Dateline May 9th, 2002 Flight CA909 (Beijing-Moscow) -
Hello Pezz, <<Todays report sold off my HTRN @ 13.78 ... Bought some CHKR @ 12>>
I know you do not go in for long postings. Excuse me. I do long posts because I use my postings as a journal, or maybe I use my journal entries as postings.
Today I did not very much in Beijing except responding to a few e-mails, downloading reading material from the worldwide net to my laptop, then to my palmtop, while watching some movie on HBO. I then joined my Canadian by nationality, Fujian Chinese by blood wife, of Indonesian Chinese parentage, and my German Jewish by blood, American by nationality partner and his Malaysian nationality Chinese wife at the airport transit lounge for this flight to Moscow.
My partner and I have some meetings with Russian businesses arranged, courtesy of some friendly contact for the coming Monday and Tuesday. The meetings do not matter to me in the least. The wives are planning to explore the shops and museums. I do not mind what they do.
My cello playing brother-in-law (wife’s brother) will be performing solo at the Kremlin and then at some museum this Saturday and Monday.
I will be visiting my relations. A 70-year old Russian by nationality, Russian French Creole Hakka Chinese by blood half-brother (seeing for second time), a 43-year old Russian ... Chinese niece (seeing for first time), and a 90+ year old Russian by nationality, French Creole Hakka Chinese by blood, Trinidad by birth paternal aunt who raised my half-brother from the age of 2.
Yes, it is a long and convoluted story of one family's journey through temporal and geological space … later.
We will be attending a concert at the Armory in the Kremlin on Saturday, and I must bring my passport along for identification. I may be the first Trinidadian to visit the Kremlin in a whole lot of years.
Interesting fact: real knives and forks are being used again on CAAC (China flag carrier); the air stewardess said, "enough time passed".
The CAAC making cutting beef easier on the airplane should be taken in a broader context where some are trying to re-sell the Philippines as a premier vacation spot a few days earlier …
Message 17424413
I thought the both the stewardess’ answer and my Philippine buddy’s answer were rather cryptic. The WAT is no more?! Or never was? To be perhaps replaced with whatnot?! Apparently some folks in this world do not believe in perpetual-war or never-peace?!
I am not so optimistic to believe that the reality underlying their responses have changed, but I do believe, as David (Stern) had suggested earlier, referencing Israel, to paraphrase ‘people get use to it after a while and what went on goes on’.
<<RAD?>> I received the following by e-mail ...
QUOTE
Most recent 10-K from Rite Aid here:
biz.yahoo.com
Aside from the warnings that they are heavily leveraged, currently unprofitable, etc. covering their butts from litigation, there were a few points I found interesting:
"Since the beginning of fiscal 1997, we built 473 new stores, relocated 967 stores, remodeled 470 stores and closed 1,307 stores. These new, relocated and remodeled stores represented approximately 55% of our total stores at March 2, 2002 and are generally larger, free standing stores and have higher operating expenses than our older stores. New stores generally do not become profitable until a critical mass of customers is developed.
Relocated stores also must attract additional customers to achieve comparable profitability to the store that was replaced. We believe that the period of time required for a new store to achieve profitable operations is generally between three to five years. "
Revenue growth 4.5%
Same store sales growth 8.3%
Pharmacy sales growth 9.6%
Same store pharmacy sales growth 11.4%
Pharmacy as a % of total sales 61.3%
Third-party sales as a % of total pharmacy sales 92.0%
Front-end sales growth 1.9%
Same store front-end sales growth 3.6%
Front-end as a % of total sales 38.7%
Same store sales are up 8.3% and same store pharmacy sales are up 11.4%.
Third-party sales are now 92%! That is, sales re-imbursed by insurance plans, etc. They complain that margins are smaller on such sales, however, it does prove that people are very price-insensitve to medical products b/c its almost always picked up by the insurance companies!
"During fiscal 2002, the top five third-party payors accounted for approximately 20.0% of our total sales."
"We obtain approximately 93% of our pharmaceutical products from a single supplier, McKesson HBOC, Inc., pursuant to a longterm contract. Pharmacy sales represented approximately 61.3% of our total sales during fiscal 2002, and, therefore, our relationship with McKesson HBOC is important to us."
"Industry Trends. It is anticipated that pharmacy sales in the United States will increase 75% over the next five years. This anticipated growth is expected to be driven by the "baby boom" generation entering their fifties, the increasing life expectancy of the American population, the introduction of several new drugs and inflation. The retail drugstore industry is highly fragmented and has been experiencing consolidation. We believe that the continued consolidation of the drugstore industry will further increase competitive pressures in the industry. We expect to continue to compete on the basis of price and convenience, particularly in front-end products, and therefore will continue to focus on programs designed to improve our image with customers. Prescription drug sales continue to represent a great portion of our new business due to the general aging of the population, the use of pharmaceuticals to treat a growing number of healthcare problems, and the introduction of a number of successful new prescription drugs. In fiscal 2002, we were reimbursed by third party payors for approximately 92.0% of all of the prescription drugs that we sold. If third-party payors reduce their reimbursement levels or if Medicare covers prescription drugs at reimbursement levels lower than our current retail prices, our margins on these sales would be reduced and the profitability of our business could be adversely affected. "
Today's News:
Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE:RAD - news), the No. 3 U.S. drugstore chain, said earlier on Tuesday sales from stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, rose 6.5 percent in April from a year-ago, considerably better than results for chain stores as a whole. The retailer -- which ranks behind market leader Walgreen Co. and CVS Corp. -- said total sales in the four weeks ended April 27 rose 4.0 percent to $1.19 billion from $1.14 billion for the same period last year.
As many of you know, I've recently bought this stock. One reason is:
Date Name
(Click for History) Title Action Shares Price Value
1/31/02 STANDLEY JOHN T CFO Bought 32,000 $2.30 $73,600
1/29/02 SAMMONS MARY F Pres Bought 150,000 $2.34 $350,880
1/29/02 GLEASON ALFRED M D Bought 94,000 $2.43 $228,560
1/22/02 SOKOLOFF JONATHAN D DO Bought 200,000 $1.90 $380,000
1/18/02 MILLER ROBERT G CEO Bought 450,450 $2.22 $997,999
1/18/02 GREEN LEONARD I D Bought 100,000 $2.27 $227,000
Since the beginning of the year, insiders have only bought, albeit at levels lower than where it is today.
High risk, high return type of stock. For the brave only.
Mac
UNQUOTE
Chugs, Jay |
