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  • From: "Jason M. Sullivan" <jason AT krazykat.nc.rr.com>
  • To: ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: Ditch the guns II
  • Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 17:34:20 GMT

In article <E6322E3B-0BDD-11D9-BC3F-000A95779C9A AT nc.rr.com>, Duncan Murrell
wrote:
> Amid all this speculation about what aspect of the business supports
> what, Jason helpfully points to an Inc. magazine article about the
> Starlite which lays it out in quick strokes. As far as I can tell,
> here's the business plan:
>
> "The side businesses share space with the box office, projection booth,
> and concession stand in a squat cinder-block building. In an odd
> synergy, each draws customers to the others."
>
> So, can we do away with the idea that one part of the business can be
> automatically isolated from the others, especially since no one seems
> to know for sure what Grove's balance sheet looks like?

Maybe, but it breaks down for me like this: while it's a synergy for the
gun shop and video rental (and flea market, don't forget that) to co-exist
with the Starlite; an 11-acre parking lot is a piss-poor place to run just
a gun store/video rental shop. I mean, that space could be used for
low-income housing or condo farms or something.

We can't quantify how the confluence of businesses affect each other's
bottom lines (imagine the survey designed to do that!), but we can see what
the original intent and use of the location was (drive-in). Reading more
of the article (don't be content without the whole context, go read the
whole thing) gives us this...

"The pair took over the 11-acre theater in 1987 but struggled to keep
box-office receipts apace with expenses, especially in the winter. Over the
years, the two schemed up the gun shop -- essentially two display cases of
firearms, ammo, and accessories -- and a 1,300-title video-rental store."

...which you had to read past to get to your quoted segment. It seems to
speak for itself. Of course they're not inseperable, but the line of
dependency seems obviously one way. While this is (admittedly) a tedious
and (for some) semantic point; I'm making it because I feel like some folks
(well, two) are telling me that there's a choice between closing the
Starlite and having Durham's gutters choked with the gore of innocents.

PS: If you're going to protest gun sales, isn't there a Wal-Mart or K-Mart
nearby that does like 20 times the volume of the Starlite?

--
//// Jason M. SULLIVAN jsullivan AT nc.rr.com
|c-oo http://www.jason0x21.org
\_- "That's not music, that's just sound!" - J. David Fries




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