The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children. He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter. “She told him, ‘No, I’m paying for it,”’ recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. “He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn’t, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears.” At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn’t afford, especially toys and children’s clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
The latest: a machine that picks your Jell-O
Step up to the vending machine, undergo a facial screening, and get a free Jell-O sample. If you’re an adult with a cell phone, it could be about that easy for the next five weeks at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft is testing a high-tech vending machine that could soon rolled out in grocery stores for the purpose of sampling everything from Oscar Mayer deli meat to Oreos. The offer is for Temptations by Jell-O, the brand’s first product designed specifically for adults. The machine is equipped with technology to determine the age of the person requesting a sample.”
Amazon selling millions of Kindles
For the third week in a row, Amazon.com Inc. has sold more than 1 million Kindles a week. During that time, sales of its Kindle Fire tablet have increased week over week, the e-commerce giant said Thursday. Amazon said its first tablet, the $199 Kindle Fire, is the bestselling, most-gifted and most-wished-for product on the website. Dave Limp, vice president of Amazon’s Kindle division, said the Seattle-based company was building “millions more” tablets to meet the high demand and noted that demand was accelerating. Kindle’s family consists of the Amazon Fire, the $79 Kindle, the $99 Kindle Touch and the $149 Kindle Touch 3G.
Chase making checking easier
Chase is making its checking account easier to understand. The bank said Thursday it will start providing a three-page disclosure that helps consumers quickly identify the key terms of its basic checking account, such as the monthly fee. Chase will be the first major bank to adopt a version of the consumer-friendly disclosure developed by The Pew Charitable Trusts earlier this year. As it stands, Pew says disclosures are often more than 100 pages and bury the fees and terms of most interest to consumers. The model disclosure is just one page and highlights terms such as the ATM withdrawal fee and overdraft policy.
From Herald news services
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