Cafe is contributing to the cause.
8. As I mentioned above, use the Internet to help with retail sales. Get some unique items that will help drive sales of Rainforest mascot beanie babies, etc. That, plus a take home catalog with order blank and Web Site information is worth a try.
Well, that's about all I can think of at this time. I do like your concept and I do think that SSS will improve with time, but this does not make for a good stock price. In fact I am considering selling some of our RAIN shares for a stock loss today. I will keep the RAIN shares in my Roth IRA, but am not sure I would buy more later on in my regular account as I have lost too much in holding it over the long term.
Good Luck in the coming year. I hope that some of the above ideas will be of some value to you.
Mel Boreham... a long term holder of RAIN shares. |
