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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-11-18, Page 5Briefly By Jim Beckett A few days ago I read a report in the London Free Press about a judge in Sarnia who granted con- ditional discharges to five people who had been charged with sho- plifting. This action from the judge went against most of my right- wing ideas on how justice should be meted out in this country. My income and liveli- hood depends on retailers making a profit and obviously shoplift- ing is a major problem for many merchants whether they're in Sarnia or Exeter. The immediate reaction was the judge should be criticized for his seemingly light sentences. Why should these people go free? If I were sitting on the bench I could have done a much better job. Justice according to Beckett would be swift and firm with the very fear of com- ing up in front of me enough to discourage anybody who was thinking of taking up crime for a carter. In fact, I stuck with this opin- ion for a few days until I over- heard sports reporter Mark Bis- set ask Yvonne Reynolds, our expert on everything from religion to hatching chickens, what kind of person King Solo- mon was to actually cut a baby in half to settle a dispute be- tween two women claiming to be the child's mother. Yvonne calmed Mark down quite a bit when she assured him Solomon didn't actually cut the child in half ... he only threa- tened to. Our provincial court judge Gary Hunter and our justice of the peace Doug Wedlake aren't usually faced with tough decisions like those thrust upon a king in Biblical times, but nevertheless they have to be fair. Our society frowns on minor crimes like shoplifting and traf- fic violations. But victims like the retailers in Exeter and other towns must be protected. Let's pretend you're the judge on a few imaginary examples. Read the details of the cases carefully and write in your sentence for each crime before you read any further. Case #1. Your store has been losing money for many months due to theft. Chief Hardy has found some of the stolen merchandise and charges are pending against a 15 -year-old who has previously been in- volved in minor vandalism. What would your sentence be? Please write your answer in the spaces below. Case #2. Your child is walking down the sidewalk when suddenly a fast- moving car jumps the curb, striking her and breaking a leg so badly all hopes of that figure skating career you dreamed about are gone forever. The young driver is known to associate with a beer -drinking group of students and admits to having a couple, but is not legally impaired. What is your decision? Case #3. You've been raised to respect life and always have sided against those who argued in favor of abortion. Dr. Henry Morgentaler is in front of you charged with many repeated of- fenses against our laws on abor- tion, the most recent being per- forming an abortion on a healthy person who wants to pursue a career without children. Do you punish Morgentaler or not? Case IA. Chief Hardy rings your doorbell with your 15 -year- old in tow. He's been a handful; He is basically a good child and has only been involved in a few minor scrapes, but now faces a shoplifting charge. He didn't take much but there is no question as to his guilt. Now, what sentence do think would be fair? Case 2A. Your daughter, who has always been a careful driver, has caused fairly serious injury to a young child with your automobile. She hates al- cohol but tells you peer pressure made her let down her guard and have a couple of drinks just be- fore the accident. Your decision could have an effect on her for years to come. What will it be? Case 3A. Your daughter has just qualified to enter a prestig- ious university to study medi- cine. Graduating as valedictori- an, she celebrated with her classmates later that evening and, in an action which was to- tally out of character for her, didn't fight off the advances of her date and became pregnant. Dr. Morgentaler is charged with performing an illegal abortion and your daughter is now free to go back to school and pursue her studies. Do you think Morgen- taler should be punished. These three cases are very sim- plistic examples of the decisions faced by judges every day. Each case has two sides, a victim and, many times, a decent person who has made a mistake. How do you match the punishment to compensate for the crime? A more severe punishment still does not begin to compen- sate most victims, and yet a light slap on the wrist from our judges does nothing to act as a deterrent for other members of our society. Thank heaven I'm not a judge. * * * * Exeter Police chief Larry Har- dy expects a new program de- signed to help young offenders will provide an alternate option to sentencing by judges. The Rebound program was started by Sarnia City Police to help young people who have been caught shoplifting or com- mitting wilful damage. Hardy said, "the program is designed to help first or second offenders only, not the hard core type." The chief said adult volun- teers, possibly from service clubs, will be needed to work with the young people in a room -type setting where the problems can bo discussed. "Our goal is prevention. Rebound will help young people who, if left alone, will cause more seri- ous problems for their commu- nity at a later date," the chief added. If the chief gets his way, his department will be able to offer the young offender a choice of taking the Rebound program in- stead of being charged with an offense. Rebound is a 12 -week course consisting of one pro- gram per week. At the moment, youths who are convicted of doing wilful damage or shoplifting can be sentenced to performing several hours of community work. Har- dy doubts the effectiveness of this as the young people are just looking on it as punishment in- stead of being educated that what they did was wrong. Hardy noted Exeter young peo- ple in general are very good. "Just look at how quiet Hal- lowe'en was. It's just a few who continually seem to be getting into trouble," he said. Shoplifting is a serious crime in Exeter. If we can reduce it we'll be helping people who might graduate to even more se- rious crimes and well be help - the community as well," the ctuef stated. Titles by Adrian Harte Even though the world's electron- ics companies are waging wars over whose video machine format is best, Exeter's video rental stores find themselves far behind the front lines and comfortably filling the needs of area customers. Oscar's Video and Records has re- cently moved from the Valu -Mart plaza to a downtown Main Street location with double the floor space of the former store. "We can carry more titles," says Karen Monck, who along with her husband Dwight, has owned and run Oscar's since March. However, al- though there is now room for more than 1,600 titles, Monck explains that the extra room allowed for the addition of a Granada rental fran- chise. I don't think you can make a liv- ing on just videos," says Monck, citing high costs for new releases and price war competition from va- riety stores. A new movie release usually costs around $89 with a 12 percent federal tax on top, according to Monck, which means that buy- ing 10 copies of a very popular tide will cost the store around $1,000. The expense of video cassettes has led many city stores to impose a small fee for insurance with each rental. Monck admits she has con- sidered this, but credits her custom- ers with being honest and resonable about damaged tapes. She has not yet charged anyone for a damaged cassette. "Most of our customers are regu- lar customers and they're very nice people." Oscar's stocks titles in VHS for- mat only because, as Monck points out, that is what the customers want. "Most people own VHS machines now," says Monck, adding that Os- car's will stock VHS for the forseea- ble future, "unless eight millimetre catches on." Oscar's also provides rentals of VHS and eight millimetre camcor- ders along with VHS players for customers without VCRs. Monck believes video rentals will begin to seriously harm the box of- fices of theatres now that releases are coming to video so quickly. "We've got a release date on Dirty Dancing already," notes Monck of a film presently touring the theatres, but then she concedes rapid release onto pay television will probably harm the video rentals in turn. She is not too concerned by the competition from variety stores such as Mac's, Becker's or Hasty Market, because of their smaller se- lection of titles, but agrees that the Times -Advocate, November 18, 1987 Page 5 key to video underpricing of those rentals, subsi- dized by the variety store sales, is hard on the full-time video stores. However, Monck attributes this all to the realities of business life. "We keep movies in Shaw's in Hensall for the same reason." Patrick Knight, president of,Star Time Video, also has few worries about variety store competition be- cause he.is able to offer customers second and additional movies for 99 cents. He agrees he is the last store in town to charge a membership fee. If he decides to eliminate the membership fee, he may no longer offer top -run titles at the cut rate. "Videos are 90 percent of our business," says Knight, "You've got to have titles, that's the trick." Star Time's Exeter store houses 3,000 titles, and Knight boasts a to- tal of 25,000 titles among Star Time's 25 stores in Huron, Middles- ex, Perth and Lambton counties, in- cluding stores in Lucan, Grand Bend, Zurich and Hensall. Star Time is one of Exeter's few businesses listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and plans to amal- gamate with a western -Canada chain of 35 stores. Star Time buys only VHS titles, has no Beta, and keeps a handful of CED videodisc titles. "A few people still have ma- chines, it's not a large percentage of our business," says Knight. Knight does not want to bring in any new formats to his store unless a large demand arises. "I'm not considering it as an op- tion at this point," says Knight of making popular movies available on laserdisc, eight millimetre, or Super VHS. He sees VHS as a stable format well into the 1990s. "As soon as you have more than one format, production costs go up." Star Time presently spends $700,000 every year on new releas- es for its 25 stores and understanda- bly does not want to duplicate re- leases for different formats. When asked which types of mo- vies prove most popular with cus- tomers, Knight replies that the 'shoot 'em up' videos rent the most often. "Anything with Clint East- wood will go, but a comedy is al- ways good." "You have customers who are in- satiable, they watch everything," explains Knight about the large number of titles which can be classed as B movies. He refers to them as filler to his stock of top - run films. Knight also rents VHS camcor- ders, and sells televisions and stere- os to supplement the rental busi- New family bookstore on Main Street "Selah", a Hebrew word liberally sprinkled throughout the Book of Psalms, means "pause and reflect". That's what Don and Susan Romphf hope people will do as they browse among the well-filled bookshelves and displays of one of Exeter's new- est stores, Sclah Family Books. Besides the Christian -oriented books, study material and Sunday School and church supplies, the store carries cook books, craft books and authors such as L.M. Montgomery. Sclah Family Books also stocks plaques, posters, giftware, and a large assortment of quality greeting cards, as well asmusic tapes. Ac- companiment tapes can be obtained on special order, and future plans call for adding Christian videos to the inventory next year. In addition, Don operates taping and rapid duplication equipment to record speakers at meetings and sup- ply tapes for sale afterward. FAMILY have opened their new cards and giftware along BOOKSTORE Susan and Don Romphf, owners of Selah, store on Main St. N. Exeter to sell books, plaques, with other Christian -oriented materials LIONS DEN - Children have a special nook while parents shop. While mother or dad are shop- ping, youngsters can retreat to The Lion's Den. Here, in a cosy nook designed specifically for little ones, the children can play with lion pup. pets and other toys. "We are here to serve all denomi- nations. Each customer is impor- tant, and we want to serve them, whether by pointing out a helpful book, providing a listening car, or just letting them look around at the titles and plaques and posters while absorbing the atmosphere of our store. We look forward to mcetirig the people", Susan said. The store represents a leap of faith for the Romphfs. For the past five years they had been investigating all that is involved in managing a Christian book store. In June of 1985, Don purchased Selah Mini- stries from a London man who set up book tables at Christian meet- ings, conferences, seminars and similar events. For the next two -and -one-half years Don hauled books all around the countryside while holding down a full-time job at GM Diesel in London. A room in the couple's I1- derton home, their address for the last 15 years, was devoted entirely to -book storage. Last November the Romphfs felt the time had come to devote all their time and energy to operating a book store. They chose to locate in Exeter, "a thriving town with un- limited potential". Don handed in his request for sev- erance in February, effective in May. The Romphfs put their Ilder- ton house up for sale, and bought a home in Exeter. That deal closed in April The ensuing months severely test- ed the Romphfs' faith. All summer they carried the two homes. In mid- August they had a chance to sell their newly purchased Exctcr home, go back to Ilderton and forget all about opening a Christian book store. Instead they hung on, and moved to Exeter two weeks before school began.. Their house in Ilder- ton sold in September. "We learned many lessons about patience and waiting during the summer", Susan recalled. The store opened on schedule on October 19, in part of the former Pryde Monuments showroom and work arca. Building owner Gerry Fergusson did most of the renovat- ing with assistance from his father and father-in-law. Don Romphf and a friend built the book islands and installed the shelving. The store's stock and decor are the result ideas picked up on visits to 27 different Christian book stores. The Romphf family is "very im- pressed" with Exeter. Julie, 14, has already made many friends. Twelve - •year -old Chad has adapted well to the giant step from grade six in a 200 -pupil rural school to grade sev- en classes in South Huron District High School. In the store, Julie is the expert on contemporary Christian music, and Chad is responsible for inventory control, pricing and stocking the card racks. Sclah Family Books will hold its official opening on Saturday, No- vember 21 at 11:00 a.m. Mayor Bruce Shaw and John Penner, direc- tor of the Christian Booksellers As- sociation, will cut the ribbon to- gether. The 26 churches in this arca have been invited to send repre- sentatives to the ceremony. rentals ness. Tammy Beswarick, manager of Mac's Milk in Exeter, realizes that her selection of only .150 titles, which are rotated every two weeks, arc norlikely to seriously compete with the video stores in toyvn. "This is a conveniepce store," says Beswarick, and adds that the idea of picking up a movie along with the household's milk and bread complements the idea of conven- ience. While it is not known what direc- tion home video will follow in years to come, Exeter's video rental outlets appear confident they will be serving their customer's needs, whatever they may be, for years to come. BIG SCREEN- Karen one of the rental Monck of Oscar's Video and Records stands beside televisions that supplements their video rental trade. Video format wars While VHS may presently be the most popular video format today, there exists a veritable alphabet soup of competing formats which all vie for their market share. The first videocassette format was Sony's U -Matic which never gained much of the home market, but remains today as a staple of the commercial market. Sony eventu- ally developed the Beta format using one-half inch tape, but only licensed its production to a handful of Japanese companies. JVCPdeveloped the half-inch VHS format to compete with Beta, and the larger number of compa- nies producing VHS machines have eventually replaced Beta as the most popular home format. Rumors persist that some suppli- ers of home videos will cease pro- duction of Beta releases by this Christmas. The CED videodisc machines are no longer available, nor arc the titles, but the Pioneer laserdisc is building a loyal following because of its superior picture quality to VHS, and because, like a compact disc, it is not subject to mechanical wear. Sony's new eight millimetre for- mat has proven itself as a favorite format for miniature camcorders over the past year, but it has yet to gain popularity among home VCR users. A new item on the horizon is the introduction of Super VHS. These new machines will accept regular VHS cassettes, bat can also record on the Super VHS casseues with superior picture quality, around 400 lines instead of VHS's 240 lines. Unfortunately the new cas- settes will not play on older ma- chines. Sony will also introduce within the next few months ED Beta machines which are claimed to give a 500 tine picture on a high quality monitor. What mayprove to be a hot item in the next fw years is the CDV. It is a compact disc with a few min- utes of video added to it as well as digital audio tracks, but that is another story. 3,000 TITLES- Patrick Knight, of Star Time Video, shows off some of the large number of titles that always thing new on their televisions. help his customers find sgme- nave sr. Tr Sias <iOsoo mase. .10 TAX PLANNING SEMINAR - Robert Stcuhing, vice president of Mutual Trust conducted a seminar on tax planning for pmfcssionals in Ex- eter Wednesday. Steubing, left, is shown with local Mutual Life of Canada representative George Godbolt.