Economy Analysis

General feeling about the nation’s economy was optimistic.

Forecasts suggested that interest & bond coupon rates would fall.

Declining interest rates would draw investor’s fund away from Fixed Income Security market into the Equity Security market.


Company Background

Hop-In Food, incorporated on June 23,1966.started in Roanoke as a single store selling a broad line of foodstuff and convenience items.

since 1966, sales had grown at a 55% annual rate, and by the end of 1966, the company operated 84 stores in two states.

Hop- In Food had grown primarily through the acquisition of established stores rather than by the internal expansion, of the 84 stores operating at the end of 1977, 58 had been acquired.

The company pursued this policy of growth by acquisition because experience had proven both the cost and risk of operating a new store to be generate than those of purchasing an established one.