Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 16

Today's tip 8B Monday, November 18, 1985 Reno Gazette-Journa! Is money missing from your Social Security account? To request a form for a Statement of Earnings, write to the Social Security Administration, P.O. Box 57, Baltimore, 21203. Coming soon grocery store of the future Dan Dorfman Watch the Dow for stock tips two-thirds of all final purchasing decisions are still made when the shopper is in the store." Some examples of in-store ad possibilities like the holographic Mr. Clean and the voice from above, which are activated when the shopper passes a sensor, and the shopping cart with built-in electronic display are not yet in supermarkets. However, McDonald's is testing a holographic Big Mac in some Chicago restaurants.

A hologram is a three-dimensional photographic image. Wamsley said the spread of holography might come "at the expense of a few weak-hearted customers who never expected to meet the Jolly Green Giant." By Marguaret Peterson McClalchy News Service LAS VEGAS A young woman, hurrying distracted down the supermarket aisle, stops in her tracks. Hovering before her is a smiling Mr. Clean, 8 feet tall. On another aisle, a father takes a box of cereal from the shelf, then hears a voice from above reminding him to stock up on milk.

At the front of the store, another woman grabs a shopping cart and watches words flash across its handle, alerting her to the weekly specials. It sounds like "Mary Hartman Meets the Twilight Zone." But it is the supermarket of the future and to some extent ers, baby-boomers, blacks, and Spanish-speakers, among others. That presentation stressed the importance of developing different marketing strategies to reach the diverse segments. The point of this year's presentation, said Lightfoot and Wamsley, was that the best advertising vehicle for reaching the widest variety of shoppers may be the store itself. "If we set diversity aside, today's consumers do have one thing in common," said Lightfoot.

"At one time or another once a day, or week, or whenever they all visit the supermarket. "Even though today's shopper is bombarded with an average of over 2,300 selling messages a day," he said, "nearly the present. Food companies and grocers increasingly are trying to grab customers' attention while they're in the store the time when most shoppers decide to buy. That was the message from supermarket specialists John Lightfoot and Fred Wamsley at a recent convention of the California Grocers Association. Lightfoot is executive vice president and editor of Supermarket Insights, a trade publication.

Wamsley is director of customer development for General Foods Corp. The two men reminded the audience that a presentation at last year's CGA convention described the splintering of the mass market into numerous segments working women, teens, older consum 1 1 COLOR 1 1 Dunes' colorful, troubled history 1 Bally begins state gaming OK process By Susan VoylesGazette-Journal Bally Manufacturing will "face the same hurdles as anyone else" when it seeks the state Gaming Control Board's approval to take over the MGM Grand Hotels in Reno and Las Vegas. Guy Hillyer, a member of the Gaming Control Board, said Sunday he couldn't put any time limit on how long it will take to investigate Bally Manufacturing, which announced over the weekend its plans for a $440 million purchase of the properties. "They have been looked at before and they are known to us," said Hillyer, of Las Vegas. "But they face the same hurdles as anyone else." Bally, in its announcement Saturday, said it hopes the sale can be completed by the end of the first quarter next year.

Hillyer said he had no idea how many key employees will have to be licensed. But some groundwork has been laid, as the board investigated the company for a gaming operating license in the mid-1970s. Hillyer said gaming officials have been kept informed of the pending sale "for some time," but declined to elaborate. Kirk Kerkorian, a Beverly Hills, investor who owns 70 percent of MGM Grand Hotels virtually put up a "for sale" sign last summer when he announced that he had been approached by a suitor. Bally, which is licensed to sell and distribute slot machines in Nevada and New Jersey, has been held up to the tough scrutiny of officials in New Jersey, where it operates Rally's Park Place on the Boardwalk.

Don McGhie, gaming partner for Kafoury, Armstrong the state's largest accounting firm, said he was completely surprised by Bally's planned purchase. He doesn't think Reno will be hurt by the loss of the MGM name, which most people are quick to identify with, because By Myram BordersGazette-Journal LAS VEGAS The Dunes Hotel a 194-room hotel-casino that bloomed into a glamorous Strip resort has courted trouble since its birth 30 years ago. Its stormy past is tainted with allegations of skimming, red-carpet treatment of suspected mobsters and financial transactions that raised the eyebrows of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission members. The resort filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S.

Bankruptcy Code Nov. 6 when lawyers for Valley Bank and the culinary union began closing in with demands of payment. Golden Nugget Inc. offered to bail the Dunes Hotel and Country Club out of bankruptcy Friday for $115 million cash. The offer came two days after the Nugget won Nevada Gaming Control Board approval to redirect $295 million to Nevada gaming investments rather than Atlantic City.

"This is the first time there has been a proper forum or place to make the offer," said Stephen Wynn, head of the Golden Nugget. "Bankruptcy proceedings offer people with a solution an equal and fair opportunity to come forward and put their cards on the table and to put their money where their mouth is." JEAN MA GO WAN, a former Dunes Hotel executive for more than 20 years, described the Dunes as being "like a glamorous lady who has fun and survives good times and bad with a sense of adventure and expectation." "The Dunes always had a personality of its own. No matter what happened, even during the culinary strike that almost closed the town in the 1970s, its people did what they had to do but they always were loyal and usually managed to keep a sense of humor. "I hope that spirit is not gone. I tk Mark Jouin.i! has filed for Chapter 1 1 STRIP RESORT: Las Vegas' Dunes Hotel bankruptcy after many years of problems.

With the Dow breaking the 1,400 barrier and leading the market, the immediate investment question is: What's next? Do you buy, sell or take a breather? And if you buy, do you play the big names or the sputtering small companies? The key to upcoming market showing may lie in the vigor of the Dow itself that time-honored index of 30 companies that account for about 25 percent of the value of all Big Board shares. Most experts expect many of those companies to keep moving up and to pull the rest of the stock market with them. The positive market outlook is based on the technical strength of the Dow, as measured by the number of shares being bought against the number being sold. Several market analysts who have gone through this exercise tell me their findings point to an ever higher Dow (by last week, it had climbed to 1,430, from 1,290 in late September). Their best guess: a run to 1,500 or even 1,550 by year-end or early 1986.

Nevertheless, these analysts tell me that greater care is needed in choosing Dow stocks, because some big winners are showing signs of losing their zip. What's more, several of the current Dow laggards could stay in the doghouse. Still, the latest readings of Ralph Acampora, the technical-research chief of Kidder, Peabody lead him to conclude, "If you want to play the market, play the Dow because that's where the leadership is and that's where it's going to be." He said the Dow is far from the most accurate barometer because it embraces only 30 stocks But the Dow has the name, and it's surn-on to the public because the i it so closely. Acampora's best Dow bets: Allied-Signal, DuPont, Minnesota Mining Manufacturing, and Sears. The weak links: Philip Morris, INCO, Bethlehem Steel, and International Paper.

The emphasis on quality by the big institutional investors also should help push the Dow higher. Having been butchered in lots of small stocks between mid-1983 and mid-1985, many money managers are playing it safe. In some cases, they have little or no choice, as their corporate pension-fund clients have ordered them to shun the speculative stocks. The Dow companies represent 24 major industries, making the Index especially sensitive to economic swings. Two of Wall Street's sharpest technicians are Joe Barthel, 41, and Richard Yashewski, 43, of the Philadelphia-based brokerage firm Butcher Singer.

Their market readings focus on monetary indicators (the performance of the bond market and the direction of interest rates) and on sentiment indicators (such as buying or selling by corporate insiders and short selling by the public and Big Board member firms). The two men are especially bullish on big-name, big-capitalized stocks, with the Dow, as they see it, "leading the way." Given that view, I asked the two to analyze the 30 Dow companies with an eye to forecasting performance in the next six months. What's most important, as Barthel and Yashewski see it, is that there's no significant selling by the professionals in the leadership stocks. At worst, said Barthel, "we'll see a minor shakeout (or decline), and then we're going higher." Only seven Dow stocks less than 25 percent of the group are currently rated as "buys" by the two technicians. American Telephone Telegraph is seen as the biggest gainer, with a projected 40 percent rise within six months.

Allied Signal is the runner-up, with a projected 37 percent rise, followed by General Electric and Merck, both at 31 percent. The other three are United Technologies, Procter Gamble, and DuPont. Still in bullish patterns but thought to be getting a bit expensive are American Can, Exxon, IBM, McDonalds, Owens-Illinois, Union Carbide, Westinghouse, and Woolworth. Seven Dow companies are thought to be in a downtrend even though their shares might enjoy a brief rise. The seven which Barthel and Yashewski think should be avoided are Bethlehem Steel, Kodak, General Motors, INCO, International Harvester, International Paper, and Minnesota Mining Manufacturing.

Dan Dorfman is a syndicated columnist I 1 -1 1 Relieve it survives today," she said. and dined at the Dunes in 1974. The hotel was fined $10,000 by the Nevada Gaming Commission. The next year, Shenker was told to kick suspected Chicago mobster Anthony Spilotro out of the hotel because he was spending 14 hours a day in the Dunes poker pit. EIGHT SUSPECTED members of the New York Columbo family stayed at the Dunes Hotel free of charge in 1980.

Five of them were arrested on misdemeanor charges. Richard Bunker, then chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board and now president of the Dunes Hotel, said the hotel "comps" did not violate the law or any gaming regulation. No state the hotel has been established here for Anderson Shenker seven years. With the state approval of the sale, the two hotels would be renamed Grand-Reno and Rallv Grand-Las (I Vegas. On the other hand, McGhie said Reno Sfcould benefit by the Bally purchase Jbecause it would probably heavily pro dpi mote its new property.

He also expects Vr 1 lrecent'y approved by the Reno City Coun- "i success. With the addition, and assuming the Ziegfield Theater is packed every night, In the complicated corporate structure, Investment the holding company for the Dunes Hotel and Country Club, filed for bankruptcy reorganization, which allows it to con- tinue to operate the hotel-casino while it comes up with a satisfactory plan to pay its debts. Investment Co. Inc. is a subsid- iary of Corp.

of Delaware, which is a subsidiary of Dunes Hotels and Casinos, formerly named Continental Connector Corp. Valley bank attorney Gerald Gordon says the Dunes Hotel owes $75 million in principal and interest on a defaulted loan. Tom Pursel, an attorney for the union, had U.S. marshals on two occasions try to seize from the casino vault $1.9 million, owed for health and pension benefits. Hotel executives talked their way out of the pinch Oct.

24 by turning over $200,000. A federal court restraining order blocked the second attempt. THE HOTEL FILED its bankruptcy petition less than eight hours before the restraining order was to expire and U.S. marshals would have been free to return again. If the culinary union had been successful in seizing casino cash, the Dunes casino probably would have been forced to close by Nevada gaming agents.

A state law requires casinos to keep a certain amount of cash on hand to pay winners. Casino gamblers at the Dunes were unaware of the behind-the-scenes chaos. Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Bart Jacka said a Nov. 6 audit of the bankroll was adequate to meet state requirements but that the operation would remain under close surveillance. "It is business as usual," said Anthony Zmaila, assistant secretary of Investment Corp.

It wasn't the first financial crisis to face the Dunes Hotel. The year alter the Dunes opened in 1955 the casino closed briefly because of financial problems. And the hotel's former majority stockholder and its present majority stockholder are now involved in bankruptcy actions that are separate from the Dunes Hotel problem. The owners past and present have never fit the present-day mold of the three-piece-suit executive. Major Riddle, a fast-living Texas oilman who once operated a truck manufacturing franchise in Chicago, for more than two decades headed Investment Co.

When Riddle died July 8, 1980, of a rare blood disease, the singular titular head of the Dunes became St. Louis attorney Morris Shenker, a Russian immigrant and a friend and attorney for former Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. THE MAN NOW in charge is John Anderson, a tomato farmer from Davis, who simultaneously is negotiating to make multimillion-dollar investments in California and place some of his holdings in that state in bankruptcy. He owns 51 percent of the Dunes Hotel. Shenker.

78, and his son, Arthur still retain Dunes Hotel consulting contracts worth almost a half million dollars a year. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Clive Jones told Anderson's attorneys last week to pay the 2,300 hotel employees, but not the Shenkers. For decades, Nevada gaming agents have been chasing suspected mobsters out of the resort. Nick Civella, Kansas City underworld kingpin, was wined disciplinary action was taken.

Later, four of the visitors including Joseph Columbo Jr. were indicted on charges of obtaining money under false pretenses in an airline ticket reimbursement scam. The indictment was dismissed by District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski but reinstated by the Nevada Supreme Court in 1984. The case is awaiting trial. When a culinary union strike virtually closed the Las Vegas Strip in the mid-1970s, Shenker's Dunes Hotel was one of the few to remain open, as did other resorts with heavy Teamster union financing.

Shenker's friendship with the Teamsters union and the culinary union, which loaned him millions out of its pension fund, returned to haunt him in recent years. He initially purchased controlling interest in the Dunes Hotel with Teamster loans, but when he planned to expand to the tune of $40 million the union reneged and Shenker sued for $140 million. He didn't win. Loans extended by the Culinary union to Shenker for development of two out-of-state companies resulted in a federal judgment requiring he pay the union $33 million, recently negotiated down to $26.3 million by the U.S. Labor Department.

Shenker has declared personal bankruptcy in St. Louis to temporarily shelter his financial holdings from the judgments. The bankruptcy case still is pending. the casino would have about one customer for every 10 square feet of space, which McGhie called a proper balance. In Atlantic City, Bally's Park Place, with its large open casino, elevators surrounded by waterfalls and restaurants and bars on an upper floor, is one of that city's more successful properties.

Its September gross win was $19.7 million, second only to Resorts International. Common Market urges opening Japan markets BRUSSELS, Belgium A top delegation of three commissioners from the Common Markets executive commission are due to arrive in Japan today to press that country to open its markets to more Western products. Common Market sources said the three, the highest-ranking commission delegation ever to visit Japan, would express "mounting impatience" at a $13.3 billion Common Market trade deficit with Japan and inadequate Japanese action to even it up. The three are Willy De Clercq, commissioner for foreign trade, Karl-Heinz Narjes, commissioner for industry and technology, and Peter Sutherland, commissioner for competition. The commission has announced the three would make proposals for Common Market changes on their return, but staff members at the European market's Brussels headquarters say unofficially that they still hope to avoid slapping protectionist controls on imports from Japan.

Common Market officals say that seven earlier Japanese measures to favor imports have had no significant effect, while the latest three-year program to reduce tariffs announced by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone "does not meet the most essential (Common Market) demands." Deutsche Presse-Agentur ent via crafts fair Pittsburgh unemploye Ex-astronaut seeks contract HOUSTON (AP) A private rocket-launching company headed by former astronaut Donald "Deke" Slayton has approached the Pentagon about conducting research in the Star Wars missile defense system. "Our motto is 'Have rocket, will travel'," Slayton said at a public seminar on the Reagan administration space plan, formally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. "We think our system is precisely suited to support that system because it can be scaled down for research or scaled up for deployment." Congress has approved $2.75 billion in fiscal 1986 for SDI research. PITTSBURGH (AP) It was a crafts fair with a difference: unemployed workers handy with a crochet hook or a jigsaw setting out their wares and taking in enough money to help pay their bills. "It's been a godsend, this show," Danny Hoover, 37, said as she stood behind a long table covered with stained glass ornaments, windows and lamps.

Mrs. Hoover's display was one of 75 jammed into a banquet hall at Pittsburgh's Soldiers Sailors Memorial Hall over the weekend. The fair featured the handiwork of the area's unemployed, who received the space at no cost. Mrs. Hoover and her husband Richard, 33, a disabled foundry worker, sold about $200 worth of merchandise in less than six hours.

The couple figured the money would help cover their glassmaking expenses and possibly September's rent. A few tables away, Marie Stankowski put her sales at more than $150. Her husband, Edward, an unemployed steel-worker, had made dozens of wooden animals, pencil holders and knickknack shelves. "Some people are leery of giveaways like free turkeys or things from the food bank. Sometimes, people are too proud," said Mrs.

Stankowski, 49. "You're less embarrassed to sell your handicrafts or wares." The two-day fair was the first of its kind in this once-booming steel valley, where unemployment stood at 8.6 percent in September, the latest month for which figures are available. September's jobless rate was the lowest since October 1981, but still above the state average of 7.5 percent, according to the state labor department..