Editor's corner

Well, here we are already. It's spring in the northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. Here in the United States, you would think that the world was coming to an end with all the bad news stories in the media about housing foreclosures, the meltdown of the financial markets, rising food and oil prices and the general fear we are in a recession. It's amazing how knee-jerk reactionary the world has become. Perception of the future now shapes our present behavior. If we do end up in a recession, it will really be a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, just as recessions in the past, we will work our way through it, and things will be rosy again.

We have a lot of interesting articles for you in this issue. One, by our guest writer, Frank Price, deals with recession strategies for facilities offering birthday parties. Another is Part 2 of our analysis of the changes that are occurring in how consumers spend their leisure time and money at away-from-home entertainment venues and restaurants. That article takes a look at what we see as some fundamental structural changes occurring that will significantly impact away-from-home entertainment and restaurant spending for the long term.

As always, our coverage of the away-from-home leisure industry is not influenced by the need to keep advertisers happy. We don't accept advertising. We are free to tell it the way we see it, and that's exactly what we do. You won't find this type coverage in any other industry publication, nor will you find any coverage of many of the topics we choose.

We hope you enjoy this issue. Let me know if you have any comments.

Randy White
Editior