Shopping

Just One Eye is more than meets the ... well never mind, no cliche could do it justice. Part luxury boutique, part art gallery, part bricks-and-mortar manifestation of a digital storefront, it stocks the cream of the eclectic crop - including $65 GoFast Inc. T-shirts and $46,400 Jitrois mink hoodies, a century-old Carlo Bugatti throne chair and brand new Blackman Cruz beanbag chairs (each priced well north of $20,000). Uber-luxe destination retail is certainly not a new concept in the City of Angels.

As a heat wave sweeps eastward through much of the United States, residents of the affected cities are bracing for the worst. A few words of advice: Protect your young, your elderly and your residents of bad shopping areas. It's true. People who live in areas without "inviting" businesses are more at risk of dying. A 2006 study published in the American Sociological Review looked at the 1995 heat wave in Chicago and found that mortality rates were higher in areas where businesses were not well tended and leaned toward the bar-and-liquor-store variety.

A Houston consumer electronics concern said it is terminating its shop-by-television operation, citing doubts about "whether the home shopping industry is viable into the 1990s." Entertainment Marketing Inc. said it will terminate its Consumer Discount Network home shopping unit Dec. 21 to stem losses in the division. While the division's sales grew rapidly in the first nine months of 1987 to $6.6 million from $721,591 the year before, losses grew even more quickly.

Grab a cafe au lait at a sidewalk restaurant, see the Eiffel Tower and shop, shop, shop on a holiday tour to Paris. The deal: The four-night Christmas-shopping package, available during November, starts at $978 (airport taxes add $130 more), double occupancy. Included are round-trip airfare from LAX, four nights' accommodations in central Paris, daily breakfast, discount coupons and a Paris map. Reservations: For information, contact Adventure Vacations at (800) 600-5587 or (858)

It's an American ritual as old as the public school system, the annual fall trek to buy new clothes, pencils and paper before the start of the new school year. Members of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Northridge-Chatsworth Rotary Club maintain that new supplies are more than just a luxury: They can also be a part of building a child's self-esteem. And too many Los Angeles children have never known the excitement of the back-to-school shopping trip, they say.

December is the time for shopping and giving--a time when the spirit of giving is often stretched a bit, causing a strain on the budget after the first of the year. For some shoppers, that's OK. Certainly the desire to award family and friends with pricey presents is an honorable trait, but when the well-meaning shopping spree ends in bills that can't be paid or cash flow that stops flowing, it can be a disaster. Indeed, overspending is now being looked upon as an addiction.

In this season of "buy now, pay later" promotions and budget-busting largess, debt counselors warn that bills rung up today can haunt consumers long after the holiday decorations have been put away. "Everybody starts the season with the good intention of not overspending," said Howard Dvorkin, vice president of the Assn. of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies in Fairfax, Va.

It's as American as the post-Thanksgiving stomachache: throwing reason out with the wishbone and stampeding to the nearest mall to help usher in the holiday season. But if the day after turkey day spend-a-thon isn't going away, it can at least go a little smoother. Fully aware that shopping for the holidays can be a colossal headache for many people, area malls plan events and special services to keep customers happy.

By 1:30 a.m. the number of customers at the only 24-hour Good Guys store has dropped off dramatically. There's a ledge of time only hard-core retail vampires choose to leap. One moment there are dozens of shoppers, the next only six or seven wandering past the "toys and distractions," as one salesman calls the TVs, cameras, phones, computers, boomboxes and stereos. "After 1 a.m.