Fallen Golden Arches
On the scale of rare events, the closing of a McDonald’s restaurant ranks up there with a solar eclipse or the discovery of a profitable savings and loan in Texas. But it does happen.
The McDonald’s on Hill Street near 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles was recently shuttered and its Golden Arches removed after subway construction made it difficult for customers to reach. The restaurant will reopen once construction hassles ease, a company spokesman said.
“There has been a handful that have closed in the last 15 years,” said Charles Rubner, a company assistant vice president, who notes that a new outlet is added about every 17 hours.
The closure of a McDonald’s is news in fast-food circles. “That is unusual,” said Janet Lowder, a Los Angeles restaurant consultant. “People, no matter what the obstacle, usually get to a McDonald’s.”
Call It Copyopoly
Is there no honor among copycats?
Shawn Chapin thinks Newportopoly--a Monopoly-inspired board game with Orange County business names--is an unfair rip-off of two games she introduced last year, SanDiegOpoly and La JollaOpoly. So she has sent the game’s maker, G&L; Enterprises, a cease and desist letter.
That amuses the attorney for Parker Bros., who thinks all three games may be a rip-off of the firm’s Monopoly game.
“It’s like the bad guy calling the bad guy a bad guy,” said lawyer Steven M. Weinberg of New York.
Parker Bros. has pursued many similar cases over the years, and it appears its work is far from over. G&L; and Chapin’s company, Citiopoly, are currently racing to beat each other to the stores with San Franciscopoly.
As American as Aussie Pie
The next hot fad from the land of kangaroos and boomerangs may come from the microwave.
Four ‘n Twenty, the Tustin-based subsidiary of a Australian company, has tried to distribute a beef-filled pastry through vending machines and a dozen stores in California for more than three years. But sales in some markets have been cool as a koala’s nose. Why? Among other reasons, people didn’t know what it was--and furthermore, there was too much of it.
The firm originally dubbed the product “Aussie Pie” but changed the name because studies showed Americans didn’t know the difference between a meat pie and pot pie. (And probably still don’t.)
So for a new, wider launch in California and Nevada next month, the company has dubbed its product “Aussie Snacks” and slimmed it down from 6 to 2 ounces. Does Crocodile Dundee eat finger food?
DAT Store Isn’t Discount
A store in Santa Monica is breaking the sound of silence on DAT.
The latest audio gadget from Japan, digital audio tape recorders give special cassette tapes the same superb sound quality as that found on compact discs. But DAT’s future is clouded. The U.S. recording industry is fighting DAT makers on grounds that the players could lead to piracy of compact discs. That, and related political problems, have held up distribution in America.
The DAT Store in Santa Monica, however, is betting the technology takes off. The only DAT-only store in California--”and probably the universe,” according to a salesman--it sells players for $999 to $10,000.
The store--which must buy its merchandise in Japan and have it air-freighted back--sells most of its players to such recording artists as Stevie Wonder and Stevie Nicks and their studios, according to a salesman. Who else could afford it? A single prerecorded tape costs $30--more than double the cost of an average compact disc--though the store discounts them to $26 for multiple orders.
