Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 14

Today's tip 6B Saturday, December 22, 1990' Reno Gazette-Journal BUSINESS EDITOR: STEVE FALCONE, 788-6322 tiisines Car shopping? Check out "Buy a Car on Your Terms," a free brochure available by writing Public Relations, Credit Union National Association, P.O. Box 431, Madison, 53701. Retailers ready and hoping for big weekend But even the most frazzled customers still are cost-conscious this year, Thackston of Mervyn's said. "They're frantic, but they're still watching prices. "We're trying to make it easy for them by doing things like putting size signs on tables so they can find what they're looking for quickly." Thackston said he's pleased with business so far this season, and his holiday inventory is dwindling.

"But we've had to make adjustments to get people to buy." "Every sweater, every flannel shirt we have is on the sales floor," he added. "Our stockroom is full of spring merchandise." Business overall has been strong, said Macy's Outland, partly because the shopping season is so long this year. With Thanksgiving on its earliest possible date, the shopping season runs 32 days this year. "It's now or never as far as Christmas is concerned," said Kennedy of Shoppers Square. "We anticipate a good weekend.

A couple stores in the center are doing excellent business and that helps the whole mall." By Susan SkorupaGazette-Journal Christmas shopping comes down to the wire this weekend with three days yes, three, count them, you procrastinators left to do all the shopping you should have finished weeks ago. Some local merchants say the miserable weather kept many consumers home and out of the snow storms and deep-freeze temperatures of the past few days. Others say the weather was a blessing. But whatever the weather, retailers anticipate jammed stores and good sales today through Monday Christmas Eve. "The cold weather has hurt us a bit," said Barry Thackston, manager of Mer-vyn's on Kietzke Lane.

"Starting Wednesday with the first storm that hit, it has hurt business. But we're still trending fairly well. Not real well, but fairly well. Customers are looking for bargains." Business in the evening is off a bit, he said, but it remains strong during the sunny morning and afternoon hours. The snow and cold have kept some peo ple out of the stores, agreed Randy Kennedy, marketing director for Shoppers Square.

"But we anticipate a great weekend," he added. "From what I've heard, a lot of people are shopping late. And a lot of stores are offering deals. I think it will be a good weekend freezing temperatures but sunny, so maybe the roads will get melted." But Tom Outland, manager of Macy's in Meadowood Mall, said the snow and cold will help business. "Two weeks ago, we were in shirtsleeves," he said.

"The cold came fate and hard, and it will help those in the warm-wear business." At the recently opened Sparks Outlet Mall, the winter weather helped sales, said Crystal Ropp of Cape Isle Knitters, a knitted wear manufacturer's outlet. Weekend sales should be strong, she said. "I wouldn't think it would be slow. Everybody will come out and shop." Business at the mall, which opened several weeks ago, has been good, Ropp said. "Not phenomenal, but I'm pleased." This weekend, said John Clower, manager of Target in Sparks, should blow open the shopping season.

"Wednesday, the storm really slowed us up. Business came back on Thursday and it's better today (Friday)." "Now we're getting tons of calls from people asking us if we have certain items the hottest toys and we're telling them 'No. No. Clower said. Outland said the last weekend of shopping is the most fun of the season.

"This is the weekend we see men in the fragrance, lingerie and jewelry departments walking around with a kind of glazed look in their eyes," he said. "It's beginning to get frantic," said Linda Reed of Quails fashions in Franktown Corners. Shoppers are "frantic, but they're bound and determined to do it. They'll keep looking for gifts and we'll help them find something. But it gets us more in the spirit too." Reed predicted a busy weekend for the last days of the shopping season.

Airbus Industrie plans a really big jet Pan Am goes up, up, away with TWA i it' i --r NEW YORK (AP) Pan Am and TWA, two of the oldest and weakest airlines, appeared Friday to be close to a combination that would end their historical rivalry and mark one of the most dramatic consolidations in the troubled industry. Trans World Airlines Chairman Carl C. Icahn had proposed a buyout of Pan Am Corp. last weekend in a deal worth about $375 million. Pan Am Chairman Thomas G.

Plaskett responded with a letter Friday saying such an arrangement could be "advantageous rz- s. vcj 4 1 11 'fit Crude dips below $26 going into weekend NEW YORK Oil prices fell below $26 a barrel Friday despite a refusal by Saddam Hussein to withdraw Iraqi forces from Kuwait by Jan. 15. Traders instead withdrew from oil futures positions to avoid losses if the gulf situation changes over the market's four-day Christmas weekend. Light sweet crude oil for February delivery fell 47 cents to $25.92 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Ed Kevelson, an oil trader at Dean Witter Reynolds said the market rallied to a high of $26.75 a barrel shortly after the Hussein's comments were broadcast, but tumbled late in the day. The outbreak of war likely would curtail oil supplies, raising prices. He said oil traders were reluctant to enter into deals that could lose them money should unexpected developments occur in the Persian Gulf over the long weekend. The Mercantile Exchange is closed Christmas Eve. Dow up for 'witching hour' NEW YORK Stock prices churned through a mixed session Friday amid strong cross-currents created by a quarterly "triple witching hour." The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials edged up 4.20 to 2,633.66, bringing its gain for the week to 39.85 points.

Advancing issues and declines ran about even in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks. Trading was heavy both early in the morning and late in the session as professional investors engaged in maneuvers involving a group of expiring options and futures on stock indexes. The witching hour, which falls on the third Friday of March, June, September and December, was often a turbulent occasion for the market in years past. But recently it has been taking place in more orderly style. Taj creditors get on board WASHINGTON Bondholders in Donald Trump's Taj Mahal casino will have a say in who sits on the board of the Atlantic City gaming house under a proposed bankruptcy reorganization plan, documents disclosed Friday.

A compromise arrangement reached last month between Trump and investors after Trump missed a $47.3 million interest payment called for restructuring the debt in what is known as a "prepackaged" bankruptcy filing. The prepackaged plan, which negotiators said would enable the casino to emerge from court protection within weeks, was unveiled Friday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Automat owner quits NEW YORK The Horn Hardart one of America's pioneering restaurant companies and owner of New York City's last Automat, announced plans Friday to divest the last of its eateries. Horn Hardart. headquartered in Weehawken.

N.J.. near New York, said that by the end of March it will sell or otherwise divest the 83-unit buffet-style International King's Table which operates on the West Coast. The company already has put up for sale its last Automat on 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, its five Tony Roma's restaurants in New York City and the Paddlewheel Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where the company is incorporated. Dunes license limited LAS VEGAS The Nevada Gaming Commission has overturned the actions of the Gaming Control Board and voted to give Dunes Hotel owner Masao Nangaku a limited gaming license that expires at the end of April. The Gaming Board voted last week to give Nangaku an unlimited license, with 15 conditions.

But the commission balked at the idea Thursday, saying it could not give Nangaku an unlimited license until gaming agents had completed a background investigation into his vast business holdings. Wire service reports i rm.ju n- i Plaskett to our shareholders, employees and other constituencies." But in a blunt admission of Pan Am's critical shortage of money, Plaskett said Pan Am would need an infusion of cash before the purchase could be completed. "Under the circumstances, it would be futile to enter into a transaction without any provision for bridge financing, especially if TWA were not to commit to close the transaction regardless of our financial situation," Plaskett said. Pan Am "would not want to enter into an agreement if we had reason to believe it was not capable of being performed," Plaskett said. Icahn issued a letter to TWA's employees saying he had been considering "the possibility of providing Pan Am with debtor-in-possession financing.

This is a type of financing which might be possible if Pan Am decides to file a petition for reorganization in .1 Associated Press ARTIST'S SKETCH: Airbus Industrie said Friday it plane, tentatively dubbed the A350, would be able to might develop a large commercial jet to compete with carry up to 700 passengers with a range of at least rival Boeing Co. in the lucrative U.S. market. The Airbus 7,000 miles and could cost $4 billion to develop. Rodeo Drive feels recession's pinch sort of Icahn BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.

(AP) -The floods of Japanese tourists have ebbed. Sales are off by a third at some of the priciest stores in the universe. Longtime merchants lament that only Cartier can afford the rent. Indeed, some storefronts sit empty at the height of the shopping season. But can the word recession ever apply on Rodeo Drive? After all, this is where they just opened a $200 million mini-mall with 100.000 hand-set cobblestones, $8,000 bustiers still sell at Giorgio Armani, hostesses drop $3,000 on pillboxes for party favors, and some sales clerks have six-figure incomes.

"Retail's slow right now, so you just have to work harder," said Amen Wardy of the store of the same name, who began markdowns at Thanksgiving to move merchandise. Sweaters originally priced at $2,050 could be had for a mere $525 on one recent day. The price of leather jackets had shrunk from $3,360 to $800. Still, Wardy continues to do a bustling business in non-sale must-haves like sparkling Judith Leiber handbags costing up to $5,000. Some of the gleaming clutches are designed like slices of watermelon or orange.

Bags custom-made to resemble your dog are tagged at $2,400. "the other evening, we sold 12 to one person," said saleswoman Bette Don-nell. "Or someone will come in and take 12 of the pillboxes as favors for a dinner party." The pillboxes, rhinestone-encrusted baubles shaped like little partridges and turbans, cost $180 to $305, a steal at $3,000 or so for a dozen. Signals are similarly mixed up and down Rodeo this recession-struck holiday season. "Rodeo is slower than I've ever seen it," said Avi Amiel, associate director at the Hanson Art Galleries, who has worked on the street for six years.

He said sales are off up to 30 percent. "This time of year the street is usually so crowded you can hardly walk out there. Now you can roller skate without hitting anyone," Amiel said. Next door at Giorgio, though, salesman Johnny Zavala said "signature items" such as the perfume, $1,000 See RODEO, page 3B bankruptcy." Icahn said he viewed Plaskett's letter "as a sufficient basis for continuing to evaluate financing and merger possibilities." A marriage of TWA and Pan Am would combine two of the U.S. airline industry's weakest carriers and would mark the end of independence by Pan Am, which pioneered overseas air travel but has lost staggering amounts of money over the past decade.

It has survived by selling pieces of itself. Earlier this year, for example, it agreed to sell prized London routes and some other assets to United Airlines for $400 million. Icahn had written to Plaskett in a letter dated Sunday that offered to buy Pan Am's 150 million outstanding shares for $1.50 a share in cash and $1 a share in either preferred stock or notes. "In these extremely complicated and troubled times for the airline industry, a combination of TWA and Pan Am might offer both of us the opportunity to compete with the three major U.S. airlines," Icahn wrote.

Friday had been the deadline for Pan Am to accept. Plaskett's letter said Pan Am needed cash to "cover its financial needs during the several month period coinciding with our low traffic season that we expect it will take to obtain necessary regulatory and shareholder approval." Plaskett asked Icahn to "send us promptly a detailed term sheet indicating among other things the basis on which you would be willing to provide bridge financing, precisely what you envision as conditions of closing, and the specific terms of the securities you are proposing to offer." Pan Am's letter did not say how much cash was needed. It was released shortly after Standard Poor's issued a statement raising the possibility that Pan Am would have to seek bankruptcy court refuge if it couldn't raise cash. "At this point it's a possibility," said an airline analyst, Philip Baffaley. "I wouldn't make a prediction, to say likely." Auto worker layoffs: More on tap after New Year's Swiderski said a temporary layoff isn't bad if employees know they will be returning to work soon.

But if the layoff is extended or the number of temporary layoffs begins to mount, perceptions may be different. "How is it going to be in the future?" she wondered. "The way the economy looks to me, it's scary. People aren't spending (money) like they used to. People don't know what the heck is going to happen." The supplemental payments workers will receive are included in United Auto Workers union contracts with the Big Three.

The program is aimed at providing employees 95 percent of their regular pay when they are laid off from plants because of slow sales. delayed." Officials for each of the Big Three have predicted a sharply lower rates of sales for cars and trucks in 1991. even if war does not break out in the Middle East. Sales could plunge if shooting erupts. General Motors Corp.

said it would shut down 14 assembly plants the week of Jan. 2. while Chrysler will idle three. The shutdowns will affect 41,650 workers. Ford Motor Co.

said Friday all of its plants will operate the shortened work week beginning Jan. 2 All three automakers' plants shut down next week for the traditional holiday vacation. Ford has not announced which plants would operate the week of Jan. 7. DETROIT (AP) More than 40.000 workers at two of the Big Three automakers will get longer Christmas and New Year's breaks because of anemic car and truck sales.

The workers, at 17 General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. assembly plants, will still be getting nearly all of their normal pay through the Supplemental Unemployment Benefit program. But the temporary layoffs have still caused worry about the economy and the auto industry in particular. "It's scary," said Elaine Swiderski.

financial secretary for United Auto Workers Local 435 at General Motors assembly plant in Wilmington, Del. "Sometimes your (SUB) checks are Phoenix, and a 1 consultant with Camplhark Stocks Dec. 21. 1990 Dow Jones Ind. Close: 2633.66 1 I Hospital Health Volume: 233.40 millipri Bally Manufacturing 2V Caesars World 164 -Vs Circus Circus 53H fc Elsinore Corp.

V4 Golden Nugget 19H Hilton Hotels 37V4 Int'l Game Technology 161 Jackpot Enterprises 74 Promus Companies Sands Regent 12'2 n2600 Bittker became a certified member of the American Board of Psychiatry in 1973. He is a fellow of the American REGISTRATION New student orientation for Morrison College Reno Business College will be held Jan. 4 at 140 Washington St. Students can register for classes through Jan. 9.

Flexible class schedules. Classes begin Jan 7. Details: 323-4145 SECRETARY OF YEAR The 1990 Secretary of the Year will be announced by the Valley in the Sierras Chapter of Professional Secretaries International Jan. 8 at the Quality Inn. All secretaries, administrative assistants and other office personnel are invited to attend Dinner begins at 6 p.m.

Cost: $10. Details: 689-4009 v'-x i it acquired beneficial ownership of 49.1 percent of Newmont 's common stock on Dec. 7, 1990. Haas currently is chairman of R.E.L. Partners N.V., a Netherlands firm; and is senior advisor to the chairman of Pargesa Holding of Geneva.

Prior to joining Banque Paribas, where he served from 1965 until 1985, he was executive vice president international of Continental Grain Co. Born in Paris, where he still resides, Haas is a director of various corporations, including Banque Paribas Suisse Bahamas, Power Financial Capital Corp. of Montreal, Compagnie Continentale France and IAM Europe (Luxembourg). Newmont Mining is a major gold company which owns 90 percent of Newmont Gold, the largest producer in North America; and 100 percent of Newmont Exploration which conducts worldwide exploration for gold. Dr.

THOMAS BITTKER has been named medical director for Truckee Meadows Hospital. He was previously medical director of Cigna Health Care of Bittker 2550 2500 2450 2400 2350 2300 2250 MTWTF No 23th Psychiatric Association and a diplomat of the Board of Medical Management. In 1981, he won the Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Maricopa Medical Society. Bittker received his from the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He later received a master's degree in anthropology from Stanford University where he also completed his psychiatric residency training.

He also is a published mental-health writer. Complete stocks pages 4-5B AltaGold 17 -116 Coeur D'Alene Mines 15H R.R. Donnelly 40ft -M'i Echo Bay Mines 81 -Vi FMC 31 Vi Newmont Mining 36ft -Vt Sierra Pacific Resources 22' Vk Southwest Gas 13 U.S. Mineral Exploration 1281 -132 Valley Capital Corp. 15 Benchmark crude $25 92 47 Gold (N $382.50 Silver (N $4,025 PIERRE HAAS, honorary chairman of Paribas International, has been elected a director of Newmont Mining Corp.

and Newmont Gold Co. Haas is a designee of the Goldsmith-Rothschild Group which.