Stores Magazine - December 2007 - (Page 84)

POSTSCRIPT thelastlaugh Driven by Hunger THE THOUGHT of Applebee’s potato skins and chicken fingers can drive a man crazy – or, in the case of a 6-year-old Colorado boy, it can trigger the urge to drive. With his sight set on Applebee’s, the boy snatched the car keys, moved his booster seat from the back seat of his grandmother’s car to the front driver’s seat, then made a go of driving himself to the restaurant. According to news reports, the young Applebee’s enthusiast made it about 75 feet. Unable to take the car out of reverse, he crossed the street and ran into a transformer and communication box, knocking out electricity and phone service to dozens of homes. The boy was uninjured; he got out of the car and told his grandma what happened. Investigators are still trying to figure out how the boy reached the accelerator. largest note in circulation. The largest note ever printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was for $100,000 and pictured Woodrow Wilson. It never appeared in general circulation, and was only used in transactions between Federal Reserve banks. Crummy Cookie THE MESSAGES tucked inside fortune cookies are usually pretty optimistic. That is unless the fortune cookie is made by Wonton Food, a Queens, N.Y., distributor of the ever-present ending to a Chinese meal. Some of the “fortunes” they’ve recently put into circulation include: “Today is a disastrous day. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” “It’s over your head now. Time to get some professional help.” “Your luck is just not there. Attend to practical matters today.” The largest fortune cookie maker in the country, Wonton Food produces about 4.5 million cookies a day. Marketing coordinator Bernard Chow says he didn’t set out to insult anybody; he characterizes the new fortunes as “cautious” rather than negative. “We wanted our fortune cookies to be a little bit more value-added. We wanted to get some different perspective, to write something that is more contemporary.” ©The New Yorker Collection 1999 Mike Twohy from cartoonbank.com. All rights reserved. Change for a Million? IF YOU’RE going to spend counterfeit currency, it might help to use a denomination that actually exists. Apparently that fact escaped Samuel Porter, who handed a $1 million bill to a cashier at a Pittsburgh Giant Eagle supermarket – then flew into a rage when the clerk refused to make change. According to police accounts, Porter walked up to the customer service counter, handed over the bill containing the likeness of Grover Cleveland and asked for change. The cashier refused and called the manager who told the man the bill was not real. Porter asked for it back. Then, when the manager explained the store policy of not returning counterfeit money, Porter flew into a rage, slamming an electronic funds-transfer machine into the counter and reaching for a scanner gun. Police believe the bogus $1 million note may have originated at a Dallas-based ministry that last year distributed thousands of religious pamphlets with a picture of President Grover Cleveland on a $1 million bill. Since 1969, the $100 bill has been the 84 STORES / DECEMBER 2007 WWW.STORES.ORG http://cartoonbank.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Stores Magazine - December 2007

STORES - December 2007 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Holiday Shopping Extravagance What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Niche Marketing Eight Predictions for 2008 Concept2Watch Merchandising Strategy Sourcing E-Commerce Supply Chain Warehouse Management Software Contactless Payments Marketing Marketing Online Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

Stores Magazine - December 2007

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