Not Your
Average Joe's
Speck:Illy compiled by 71.1e Jerusalem Post
—$1 EQUALS 2.9830 NIS (shelcels)- Close Price 3/430/94—
Factor On The Rise
The Bank of Israel's `S,' or
State of the; economy indicator,
rose 0.6 pereent in February,
the central bank's research de-
p artment reported.
The rise reflects a contin-
ued expansion of economic ac
tivity from previous months.
In January, the indicator went
up 0: 7 percent.
Three Army/Navy surplus stores
have their own personalities.
STEVE STEIN STAFF WRITER
0
ne store is on a down-
town street. Another is
in a freestanding build-
ing. The third is in a strip
mall.
That begins the list of subtle
— and not so subtle — differ-
ences between the three Joe's
Army/Navy Surplus stores
owned by the father-and- son
duo of Herman and Jeff Gold-
smith. The company is cele-
brating its 50th year of
operation in 1994.
Besides the Goldsmith fam-
ily, the stores have one other
important common denomina-
tor. They all offer what could be
two Joe's Army/Navy locations.
In Waterford, the focus is on
camping and outdoor equip-
ment. The store also has the
company's largest selection of
outdoor footwear.
The Warren and Waterford
locations are both about 9,000
square feet, while the Royal
Oak store is much smaller at
about 3,500 square feet. But it's
a busy place that attracts much
stop-in traffic because of the
popular restaurants in the area.
"In general, military prod-
ucts are very well made," Jeff
Goldsmith said. "Outdoor
sports enthusiasts often shop
items year-round. Some of our
competitors in the area already
had their spring merchandise
out."
The late Joe Jacobson
founded Joe's Army/Navy in
1944 in downtown Pontiac. The
store sold basic Army/Navy sur-
plus merchandise. Herman
Goldsmith (and a partner he
later bought out) purchased the
operation in 1973, and he later
left Pontiac to open a store at
the current site in Waterford.
Jeff Goldsmith learned the
ropes of the business in the Wa-
terford store, working as a
stockman and sales associate
Retail trade rose 3.4 per-
cent in February, while the
import index fell 1.7 percent.
Other figures showed that
in January the number of ,
salaried jobs in the business
sector fell 0.3 percent, while
industrial production rose 2.1
percent. All figures are sea-
sonally adjusted.
Welding Deal Sea
door of the new 500 mid-size
series car manufactured in
Germany.
Robomatix laser process -
ing systems are currently used
in the manufacture of Gener-
al Motors, Volkswagen and
Opel automobiles worldwide.
Robomatix, founded in
1983, uses laser-based robot-
ic components and on-line
quality assurance systems
based on electronic vision corn-
ponents.
Robomatix Technologies, an
Israeli company which is trad-
ed over the counter in New
York, announced it has signed
an $850,000 contract with
BMW to supply Modulaser, its
on-line laser welding system.
The automobile manufac-
turer will use the laser system
in its new 500 series produc-
tion line.
The system, which will be
supplied in September, will be
used to connect two tangent
sheets of the rear baggage
A Paper Partnership
C Holdings has entered into
a partnership with a Hungar-
ian paper manufacturer, the
Israeli company announced.
C Holdings signed an agree-
ment in principle with the
Hungarian company, which
owns a paper manufacturing
plant and a 100-d-unam plot
which it intends to develop.
The agreement is in the
framework of C Holdings' pol-
icy to operate in Eastern Eu
rope. The company has
already esta.blished a con-
Photo by Daniel Up pitt
:
Jeff and Herman Goldsmith in their Royal Oak store.
considered anti-mainstream
merchandise for outdoor sports
enthusiasts and outdoor work-
ers: Army/Navy surplus, and a
wide selection of non-military
gear.
While carrying that mer-
chandise, each store also has
carved out its own niche based
on demographics and sales. In
trendy downtown Royal Oak,
young shoppers buy a wide se-
lection of outdoor apparel, more
for its current hot fashion state-
ment than its utilitarian pur-
pose.
The Warren store, in a strip
mall close to the GM Tech Cen-
ter, features more high-tech
camping gear than the other
at Army/Navy surplus stores
for this merchandise, which
they can purchase second-hand
at reasonable prices. By also
carrying non-military outdoor
gear, we feel Joe's Army/Navy
provides its customers with
one-stop shopping."
Mr. Goldsmith said cus-
tomers were pouring in at all
three locations during the cold
snap the Detroit area experi-
enced in January and Febru-
ary.
"It went on for three straight
weeks," Mr. Goldsmith said.
"People were buying anything
they could to stay warm. They
knew, because of what we offer,
that we carry cold-weather
on weekends while attending
Oak Park High-School.
After graduating from Oak
Park in 1981 and Michigan
State University with a degree
in purchasing management in
1985, he joined his father in
running the company.
A year later, the Royal Oak
store opened. The expansion
into Warren took place in 1991
following a boom period selling
Desert Storm merchandise.
Among the wide range of fast-
selling items at Joe's
Army/Navy were Israeli gas
masks, U.S. Army cook's caps,
hats, pins, patches and bumper
stickers. ❑
struction company in Russia
and a soft drink manufactur
er in Moscow.
C Holdings completed 1993
with a 83 percent rise in net
profit to NIS 3.3 million from
MS 1.8 million. Revenues
grew to NIS 50.5 million from
NIS 19 million.
C Holdings is involved. in
25 projects, including con-
struction of 2,500 housing
units and about 200,000
square meters of commercial
and industrial space.
Fewer Cars Imported
Some 110,000 new cars were
imported into Israel last year,
a drop of almost eight percent
from the record of 120,000 set
in 1992, the Central Bureau
of Statistics reported.
In its study of the impor-
tance of durable goods to the
country and the territories, the
bureau reported that about
280,000 television sets were
supplied to the Israel market
in 1993, a 13 percent increase
over 1992.
Last year, some 119,000
household washing machines
were supplied, compared to
103,000 the year before, a 15
percent increase and a record.
The bureau also reported
the supply of some 70,000
videotape players, a drop of al-
most 40 percent over the
116,000 in 1992.
Elbit Gains Silver Status
The McDonnell Douglas Corp,
aviation division has given El-
bit a preferential supplier sta-
tus, at the silver rank. A total
of 50 comparties worldwide
hold this status.
At the end of 1991, Mc-
Donnell Douglas decided th re-
duce its list'of suppliers in the
world to 3,000 from 7,000. Ap-
proximately one year ago, El-
bit was chosen to supply
McDonnell Douglas.with'pilot
display systems. The two com-
panies signed a $20 million
supply contract.