STRICTLY BUSINESS: SO WHO NEEDS A REAL PET THESE DAYS?

Move over Poo-Chi, here comes I-Cybie.

Poo-Chi, a robotic pet placed on the market by Hasbro's Tiger Electronics last spring, was a tail-moving, barking family pet. Poo-Chi could be activated by touch or light.

Now, before I even had an opportunity to watch Poo-Chi in action, along comes I-Cybie.

They tell me that I-Cybie is much more sophisticated. It can speak, bark, walk shake your hand and tell night from day.

Hold it, there's more: Just like a real dog, I-Cybie begins as a playful puppy and, through your training, matures into a loyal dog.

If I-Cybie starts wearing down, don't fret. This $150-$200, fully-motorized, dog know when its batteries are low, and will follow an infrared beam back into its recharging base and plug itself in.

What's next?

Let's take a closer look at Cybie, who will debut this spring.

Cybie, by following your voice and/or hand claps, can do tricks and express emotions like fear, anger, happiness, surprise and sadness.

Cybie was introduced last week during the 2001 American International Toy Fair, held in New York.

Cybie will join a number of new electronic pets.

These pets will tell jokes, sing round-robin with their robotic pals, and wake your up when you want.

Ottobot will sing, dance, tell jokes and stump you with trivia questions.

There's Chirpy-Chi, an interactive bird which flaps it wings and chirpas, especially if it runs into Meow-Chi, a cat which can turn its body and head side-to-side and moves its arms and tail back and forth. Meow-Chi loves to sing and belts out as many as eight numbers.

Raptor, a three-foot-long dinosaur, walks, talks, stalks and chomps its jaws.

With toys like these, who needs a real live pet?

Largest grocery chain? Albertson's vs. Kroger

We left some people confused with our statement that Albertson's Inc., was the second-largest grocery chain in the United States, yet had more stores than Kroger, which is acclaimed as the largest grocery chain in the U.S.

Let's look at some numbers for each chain:

Albertson's

The new Albertson's store which opened in Cape Girardeau last week was grocery store number 2,528. The fuel center, which opened here was number 155. Total stores: 2,683.

Albertson's has stores in 37 states, and in 1999, reported total sales of $35.9 billion.

The Cape Girardeau Albertson's store has 56,540 square feet. The fuel center adds another 1,989 square feet for total under-roof space here of 58,529 square feet.

Albertson's was founded in 1939, as a small grocery store in Boise, Idaho. The company now employs more than 220,000 workers, 175 of them in Cape Girardeau.

Kroger

Kroger has 2,338 grocery stores in 31 states and 789 convenience stores. That's 3,127 buildings.

The Kroger Co., which had a store in Cape Girardeau until 18.982, is the largest retail food company in the United States as measured by total annual sales and total buildings.

Kroger was founded in 1883 by Barney Kroger in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Kroger sales topped $43 billion during the last calendar year, with 93 percent of sales in the grocery line.

Kroger occupied the building in Cape Girardeau which now houses the Plaza Galleria ice-skating rink. At the time, the Kroger-Sav center here was the largest store in the Kroger chain of then 1,200 stores, at 55,000 square feet.

University towns best places for job seekers

The best places in the United States to be a job seeker these days area state capitals and university towns, which almost without exceptions have jobless rates among the lowest in their states, and well below national averages.

One city with a very low unemployment rate is Columbia, Mo., home to the University of Missouri, and an unemployment rate of 1.1 percent, far below the unadjusted national average of 4.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics.

And look at Cape Girardeau.

Home to Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau County posted a 2.4 percent unemployment for the year, 2000. And that total was down from the 2.9 percent of 1999.

In 2000, Cape County totals ran from 2.1 percent to 2.5 percent.

Job seekers in cities that are both state capitals and college towns get the best of both worlds. Madison, Wis.., home of the University of Wisconsin, has unemployment rate of about 1.4 percent. The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hills, home to North Carolina State University, and Duke University, host to University of North Carolina, has a jobless rate of 1.8 percent.

Robert Leman, an economic professor at American University, notes that most state capitals are smaller cities, without the unemployment that commonly afflicts larger cities.

As for university towns, Leman says they usually have a workforce that is more highly educated than the national average.