nation
ar dealers fight for
survival of the fittest
Liquid seaweed
ups crop yields
THE BATTALION Page 7
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1980
/eeks. I thoughttk:!
[ was willing to tit
I turned out to her.:
ic of the samepe*
w is premature ini Jj United Press lnt e rnat i ona i
cces , s ', I American car dealers are fighting
lated the question fof surviva i.
made the decisioMf , Stunned by in fl a tion they are
,t of the company.li^j r a m bli n g to scratch out profits and
nxious to goon Inert hoping an economic rebound will
re not 100percent^p Ut tbe nation’s stumbling automo-
it of them had experii (j ve industry back on the right track,
■uns. SittingdowMi*£) ou b] e _ d igit inflation has crip-
loing a show nigk; pj ed t he nation’s automobile dealers
lovel for a lot of t faking ^ more expensive to run a
e-excite them, showroom at a time when the econo-
she would not bt m j c squeeze is forcing many people
: show s absenceti ou t 0 f the new car market.
ipetiteofTexansto* “The industry’s major problem’s
its return to the g 0 t to be inflation, the increased cost
a year. The overall 0 f j us t doing business. Inflation
play can t be argute affects us just like everyone else, ’’
yed to near capacihs said jerry Dahlinger, general sales
iroadway for almost manager of Swinson Chevrolet in
lominated for sever' Tulsa, Okla.
tted more than Slmiij ^Actually, dealers say inflation has
>f its Broadway, Hot hit retail car sales much harder than
g shows; is addin! other businesses.
• as an already guarfc. jumping interest rates in the last
ccess; and has been year have doubled the cost of main-
il as a movie starring: taining an inventory of gleaming cars
ad Dolly Parton — known in the trade floor plan
hosts. At the same time consumers
arm of the showiBed with higher and higher bills at
id Phillips. "Regard! home have become wary of going
s, and they aren t il deep into hock at high intrest rates to
ences have a wont buy a new car.
se they laugh ah iMgi'Let me put it this way. In 1974,
erful earforthefeei our total floor plan expense for the
conveys that in fktyear was $14,300. Last month it was
first touringcompai $16,010,” said Kevin Coffey, vice
ccessful that even president and general manager of
:n, we’ve been it Marty R’s in Garland, a Dallas
suburb.
Automobile sales and housing
Starts, two industries highly depen-
11 Baton accessible interest rates, will
k! | O | \ I p ig the main sources of employment
losses in the nation during the
Broming recession. Econometric
| Forecasting, associated with the
•■■■■■ ■ Brarton School of Business in Phi-
, , , ladelphia, has predicted,
were scheduledtoiie® s j at j ona j Automobile Dealers
y whether the twi ^ ssoc b on President William C.
ugh strength towith^Jenges said dealers are burdened
of the delicate sep as never before by high interest rates
On huge stocks of expensive cars
ns ruled out surgen are no j selling, and it may boil
ekend in hopes the : p own t 0 a matter of survival of the
7 pounds together fittest.
trength to cope takes the very best of every
1 hey have been fi ea j er j us t to make ends meet,’ he
and the clock in; sgjd “The dealers that are on their
intensive care uni toes will adjust to this 'sittihfidh.' v “ '
uley said. Even foreign car dealefS'Shid thy^’
aid if doctors deciiBe being hurt. One reason: the
inability to deliver the cars ordered
because of heightened small car de
mand. Another: lost sales when car
owners ran into the lack of demand
and low prices for large used cars on
trade-in.
Several dealers said they were
forced to lay off people, but others
said they were doing everything pos
sible to avoid layoffs and echoed
Dahlinger’s feeling that “the truth is
we re riding it out. We’re not going
to cut back any more than we have
to.”
“Those shiny new cars you see in
so many dealer’s lots are bought with
borrowed money from a bank at in
terest rates which have gone in a
year’s time from 8 percent to, in
some instances, 16.5 percent,” said
Thomas McKoean, executive .vice
president of the New Hampshire
Auto Dealers Association.
Most dealers contacted around the
nation admitted the high interest
rates combined with the higher
prices of cars had forced them to re
duce their stock.
The high interest rates have had a
devastating effect even in areas with
a strong economy where the national
downturn has not affected consumer
sales.
“Our sales have continued to be
the same at this dealership, but our
costs of keeping inventory and oper
ating costs have just gone skyrocket
high,” aid Richard Rocher, general
sales manager at Gene Messer Ford
in Lubbock. “Prices of floor plan in
terests are just outrageous. It’s tri
pled since 1977.”
New car sales have alsP been dam
pened by the effect of inflation cou
pled with the plummeting value of
large used cars because of the energy
crisis.
Inflation alone, however, is not
totally responsible for keeping peo
ple out of new car showrooms. The
tense international situation seems
to have also had a profound impact
on the buying public, and in turn,
the car dealers.
Thomas Hetzel, owner of Memo
rial AMC-Jeep in Houston, said the
mood of the public was a key ingre
dient in a successful car sales opera
tion.
He said the last recession had little
impact on Houston, but the current
downturn was being felt.
“In ’74, Houston didn’t even miss
a beat. We are missing a few beats in
this one. We’ve got conservatives
from up north who are worried,”
Hetzel said. “But our economy is so
stong and vibrant and so many peo
ple are moving in that it has to con
tinue to go on as opposed to the in
dustrialized northern city where
there are layoffs and everybody gets
scared.
“Milwaukee’s my original home
town. It’s dead up there. They’re not
selling anything. It’s not the weather
up there, it’s the people,” he said,
predicting his lot would double its
Jeep sales in 1980.
Surveys by the trade journal Auto
motive News showed 468 domestic
car dealers went under in 1979, a
dramatic increase from he 96 which
closed their doors in 1978 which
approached the record level of 527
which bit the dust in 1975 in the
wake of the Arab oil embargo.
United Pres International
A new American product emulates
the European farmer’s longtime use
of seaweed to improve crop yield.
William E. Campbell has de
veloped a liquified seaweed concoc
tion for use in the United States. He
says it has increased soybean yields
from 25 percent to 32 percent over
the past three years. He says studies
show his product, called Agriblend,
can trigger similar increases in other
crop yields.
State agriculture officials here
agree the product spurs growth but
are skeptical that it will do all that
Campbell says.
Campbell’s product involves Sar-
gassum, a brown algae found in the
Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina
to Puerto Rico. After harvesting, it is
left to dry in the sun and then diluted
to make a liquid for spraying on
crops.
The result is a product that stimu
lates growth while nutrifying the
soil, he said.
“In seaweed you have over 70
trace elements plus some growth-
stimulating enzymes called cytoki-
mins,’’ he said. The seaweed helps
open the root system of the plant and
thus make it easier for fertilizer to
work, he said, while the trace ele
ments restore needed elements
growing plants draw from the soil.
Field trials show that when one
uses the recommended half gallon of
Agriblend per acre, he said, the in
creased yields can produce an extra
$50 to $60 worth of soybeans per acre
and another $200 to $400 per acre
worth of tomatoes.
A Georgia study showed increased
peach output plus other benefits,
Campbell said. He also said Agrib
lend helps lower water content in the
crop, thus altowing it to stay on the
tree longer before rotting.
Campbell said his firm, Beaufort’s
Aqua-10 Corp., is geared to produce
enough Agriblend to treat 500,000
acres. It is carried by 25 distributors
through much of the Southeast as
well as Minnesota, California and
Mexico.
T, L. Senn, head of Clemson Uni
versity’s horticultural department,
said his 15-20 years of research in
seaweed has left him convinced it
will work as a supplement.
But farmers shouldn’t regard sea
weed as a cheap substitute for ferti
lizer, he said.
“We say fertilizer and seaweed are
a good combination,” he said, “but
seaweed materials themselves con
tain very little nitrogen, phosphorus
or potassium, which is the basis for
most fertilizer.”
Campbell agrees his four-year-old
product cannot replace fertilizer.
But he says it can reduce the amount
of fertilizer needed.
Almanac
United Press International
Today is Monday, Feb. 25, the
56th day of 1980 with 310 to
follow.
The moon is moving toward its
null phase.
The morning star is Saturn.
The evening stars are Mer
cury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
Those born on this day are
under the sign of Pisces.
French painter Pierre Renoir
was born Feb. 25, 1841.
On this date in history:
In 1901, J.P. Morgan formed
the United States Steel Corp. in
New Jersey, to become the na
tion’s first “billion-dollar” enter
prise.
In 1919, Oregon became the
first state to put a tax on gasoline
— 1 percent.
In 1967, American warships
began shelling Vietnam.
In 1975, President Ford
warned Cambodia would soon fall
to the Communists unless Con
gress approved his request for
$222 million in new aid.
A thought for the day: Amer
ican Philosopher William James
said, “There is no more miserable
human being than one in whom
nothing is habitual but indeci-
irgery, the operation
aed by a team ofspeSi
primarily of cardiow
:s. Abdominal specii
e likely to participate
1 officials have refa
on the twins’ chancti
he complexity of tlie|i
ry or what organs tkf
re. An official state®
that doctors had "fe
it separation maybef
■ Caesarean section \(
n, the twins soon
ening heart and brei'i
:s. They were lion
Tiursday on an emerge
arranged by Puerto S
os Romero,
nous donors havel*
s twins’ medical bills'
r parents, Eladio, 3M
1, are unemployed j
s alone are estimate!
e Pleased With
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