Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.trends,americast.usa-today.trends From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: trends Wed, Oct 28 1992 Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 04:40:26 EST Message-ID: 10-28 0000 DECISIONLINE: Trends & Marketing USA TODAY Update Oct. 28, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network WESTERNS ARE ON THE HORIZON: The Western is kicking up dust again in Hollywood. A slew of projects are in various stages of development. But they're not all "shoot-'em-up, bang-bang" movies. Director Walter Hill is set to direct a bio-pic about Geronimo for Columbia Pictures. Eddie Murphy Productions is developing a comedy-western for the star; and Columbia Pictures is developing a script about women outlaws. VIDEO VENDING MACHINES EMERGE: The '90s way to rent out top new flicks and tap into a $10.4 billion market - automated video stores. Similar to bank teller machines, the devices spit out videos instead of cash and bill your credit card. Videomatic's RoboClerk, in 14 states including California, North Carolina and Florida, plans 72 new sites next year. Rentals come cheap: $2 to $2.50. HELP IS A WING AWAY: Find-your-own-angel books are floating out of bookstores at amazing rates. A handbook to help us find the angel in ourselves - "The Angel Book," (Simon & Schuster, $17) - is coming out in January. There's an all-angel store in Denver, an angel newsletter in New Jersey and five mail-order companies that specialize only in angel-related goods, including the new Everything Angels. (For more, see special Angel package below.) BLACKS TURNED AWAY FROM LOANS: Blacks continue to be turned down for mortgage loans more than twice as often as whites, the government said Tuesday. Last year, lenders rejected 37.6% of conventional mortgage applications from blacks, vs. the 17.3% rejection rate for whites. The government got the numbers from loan files of 9,358 banks, thrifts, credit unions and mortgage companies under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. TRAVELERS WANT DISCOUNTS: Travelers today have one word for anyone who wants their business: Discount. "All consumers have been trained over recent years to wait for discounts," says Suzanne Cook of the U.S. Travel Data Center in a report to the Travel Industry Association meeting in Washington Wednesday. This devotion to discounting may mean another year of low revenues and slow growth in the industry. MORE SALES MAY BE COMING: Consumers are indeed driven by bargains: A Travel Data Center survey found that 9 million of the 24 million who have bought discount airfares in '92 said they would not have traveled without the cut-rate deal. That could mean more sales on airfares, rail tickets and rooms. The discounts boosted travel this year: The Data Center projects 7% more trips of 100 miles or more for this year. PICASSO OUT, CADOLLE IN: Latest report from Paris on Madonna is she's dumped her fave fragrance by Paloma Picasso and picked up on Cadolle Number Nine. The soft talc scent was invented in 1921 by Marguerite Cadolle, who patented the first brassiere. The perfume can be had at Henri Bendel in New York for $100 bottle. MAIL SHOPPERS LOGGED: The bulk of catalog shoppers are between the age of 25 and 34. That's the finding of Deloitte & Touche in a recent survey. The second-most popular catalog shoppers are between the ages of 35 to 44, followed by ages 45 to 54. VON FURSTENBERG HAS NEW LINE: Sales of designer Diane Von Furstenberg's wrap dress earned her the cover of Newsweek in 1976. Well, she's back with a new '90s line: Silk Assets, a collection of 100% silk crepe de chine designs. She offers three prints: A 16th-century Florentine design, a freehand floral and the "Diane" signature graphics. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON ANGEL: ANGELS PART OF EXHIBIT: Angels are everywhere. There's a multimedia art exhibit, "Visions of Angels," opening Nov. 15 at Nancy Driscoll Gallery in Seacliff, N.Y. "I've always felt I had a guardian angel, so I thought I'd do a tribute to her," Driscoll says. "I think she led me to this space, to opening the gallery last May, and then to finding the artists for this exhibit." PEOPLE SEARCHING FOR HELP: With the economy in decline and social ills on the rise, this is a perfect time for a little heavenly intervention. "The world is in a lot more trouble than it's ever been. People are recognizing their own sense of powerlessness," said Elaine Freeman of Mountainside, N.J., editor of AngelWatch newsletter. "We're not the only race around. There is another race - angels." PEOPLE `NEED TO BELIEVE': Angel sightings are recounted daily, filling talk shows and seminars. Angels change tires on deserted country roads. They can make sure a bus shows up when people really need one. Sophy Burnham, author of the best-selling "Book of Angels," (Ballantine, $10), and its follow-up best seller "Angel Letters" (Ballantine, $10), says, "You need to believe." (End of package.) Trends & Marketing Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM