Fur Your Eyes Only

When the stock market dropped 508 points last Monday, the price of a fur coat in Beverly Hills fell $50,000. At least for the day.

For weeks, Somper Fur Couture International on Rodeo Drive has been offering a full-length, one-of-a-kind Russian Belly Lynx coat designed by Christian Dior. As a gimmick, the price was set at 100 times the closing of the Dow Jones industrial average. That means the listed price dropped to $173,874 last Monday from just under $225,000 on Friday, Oct. 16. By last Friday, the price was back up to $195,000.

“When it’s cheap, nobody wants it,” says owner Edd Jacobs. “Psychologically, they can’t afford it.”

There is no buyer yet, but “we have two people still interested,” he said Saturday. “We’ll be watching the market on Monday.”

May I Park Your Cart?

Valet parking, complete with a tuxedoed attendant, is coming to Ralphs supermarket--at least in seaside Dana Point in southern Orange County. But it may cost you.

If you buy $75 worth of groceries at the Dana Point store, it’s free. If not, it will cost $1.50.

Ralphs started the service as a 60-day test Friday to see if it will help ease a parking lot squeeze. The service is offered only during peak hours, and customers still have the option of scrounging around for a spot. If there are enough takers, the same service may be offered at some Ralphs stores in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego and the desert, store director Randy Kruska says. Tips are optional.

Zapping Baby Pumpkins

Funny thing happened last year to those baby pumpkins turning up again in local grocery stores--sales plunged the day after Halloween, said Frieda Caplan of Frieda’s Finest Specialty Produce, which specializes in exotic fruits and vegetables.

“People didn’t realize you could eat them,” she said. “But it’s a delightfully tasty vegetable. It’s not a pumpkin; it’s a squash, sweet as sugar.” Her suggestion: Puncture it and put it in the microwave for three minutes.

Caplan hopes that, once tasted, the mini-pumpkins will find a regular home in produce sections and not disappear from store shelves on Nov. 1.

Also selling briskly this year, she added, are those miniature ears of Indian corn and bright red “strawberry corn”--purely decorative these. However, she added, Utah grower R. J. Rucker of Elwood has a treat in the works. He has produced a strain of pop-able Indian corn.

Bad Break on Wall Street

The topic was the health of Los Angeles-based National Medical Enterprises. But Wall Street analysts seemed more curious about the health of NME Vice President Paul J. Russell.

On an overnight flight to New York earlier this month, he slipped in an airplane restroom and thought that he had merely twisted his ankle. By the time he got to a breakfast meeting, Russell was in a wheelchair. During an afternoon session, his leg was bandaged. And by the next morning, he was wheeled in wearing a cast--with a broken leg. “I didn’t know how serious it was,” said Russell, now working at home most days in Mission Viejo.

Did analysts autograph his cast? Said Russell, “I wouldn’t let anybody near my leg.”

And Bread Will Be $10?

Looking for a house this weekend? Consider this: The UCLA Business Forecasting Project is forecasting that the average price of a new home in California will hit $480,000 by the end of the century.