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Non-Tech : RAINFOREST CAFE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Czechsinthemail who wrote (4224)	5/5/1998 11:51:00 PM
From: GS_Wall Street	Respond to of 4704

Store openings are a good way to sustain growth, that has been the formula for success behind McDonalds all these years.

To: Czechsinthemail who wrote (4224)	5/6/1998 1:33:00 AM
From: Dennis Vail	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4704

Conference Call Notes (from the Underground) "I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man.... And besides I think my livers damaged" (At least that's how I recall the book beginning) Highlights: SSS for 1Q: MOA -6% Woodfield -12% Gurnee +3% DW +5% SSS for April: MOA +10% Woodfield -10 Gurnee +12% DW -1% (even with the AK RAIN opening) Tyson's -6% Sawgrass -7% The figures show all the units rebounding for the disastrous 4Q. Management actually even admitted the other Chicago units were canibalizing Woodfield and also recognized Strong Restaurant competition in the Woodfield area. Gee who'd a suspected. Downtown Chicago is running at a $300,000/week clip for April. That one's going to awesome this summer. MGM is running in the high teens (in millions per year). Palisades with a still incomplete mall is running at $225,0000 to 250,000 a wk and that will only improve. Grapevine is exceeding expectations big time. AZ Mills is 'meeting to exceeding ' expectations as well. London is steadily getting stronger and actualy was profitable this Q. Aventura was the runt of the litter which the twenty screen theatre adjacent to RAIN not scheduled to open til August and is otherwise poorly located in the not fully opened mall. Supposedly its operating losses alone were responsible for loweing operating margins 1/2 % . No mention of the Source, SCP or Mexico revenuewise which is I assume is Lylespeak for 'they suck right now'.But all in all very promising I thought. Besides Aventura, marketing costs and discounting merchandise they wanted to clear out were attributed as causing the drop in operating margins. These are suppose to improve at least a full percentage point next Q and perhaps beyond. Supposedly some new retail products have been field tested at AK with considerably success and the revamped RAIN 3 type of units/ 3 tytpes of retail mix is showing signs of success. Now for the strangest tidbit of the call. Beanie Babies accounted for 17% of retail revenue this quarter as opposed to 16% in 1Q 1997. Does anybody but me find that Beanie Babies accounting for 3.6% of total revenue is not neccessarily a good thing? By the way for those that didn't catch it there were 14 weeks to the 1Q this year as opposed to the usual 13 weeks. If no one else posts on the change in accounting practices and the scheduled opening for the rest of the year I'll do that later in the week. In closing here's a little something I put up on the MF aol RAIN board about the option repricing Robinow described during the conference call: I believe (but I will have to double check) that RAIN repriced the 'non-qualified' options that all employees are entitled to whereas they can buy common stock at a 15% discount to the market value with a certain percent (20% or about) of their salary. I believe they just lowered the strike price of that option so that they can buy their full alotment that the 1/7/98 kapowie put out of their reach. However I suspect this only sets the table for the board once its re-elected (or rerubberized or whatever it is RAIN does with Lyle's good old boy board) to do the same thing with uppermanagements qualified options. Its also interesting to note that RAIN seemed to turn a return this quarter on its capital at an about 8% annualized return. Actually made more this Q on interest income than RAIN did in 1Q 1997. Robinow attributed this to 'the extra week'0 and 'about $200,000 in capital gains" on maturing investments. ( Could that be table staking Lyle at the poker table?). Seriously RAIN has practiced enough mendacity that I don't feel comfortable with the good fortune RAINs investments has encountered this Q. All that aside I thought the Rev and SSS numbers for 1Q and April sounded very positive. If I had even a moderate amount of trust in RAIN's management (which is to say in his majesty Lyle Berman) I'd be feeling pretty happy right now. But there's a difference to putting spin on the ball and throwing spitters and I don't think Lyle recognizes that. Just an opinion. Regards, Dennis