home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=92TT0451>
- <title>
- Mar. 02, 1992: Business Notes:Trinkets
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Mar. 02, 1992 The Angry Voter
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 43
- Business Notes
- TRINKETS
- High-Rolling Minicart
- </hdr><body>
- <p> A tiny gold-plated shopping cart may seem like a bad joke in
- these recessionary times. But to Jamie Reidy, 45, an
- out-of-work Los Angeles comic, it's a dream--or Dreamkeeper,
- as he calls the foot-high cart. Gold-plated (retailing for
- $1,000) or chrome-plated ($85), the cart is selling like
- double-coupon groceries in pricey gift shops and even
- supermarkets in the U.S., Japan and Europe. "Call it the Pet
- Rock of the '90s," cracks Reidy, who conceived this "universal
- image" in 1989 as he wheeled a stray cart in a mall parking lot.
- </p>
- <p> Reidy's minicart sold mostly by word of mouth until he
- found the right check-out line at last year's International Gift
- Fair in New York. Maybe you can't take it to a minimart, but
- with a plastic liner, the chrome-plated version can be used as
- a wine cooler, a salad bowl or even a purse. Reidy says some
- Rolls-Royce dealers give the 24-carat gold-plated model to
- upscale Santas, who use it to deliver a set of car keys. Sales
- so far: 15,000. If you can afford it, check it out.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-