Catalogue Engenders Flak

The Price of His Toys found out the hard way that women don’t much view ironing boards and vacuum cleaners as fun gifts.

The small Southern California retailer and mail-order house, which used to sell offbeat toys and gadgets geared primarily to men, recently began devoting a portion of its catalogues to women’s gifts. But whereas the men’s section features page after page of fancy model sports cars, electronic gear, sports equipment, video games--you know, all the fun stuff--the Price of Her Toys section showed women using gadgets designed to make, ugh, housecleaning easier. In the June catalogue, for example, were a fancy ironing board and a vacuum with turbo brush.

Flak from women callers prompted company President Larry Koenig to 1) move the ironing board and vacuum to the men’s section (and later give the ironing board the boot) and 2) show them without women in the pictures.

“We didn’t mean to be derogatory,” Koenig said. But, a bit defensively, he noted that in today’s world, fair or not, it does fall to women to do most household chores.

Obviously. But lots of women wished he wouldn’t rub it in.

It’s a Good-Neighbor Policy

The residents of Rancho Palos Verdes really want a Trader Joe’s, a popular wine and specialty food store, and they don’t care if it means a little noise.

The city’s planning commission approved a permit for the store to open an outlet in the Terraces shopping center on Western Avenue, provided that delivery hours were limited.

When the City Council OKd a conditional-use permit, neighboring residents and other Terraces tenants told the council that they wanted the moderately priced gourmet market in their neighborhood and weren’t concerned about late-night delivery noise.

Michael Parker, Trader Joe’s senior vice president, agreed to council conditions that will limit noise.

“We attempt to be good neighbors,” Parker said of the Pasadena-based firm. “We owe our success to our customers.”