Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe CHARGE THOSE FRIES Forget about change back from your $5. Fast-food purveyors, among the last all-cash holdouts, have begun experimenting with systems that allow customers to say, "Charge it" as easily as, "I'll take fries with that." Advertisement McDonald's has been testing the concept in the Chicago area and other markets for months, planning to roll out a nationwide program by mid-2003. The latest technology is expected to speed up transactions and fast-food chains are hoping customers will spend more if they don't have to dig around for cash. Subway said since it started dabbling in credit card purchases, transactions have doubled to $9 each on average. McDonald's spokesman Bill Whitman says the system will allow customers to swipe a credit or debit card through a reader, push a button to confirm the transaction, pull the receipt, take their orders and be on their way. No signature required. Advertisement (Thanks to UPI's Marcy Kreiter in Chicago) THANKSGIVING OPEN FOR BUSINESS Sure, people sit down to traditional holiday meals and fill up on turkey and all the trimmings but then there's the rest of the day to fill. Kmart is among the few retailers that plan to get a jumpstart on the shortened holiday shopping season, keeping its doors open on Thursday. Company spokesman Dave Karraker said it's a matter of convenience. The Thanksgiving opening is nothing new for the financially troubled retailer, which has opened on Turkey Day for about a dozen years. Wal-Mart plans to keep more than half its stores closed but will open its supercenters, which also carry groceries so those who forgot the cranberries won't be out of luck. BOOKS CLUBS AGAIN THE RAGE Book clubs are booming as never before in the United States after years of decline. The Book-of-the-Month Club fired its celebrated panel of judges in 1994 as irrelevant in an era of online retailers capable of reaching geographically isolated or lazy book buyers. But last year the club, founded in 1926 as a mail order business, reinstated the judges panel and merged with the Literary Guild. Taking up the slack in advising the public on what books it should be reading in the 1990s was TV personality Oprah Winfrey but when she dropped out, other book clubs were quickly organized by USA Today and such TV shows as "Good Morning America," the "Today" show, and "Live With Regis and Kelly." Advertisement Not to be left out, book publishing firms began forming their own clubs to promote niche interest books. (Thanks to UPI's Fred Winship in New York) SHOPPING WITH PLASTIC Keep one thing in mind when you head out the door the day after Thanksgiving to shop 'til you drop. Never purchase on credit an amount greater than you can pay with your current level of income in the next 45 days. That advice comes from retired federal bankruptcy Judge William L. Norton Jr., who literally wrote the book on bankruptcy law. Also, before you head out, read one more time the fine print on the information sent along with your credit cards -- make sure you know exactly how much interest you'll be paying on unpaid balances.
