Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 29, 1993 TAG: 9309290009
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN LEVIN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The aim is to promote mid-day gargles.
Warner-Lambert Co., a Morris Plains, N.J., manufacturer of health-care and other consumer products such as Dentyne gum and Shick razors, is promoting use of its Cool Mint Listerine mouthwash.
But if reaction at Burke's Restaurant in Baltimore is any indication, the idea may not go over well:
"It doesn't fit in with my way of finishing a nice lunch - to fill my mouth full of alcohol and flavoring," said Bill Earle of Oakton, Va. "I figure if you're trying to cover up what you're having for lunch, you may want to re-examine what you're having."
Albert Figinski said ending his meal of sour beef and potato pancakes by gargling didn't seem strange. "Not if you smoke a cigar in between them," he said, puffing a stogie.
\ Holiday catalogs, already in the mail, come with a gift to the merchant, at least for those affiliated with nonprofit organizations. A House-Senate conference committee recently agreed to postpone until Jan. 1 a postage rate increase on publications and other mailings from not-for-profit groups.
When they're implemented, the higher rates are expected to yield $29 million a year for the Postal Service, gradually rising over six years.
Catalog sales units of groups such as the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution and the American Association of Retired Persons have enjoyed lower postal rates than for-profit mail-order merchants.
Beginning next year, rates for the 400,000 groups that hold permits allowing them to conduct mass-mail campaigns at five to seven cents a letter below the rate paid by commercial mailers will increase 4 percent a year. Rates for their publications will climb 2 percent a year, but, more importantly, nonprofit publications that carry more than 10 percent advertising will have to pay commercial postage rates.
Chances are consumers will absorb some of the higher mailing costs.
\ The latest merchant in the catalog business is Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based chain of video rental stores, including several in Western Virginia, will have a catalog in its stores, in time for holiday shopping, featuring a $400 leather jacket embossed with the 20th Century Fox logo, rare videos and other movie-related paraphernalia.
The catalog, called Blockbuster Marquee, will be sold for $2 a copy in Blockbuster stores by November, after a month of test-marketing in Atlanta.
"This catalog is geared to people who are into staying at home and being entertained," said CiCi Kelly, the company's director of catalog sales.
\ The best way to keep kids from watching too much television is to provide another small screen, specifically a computer, claims Fuji Photo Film USA. The Japanese company makes electronic imagining products as well as camera film.
Fuji recently released results of a study that suggests 6- to 17-year-olds watch less television if they have computers at home. The survey, of 341 households, found 91 percent of parents felt computers enhance fundamental skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
But 63 percent admitted it was computer games that are the computer's basic draw for kids.
by CNB