Business Notes: Trinkets

A tiny gold-plated shopping cart may seem like a bad joke in these recessionary times. But to Jamie Reidy, 45, an out-of-work Los Angeles comic, it's a dream -- or Dreamkeeper, as he calls the foot-high cart. Gold-plated (retailing for $1,000) or chrome-plated ($85), the cart is selling like double-coupon groceries in pricey gift shops and even supermarkets in the U.S., Japan and Europe. "Call it the Pet Rock of the '90s," cracks Reidy, who conceived this "universal image" in 1989 as he wheeled a stray cart in a mall parking lot.

Reidy's minicart sold mostly by word of mouth until he found the right check-out line at last year's International Gift Fair in New York. Maybe you can't take it to a minimart, but with a plastic liner, the chrome-plated version can be used as a wine cooler, a salad bowl or even a purse. Reidy says some Rolls-Royce dealers give the 24-carat gold-plated model to upscale Santas, who use it to deliver a set of car keys. Sales so far: 15,000. If you can afford it, check it out.