national
Hometown grocery battling
Dallas name-brand chains
Group says Americans pay
too much for their insurance
United Press International
COPPELL — On Feb. 12,
1932, five brothers and a sister
opened the doors of the first
Minyard grocery store on Lind-
sley Avenue in East Dallas.
That store is still there, still
family-owned but now one of an
ever-growing string of 53, suc
cessfully slugging it out with the
national chains for a share of the
Dallas-Fort Worth food market.
Minyard Food Stores Inc.
opened three new stores in its
1981 fiscal year and in August
moved into a new complex of
offices and warehouses totaling
400,000 square feet on a 65-acre
site in Coppell, by the northeast
corner of DFW Airport.
Sales of the 50-year-old su-
ermarket chain were between
250 million and $300 million in
1981, vice president Lisbeth
“Liz” Minyard said.
“We’re not very small,” she
said. “I think sometimes we’re
one of the best-guarded secrets
in Dallas.”
Because the chain is privately
held, profit figures are not re
ported. But Miss Minyard said:
“In the supermarket business,
your goal is to make 1 percent
profit on your sales. If you make
1 percent, you’ve had a good
year.”
The Minyard stores had a
good year in 1981, she said.
Over the years, ownership of
Minyard Food Stores has
evolved to five family members.
Two of the original founders re
main: M.T. “Buddy” Minyard,
the chairman of the board, and
his sister, Fay, who is secretary-
treasurer. Their nephew, Bob
Minyard, is president. Lisbeth
and her sister, Gretchen
Minyard Wiilliams, both are vice
presidents and the daughters of
M.T. Minyard.
Gretchen’s husband, J.L. Wil
liams, is a long-time employee of
the firm and serves as executive
vice president in charge of retail
operations.
The firm’s goal is to grow by
an average of three to five stores
each year. Expansion is financed
out of operating funds. The
chain almost never borrowed
Texaco to close
two oil refineries
United Press International
HOUSTON — Citing declin
ing product demand, Texaco
U.S.A. has announced plans to
close its West Tulsa, Okla., and
Casper, Wyo., refineries em
ploying a total of 600 people.
Texaco officials also said the
refineries, both built before
World War II and with total re
fining capacity of 71,000 barrels
daily, were marginal in operat
ing efficiency.
Annon M. Card, president of
Texaco U.S.A., said Tuesday
that preliminary figures show
petroleum product demand
was down 6.2 percent industry
wide in 1981 and the nation’s
refineries currently are operat
ing at less than 70 percent of
capacity.
Card said Texaco would con
tinue efforts to sell either or
both plants. The company had
said in December it was possible
the plants would be closed.
The company said it was hold
ing discussions with union rep
resentatives about proposed be
nefits to ease the impact of the
plant closings on unionized em
ployees.
“The company has offered
severance benefits more liberal
than those provided under
terms of the recently terminated
labor agreement,” Texaco said.
“In addition, separation prog
rams have been developed and
are being extended to non-
represented employees.”
Man sets ‘possessed’
stuffed animal ablaze
United Press International
SHREVEPORT, La. — A
man who set his teddy bear
ablaze because he thought the
stuffed animal was possessed by
demons and was spying on him
was charged with aggravated
arson, police say.
City Detective Andrew
Franks said Jake Crawford, 28,
was arrested Wednesday morn
ing after police and arson units
responded to a call of a house
fire.
Crawford and his brother,
who was asleep when the blaze
broke out, escaped unharmed.
“Crawford has been charged
with aggrevated arson,’’Franks
said, “but due to his mental con
dition he will be transferred to
the district attorney’s office for a
disposition on whether to prose
cute the case.”
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404 E. University Dr.
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money for expansion purposes
until it obtained $12 million in
loans a few years ago to pay for
its large Coppell facility. Up for
sale now is Minyard’s former
warehouse and headquarters
facility on Cedar Springs near
Dallas’ Love Field Airport.
“We’re interested in increas
ing the number of stores in Tar
rant County and Fort Worth,”
Miss Minyard said. “We have
seven stores in the county, three
in Fort Worth. That’s really not
enough for one market.
“Newspaper advertising is so
important, and it’s difficult to
justify running a double-truck
(two page) ad when you just
have a few stores.”
All expansion will be into
areas that can be served by
trucks based at Coppell.
Minyard now has stores as fat-
south as Waxahachie and Corsi
cana and as far north as Lewis
ville. A few years ago the firm
closed its only Plano location but
Miss Minyard said, “We’ve got to
get back into the Plano market.”
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The av
erage American works 30.4 days
a yearjust to pay for insurance,
and a total of $235 billion is paid
in premiums annually, a con
sumer group said Thursday.
The National Insurance Con
sumer Organization, backed by
Ralph Nader, released a study
that estimates the $235 billion in
premiums amounts to 11.7 per
cent of the country’s disposable
income and computes to $1,025
for each person in the nation.
The group said the $235 bil
lion also is equal to what the
country’s average wage earners
combined will have made so far
this year as of noon Friday.
Robert Hunter, a former fed
eral insurance administrator
who heads the group, said de
spite the investment, the insur
ance system is a “monument to
inefficiency” that usually re
turns only 50 cents to 60 cents
for each $1 of premium income.
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“No other large industry is
totally free from federal anti
trust laws,” he said in a state
ment. “Thus, cartels still set
rates for many companies,
wholesalers (the companies) set
the retailer’s (agent’s) prices and
efficient agents can’t pass along
savings to their clients-j.
anti-rebate laws preventit,
“States have also passed^
making it illegal for lo». :
group auto insurance tol)e t
This noncompetitive ^
needs thorough reform,"
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