Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, December 24, 1999
Stocking up for
the big blast
Naho Hu, 14, left, brother Errol, 5, in the cart, and
their father Robert stopped in at Big Kmart in Iwilei
this morning to pick up some fireworks. They live
in Waimanalo but came into the city to pick up
some special Christmas foods in Chinatown.
McDonald's to make some parents happy
CHICAGO -- Beginning today, McDonald's Corp. began throwing a little something for parents in their kids' Happy Meal bags.The Oak Brook, Ill.-based fast-food chain is launching the McDonald's Ronald Scholars program, a year-long Happy Meal promotion that will give away as much as $1.6 million in scholarship money through the year 2000.
The program will operate simultaneously with McDonald's regularly scheduled Happy Meal toy promotions. In addition to a Happy Meal toy, kids will receive a specially marked game piece containing either an instant-win prize of $25,000 in scholarship money or an educational fun fact.
Through Dec. 30, McDonald's will award seven $25,000 scholarships. Starting in January, the chain will give away four $25,000 scholarships during each of its 15 Happy Meal toy promotions next year.
Online shopping growing rapidly
WASHINGTON -- Online shopping is not yet the choice of a majority of Americans, but almost one in four Internet users prefer to click a mouse this holiday season rather than fight crowds in a store.That's almost double the number of Internet users who said they shopped online last year, according to a CBS-New York Times poll released yesterday.
According to the CBS-Times poll, 23 percent of Internet users said they were shopping online this holiday season, while 72 percent said they were not.
That compares with 13 percent who said they shopped online a year ago, with 86 percent saying they did not.
About one out of 10 Americans said they planned to shop online this holiday season, a slight increase over the percentage that said they shopped online last year.
Just over one in six Americans said they have bought gifts over the Internet this year, according to the poll.
About two-thirds of the Internet shoppers said online shopping was better than regular shopping in a store.