Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • 39

JT. I'-IT I r-H II llll II i i -T 'T I a 1 in -ill- "in i-1- Section Ken Burns takes a swing at baseball7D What's new with celebrities4D TV: Disney revisits 'Honeymooners72D win Press Sun-Bulletin Thursday, May 26, 1994 ENTERTAINMENT $1.50 Cinema to open in former Burt's store in Endicott I i Trends in the news by Gerald Celente i. i closed last year when their owner, LoewsSony, opened a new nine-screen multiplex at the Town Square Mall in Vestal. Piatt said she estimates she's spent about $25,000 in getting the facility ready for its opening week and Burt spent an undisclosed amount putting in bathrooms and other fixtures. Piatt said she thinks the region is ready for an inexpensive theater alternative, noting that Loews turned its two Binghamton Plaza screens into $1.50 second run screens recently and increased its Town Square prices to $6.50 last week.

By GENE GREY Staff Writer Two new movie screens will light up this weekend in Endicott in the former Burt's Department Store at 42 Washington Ave. The $1.50 Cinema will feature second run films and classics, with the opening week featuring Singing in the Rain, Wizard ofOz and Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the recently released Grumpy Old Men. For the first week, admission for any movie will be 50 cents, said Rhonda Piatt, owner-manager of the new cinema. She said each screen will seatlOO people. What's playing $1.50 Cinema opens Friday at 42 Washington behind Burt's Books.

Entrance is from the Madison Avenue parking lot. For the first week, Friday through Thursday, movies are 50 cents. Here are the movies scheduled: Singing in the Rain, 1 7:45 p.m.; Wizard of Oz, 3:15, 5:30 p.m.; Grumpy Old Men, 2,4:15, 6:30 and 8:45 p.m. owner of the building. The movie theater is part of a whole series of plans he has to rehabilitate the building owned by his family for many years.

By July, he expects two new businesses to open on portions of the Burt block on Washington Avenue: The Stitchery, a sewing shop, at 136 Washington and The Beveled Edge, a frame shop, at 38 Washington Ave. "This is a major overhaul of the property and I'm really excited and happy about the progress we're making," he said. Endicott has been without motion picture theaters since the Endicott and Town cinemas It was a pretty rough journey for the seats and projection equipment installed in the new facility. Much of it comes from the Ritz Theatre on Clinton Street, which collapsed last winter (and has since been demolished), Piatt moved the seating and projection equipment to Banquet Masters in Endwell, only to have the roof collapse in that building last winter. "It's a case of something good coming out of something bad," she said.

Entrance to the theater, behind Burt's Books, will be off the Madison Avenue parking lot. Parking is free, said Matt Burt, DO Medical giants gain under pact i A fast accelerating trend of business consolidations in health care is being (further fueled by the government's health reform proposals. The consolidations will result in a national health care delivery system controlled by a tiny group of giant companies a medical oligopoly according to an analysis and forecast by the Trends Research Institute. The companies will integrate Vertically to lower costs, creating a situation where a single company is Responsible for everything from visits to doctor, hospital or health maintenance organization, to drug prescriptions and insurance claims. They'll also carry out medical and pharmaceutical research )and development, as well as health care "product manufacturing.

And due to the structure of the Jsystem, outside companies will find it virtually impossible to enter the health industry with barriers including ijhigh capital requirements, economies of Jscale, patents and licensing requirements, reputation requirements many others. Because pricing of health care will be federally established, health care companies will seek to gain a competitive advantage through lower costs. The cost reductions will be warn mmt mm wm tmm'i I 3L tiCH OAffiv mmmml Uc.i'! jf 't achieved through pursuing higher- volume strategies and cheaper forms of patient care. i The leading insurers Aetna, (Prudential, Met Life, Cigna and The Travelers and a few other companies already are moving toward industry control. The big five insurers along with Blue "I Cross, Humana and United Health Care already own 251, or 45 percent, of the country's 562 HMOs, and the numbers will increase.

Merck the world's largest drug 'rt A survey of 2,108 shoppers earlier this year found a 19 percent increase over last year in the number of shoppers buying lower-priced store brand products, such as those at rights Better quality, lower prices and nicer packaging (a switch from the generic, plain label goods of several years ago), are credited with winning consumers away from national brands. i maker, now controls Medco Containment Services, a giant mail order drug supplier. Hospitals nationwide are racing to -trnerge as a way of cutting costs and competing more effectively for big Contracts with managed-care companies, Health care will become America's j- new military-industrial complex, I. according to institute research. i unDreceueniea unit is oeing PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ERIC HEGEDUSPRESS SUN-BULLETIN Less expensive house brands are top shelf with consumers developed between Washington and the health care industry, which will enable the medical oligopoly to wield extraordinary political as well as economic power.

i As the medical oligopoly trend I evolves, health care will truly become a franchise. Its providers will not only be j- granted special privileges and rights by i the government; they'll also change the individualized health care into a mass market business. i Gerald Celente is director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. and pub-C lisher of The Trends Journal. For more infor-I'- mation, call 1-800-25TREND.

percent of the market, with a record $30 billion in sales last year, according to Information Resources Inc. The growing popularity of store brand products is driven in part by the economy, as people look for ways to save money. But improved quality of store brand items has also lured customers away from national brands. The Food Marketing Institute's annual consumer trends survey found a 19 percent increase in the number of shoppers who are buying lower-priced store brand products, based on a telephone survey of 2,108 male and female shoppers conducted early this year. German, who studies the changing nature of all types of brands and products in his Food Industry Management teaching and research course, said three key factors drive growth in the private label industry: Store brands return a higher profit for the retailer than national brands.

0 Store brand products offer the consumer a lower priced alternative. Quality store brand products improve customer loyalty to a supermarket. Breakfast cereals are a perfect example of where private labels (or store brands) have been able to break into the profits of national companies. Escalating prices in this category allowed stores to capture a corner of See STORE BRANDSPage 40 By CATHY LORD Staff Writer In an episode of Roseanne, Darlene discovers that her mom has been duping the family (and saving money) by filling a popular cereal box with a store brand substitute. This sitcom lesson in family budgeting has not been lost on many Americans, who have found store brands a suitable alternative to the more expensive name brand products.

But most shoppers are not using such backdoor methods. The status of many store brand products has risen since the "no frills" days. Gone with the plain black and white wrapping is the notion that buying Price comparison between national brands and house brands. See chart, Page 4D. store brand products will label you a cheapskate.

Gone, too, are the days when "no name" goods were relegated to a single aisle. Today, store brand and private label items are right out front, in more attractive packages. "The big change in recent years has been due to the fact that private labels have improved their product and the appearance of the package," said Gene German, professor of marketing at Cornell University in Ithaca. Store brands now control 19.7 Iliiilii; Do you find most store brand products to be of the same quality as their name brand counterparts? TELEVISION New show on new channel features things that are old Yes: 798-9447 No: 798-9467 i Where to tune in fX will be available Wednesday to New-Channels Cable subscribers on channel 20. VH1, the rock channel, will be moved to Channel 50 on the cable, effective Wednesday.

Register your vote by phone by 4 p.m. today. We will publish the results in Friday's Press Sun-Bulletin. 1 I I 1- i By GENE GREY Staff Writer A new channel will be added to NewChannels cable starting Wednesday and one of its stars will be well-known auctioneer and antique expert Bob Connelly of Binghamton. The channel, fX, which will feature live talk shows and reruns of old series, is owned by Fox Broadcasting and has been added to all cable services that carry the Fox network.

It will broadcast from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily. James Streevy, vice-president and general manager of New-Channels in Binghamton, put it succinctly: "If we want NFL, we take fX." He was referring to Fox's outbidding the other three networks in obtaining National Football League games. (The Fox channel is seen on NewChannels' cable dial 8 in the Binghamton area.) He will be working on-air and producing segments for a live program at noon Wednesdays called Personal fX, an hourlong show about people and the stuff they collect.

"We'll be talking to collectors and appraising items, either live in the studio or at remote locations," Connelly said. fX has a fleet of remote vans that will travel all over the country to provide live feeds to the program. Plans are for fX to program seven hours a day of live programming and 12 hours a day of acquired series. Among the live programs, in addition to Personal fX, will be fX Breakfast, a morning show featuring news, weather, entertainment and guests, exercise and celebrity contributors; The Pet Show, featuring news and features See fXPage 40 Friday in Living Say goodbye to Star Trek: The Next Generation. With that leverage, Fox is able to launch its new cable channel with an estimated 23 million potential audience, according to trade reports.

Connelly, who with his wife, Sallie, runs an antique, auction and appraisal business at 205 State Binghamton, was selected after an audition of dozens of antiques experts and assessors by the fX producers. Questions or comments? For matters regarding the Living section, call 798-1171 between 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. The fax number is 798-1113. The features editor is Michela Garcia.

HOLLY MCQUEENPRESS SUN-BULLETIN Antiques expert Bob Connelly is cian's profession, made in Ger-holding an "occupational beer many around 1900. Its estimat-stein," this one depicting a physi- ed value is $800..