Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Aug 19, 1998

Wide open assembly line

DETROIT (AP) -- No one's about to mistake an auto assembly line for a botanical garden or a gym, but changes in the way automakers get parts from their suppliers are giving some auto plants room to redecorate. Ward's Auto World says a switch from cardboard packaging to compact reusable plastic bins has eliminated piles of discarded materials that accumulated as cars and trucks were assembled. As a result, automakers are using less space and building vehicles more efficiently. So, what to do with the added room? Ward's reports potted plants have started appearing in one Chrysler truck facility. And a small basketball court was installed at a General Motors-Suzuki plant.

Crab cravings go national

NEW YORK (NYT) -- If the volatile stock market makes you dizzy, just be glad you're not a crabber. Though America's coastline and offshore waters boast more varieties of edible crabs than any other part of the world, from year to year supplies plummet, then soar, then plummet and soar again, for reasons known only to nature. Yet there never seems to be enough crab to meet the demand.

"Crab is THE American shellfish," said Clark Wolf, the restaurant consultant. "It has sweetness and richness. Chefs love working with it because it's so versatile and easy." And diners love crab meat so much that they are abandoning regional loyalties and want crab cakes, soft-shell crabs and Dungeness crabs wherever they go. Menu surveys by the National Restaurant Association found shellfish on 91 percent of American menus in 1997, with lobster, crab cakes and soft-shell crabs the top three sellers.

Partly to satisfy this seemingly insatiable hunger for crab in any and all forms in a range of prices, fish markets and restaurants are offering more varieties of crab than ever. Unlike shrimp, crabs are not farmed, so the size of a catch cannot be controlled or predicted. In this decade, the harvest of blue crabs, which inhabit the entire Eastern Seaboard and account for more than half the crabs and crabmeat eaten in this country, has fluctuated by as much as 25 percent from one year to the next.

Across the country, after a long period of abundance, the Dungeness harvest from the Pacific Northwest was down to about 40 million pounds in the 1996-97 season, compared with 72 million pounds the year before. And in Alaskan waters, after years of steady decline, snow crabs made a stunning comeback in 1997.

Don't plan on a hike

NEW YORK (AP) -- The raise you get in 1999 will look a lot like the one you got this year, predicts William M. Mercer, a management consultancy. Mercer surveyed more than 1,500 firms and found that next year's salary increases will average between 4 percent and 4.2 percent, making them virtually identical with the raises workers have been getting in 1998. The company also found that many employers are moving away from traditional annual raises, and are instead using incentive programs to reward employee performance.

Restoring the battlefield

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The fields, fences and woods of Gettysburg would be restored to the way they looked during the Civil War under a $63.5 million proposal -- which would include a new museum and visitor center -- by the National Park Service. The preferred approach for future management of Gettysburg National Military Park needs further review and public comment before it can be adopted.

The 5,700-acre park commemorates the 1863 battle, which helped turn the tide of the war in favor of the North. Park officials have said the new facilities are needed to prevent further deterioration and to better manage an increasing number of visitors. The new center would allow restoration of the part of the battlefield now occupied by the museum, visitor center and park offices.

Many of the farm fields were much smaller at the time of the battle, and were broken up with fences. Under the proposal, nearly 600 acres of woods that have grown since the battle would be cut down, 160 acres of orchards would be grown and 40 miles of missing fence rebuilt. The new facilities would be privately operated under the auspice of the Park Service.

Smaller shoulders

CHICAGO (Bloomberg) -- Amoco's agreement to be bought by rival British Petroleum cost Chicago, the so-called city of big shoulders, another piece of its image as a home to corporate heavyweights. Amoco, from its headquarters towering over the Lake Michigan shore, said last week that it would become part of London-based BP for $48 billion. It joins a list of recently purchased Chicago-based companies such as U.S. Robotics, Waste Management and Inland Steel.

Three of the four biggest publicly traded companies with a downtown Chicago base -- Amoco, Ameritech and First Chicago -- agreed in the past year to be purchased by rivals. The loss of so many major home offices is chipping away at the city's reputation as a center for commerce and heavy industry, chronicled in Frank Sinatra songs and Carl Sandburg poems.

"That bit of poetry disappeared quite a long time ago," said Arnold Weber, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. "All the cliches about being part of global economy were certainly revealed" by the Amoco agreement.