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Show heSaltLakeTribune BUSINESS @ MOTLEY FOOL E-2 @ CHARLES JAFFE. E-3 Compiled by Lisa Carricaburu Paper Still Has Proponents Despite Web MHUMBERTO CRUZ E-4 MB RHONDA ABRAMS, E-5S Highway 89 Revisited It makes sense that small-business Dave Smith works out of his Claysmiths sculpting studio in the old Fairview Dairy Association building. He is one of many artisans on U.S.89. professionals and Web-page designers, busycranking out the sites for small businesses selling far and wide, want to get newsletters and other industry information on the Web, right? Wrong, according to a couple recent findings by two consulting companies. The Blue Dolphin Group, a Way- Business owners,artisans _: band togetherto revive land, Mass., direct mail consulting company, found that while growing numbers of people use the Web and email at work,four outoffive business professionals want informationoffline so they can readit at their leisure and file it for reference. Anothersurvey cited by Janet » Thestretch of U.S. 89 slicing through the heart of, Diederichs & Associates, a consulting company based in Chicago, found that pe confirmed Webusers like hard Utah from Fairview to Kanabis the land the interstates forgot. sogeille’, There might be a McDonald’s or twoin the college “town ofEphraim oroneofthe bigger U.S. 89 burgs such oe the next time you are thinking about communicating with a business executive, perhaps paperwill be the best way to make lasting impres- sion. — Gannett News Service Q Out ofLuck as Richfield or Kanab. Butplaces suchas Mt. Pleasant, Marysvale and Panguitch look muchthe waythey did or 50 years ago, when peoplecrisscrossed the state Bob Sorenson runs his own winery, Native Wines, in Mt. Pleasant. onthe two-lane blacktop. While avoiding freeway franchises, and retaining their rural, pioneer-era charm, these towns also find themselves among Utah’s most economically de- pressed. Sanpete, Sevier, Wayne, Garfield, Piute and Kane counties have percapita incomes 25 percentto 40 Research by Andersen Consulting finds that the average store is out of8 percentof items a typical shopper wants at any one time.It adds that, 34 percentofthe time, consumers won’t buy an alternative product, costing the industry $7 billion to $12 billion a year in lostsales. — The WallStreet Journal ‘percentlowerthan therestof thestate. In recent years, potters, winemakers, furniture builders and musical-instrument makers have joined ranchers and small-business owners in trying to eke outa living along U.S.89. In manycases, crafts supplement agricultural incomes. Ed Meyer, a former city managerin Mt. Pleasant, said it is not unusual for families to generate $6,000 to $10,000 in additional income from tourism. “Unemploymentis still high in many of these ar- Qa What’s OK to Ask eas,” said Meyer. College students, recognizing the importance ofa drug-free workplace, are more accepting ofdrug tests during the employmentprocess than they are about having a potential aie checktheir references, according to an online poll by the consulting service KPMG.Thesurvey, in which 392 people participated, asked respondents aboutthe least appropriate part of the hiring process. Forty-two percentsaid reference checking was the least appropriate, with drugtesting cited by 25 percentandpersonality testing named by 23 percent. Eight percentcalled questions about commitmentto the work force andtraveling the least appropriate. — The Associated Press tion of scenery, unusual shops and historic main streets, a groupof small-business owners has forged an Now,in aneffort to take advantage of the combinajtol alliance aroundtheso-called Heritage Highway. Using $300,000 in state funds and banking on the trendofU.S. and foreign travelers seeking “real” experiences away from generic franchises, the Utah Heritage Products Alliance is trying to lure tourists See HIGHWAY89, Page E-7 Residents in towns along U.S..89 hoj more business rolls - way. Dale Peel planes a pine board in his Mt. Pleasant studio. Peel builds authentic Mormon furniture. Qa Skills Shortage Ignorance aboutcareer opportunities is keeping many high school students from becoming engineers,a study by the University ofDetroit Mercy and The Detroit News has found. The study’s findings do not bode well for a profession facing increasing demand forits skills while the numberofengineering school graduates continues to decline. The nation employed 1.3 million engineers in 1996, according tothe latestfigures available from the U.S. Bureau of LaborStatistics. The agency projects.the demandfor engineers will rise 18.1 percent between 1996 and 2006. Meanwhile, undergraduate engineering enrollmentin the United States declined 19 percent from a high of441,205 students in 1983 to 356,177 students 13 years later, said the National Science Foundation. — The Detroit News Q Foodfor Thought Mike at Purdue University. The new requirements, according to Boehlje, are “knowledge, information and relationships.” Just like every other profession. — The Chicago Tribune Qa BY PHIL SAHM THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE MURRAY In the vernacular of the steakhouse industry where the Slaymaker GroupInc. gotits start, the Murray restaurant companyis rare and well done. Rare to thrive in an industry where failure comes easy. Welldone in that a single Sizler Alaska, franchises, the Slaymaker Group introduced its own restaurant — Winger’s An American Diner. Today, the company operates 15 Winger’s and has sold nine franchises with plans to sell more. ‘The Slaymaker Group employs nearly 2,000 people in Utah, Idaho, Washington and Arizona. The company gave upits Sizzler franchises abouta decade ago when the steakhouse chain moved to a buffet “food court” style of service, a concept the Slaymakers did notlike. Slaymaker Group's success, whether in the franchises it owns oe Sieh Bells eomna fromm fous. ing on the basics — serving the quality offood customers want and providing the service to keep them coming back, Scott Slaymaker says. “You've gotto deliver on the expectations ofyour guests,” he says. Eric’s and Scott's father, Norm Slaymaker, an insurance salesman,started the family restaurant enterprise by opening a Sizzler in Anchorage in 1975. Theelder Slaymakerserved part time as a pilot in the Utah Air National Guard and flew to Alaska in that role. He saw the opportunity for the first Alaskan Sizzler and put together a limited partnership with other investors to open the franchise. A year later, they opened a second Sizzler in Anchorage, which led to franchises in Wyoming and the opening of several Chi-Chi’s Mexican restaurants in other Intermountain states. They sold the Chi-Chi’s restaurants to an Arizona companyin the late 1980s. Norm Slaymaker died in 1995, See WINGER'S, Page E-8 ‘Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tri Regulars tease Winger's server Ana Garrett on Wedniesday. The Bountiful location was the chain's first restaurant. sata Ifyou have alwaysbeen attracted to the physically hard work offarming, that may not be enough fora future job in agriculture.“The farmer of |