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WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Good morning. With news from Minnesota Public Radio, I'm William Wilcoxen. A state legislator will hold hearings this week on problems facing emergency medical services in Minnesota. Representative Roger Cooper says the majority of ambulance crews are staffed by volunteers.

Cooper says the growing use of managed care and other cost control measures by insurers may threaten their financial viability. Cooper says EMS teams may not get paid in situations that appear to be an emergency but proved not to be once a diagnosis is made.

ROGER COOPER: You're at home or wherever. You think you have a heart attack. First thing you do is you call 911. But instead of a heart attack, it was a gallbladder attack. Well, a heart attack is pretty serious, gallbladder attack, very painful. But it's not an immediate crisis.

WILLIAM WILCOXEN: Cooper says an ambulance crew is neither qualified nor equipped to determine if there is a medical emergency in such situations. Hearings will be held in St. Paul and Mankato today and in Willmar, Duluth, and Perham later this week.

Attendance at the new aquarium at the Mall of America is running ahead of projections. Underwater world is one-month-old today. Its developers had predicted the aquarium would draw about 5,000 visitors a day. But first month attendance averaged more than 6,000.

The US West Communications reports record growth in orders for new telephone lines and new services in Minnesota and 13 other states during the first half of this year. Company officials attribute the growth to the region's strong economy and continued demand for telecommunications services.

Partly sunny skies today, some scattered showers, and thunderstorms developing in the late afternoon and evening. Highs in the upper 60s in the Arrowhead to the middle 80s at Worthington. In the Twin cities, partly cloudy. A few thunderstorms developing by late afternoon, high around 80. And currently in the Twin cities, it's sunny at 68 degrees. That's news from Minnesota Public Radio. I'm William Wilcoxen.

PAULA SCHROEDER: It's 6 minutes past 10 o'clock. I'm Paula Schroeder. And this is Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio.

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Today on our Voices of Minnesota interview, we hear from 82-year-old Curt Carlson. He's a Minnesota businessman, of course, who's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Carlson Companies. That conglomerate includes 100 companies that employs about 130,000 people around the world.

Curt Carlson's business career began when he was growing up in Minneapolis. He had three paper routes. And he was a caddie at the local golf course. His parents came from Sweden. Carlson graduated from a Minneapolis high school. And his first job out of college was selling soap for Procter & Gamble. Then he started Gold Bond trading stamp company.

Now, his businesses include Radisson Hotels worldwide and Carlson Travel Network, among others. Revenues in 1995 totaled $11.6 billion. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson talked with Curt Carlson at the company's headquarters in Minnetonka. Carlson recalled the influence of his mother on the five Carlson children.

CURT CARLSON: When she was 15 years old, she went to work for a preacher of the Methodist faith. And part of the requirements of the job is that she be there for Sunday school and for the sermon and then for the night sermon. And so from being a Lutheran, we now are all Methodists.

DAN OLSON: The family lived pretty comfortably or were times pretty up and down, a lot of economic turmoil?

CURT CARLSON: When you're a little kid playing with everybody else, it's fine. And you don't know if you're rich or poor or in between. My dad always managed to make a living. We always had. My mother used to say, we've always got enough food on the table. We may not have money for a lot of other things. But we'll always have you clothed and food on the table.

So my dad always did-- he was kind of an entrepreneur, started his own grocery store. And it became a good one and quite large for those days. And it was really after he retired that he started to do well in real estate. And he ended up with making enough money so that when he died, we all got $75,000 apiece, the five children.

DAN OLSON: Big money in those times.

CURT CARLSON: Big money. And we were very proud of him.

DAN OLSON: Still and all, I seem to recall a quote. He said something to you. Well, he said, I can't give you the world, but something about I can give you the territory or something like that. How did it go?

CURT CARLSON: Yes. When he was ill and we knew that he wasn't going to live and I was talking with him, he was bragging about the fact that they'd left Sweden. He was a boy. But that his father had come to America.

Now, we trace our ancestors back 300 years over there. It be about 12 generations. And yet we never managed to accumulate capital. They had a farm that they worked. And I think that's the reason they came to America, to better themselves.

So he remembered that. And he says, Curtis, I don't have a lot of money to leave you. But he says, you're going to have the whole United States for your territory, not this salesman. I worked for Procter & Gamble before. And I had South Minneapolis for my territory for selling soap. Now, he said, you're going to have the whole United States because we got over here to America.

DAN OLSON: Were your folks disciplinarians? Were they tough? What kind of people were they like?

CURT CARLSON: My dad was the easiest going person that you can imagine. As a matter of fact, more than once he told me, if I didn't do better, he was going to tell mother on me. My mother was a disciplinarian. We never missed a Sunday, never missed Sunday to be in church. And many a social did we have in our yard to raise money for the church.

DAN OLSON: When you were a young person growing up, were you a good kid who saw immediately, wow, I'm going to pay attention here to what ma and pa tell me, and I'm going to walk the straight and narrow, or were you out there a little bit?

CURT CARLSON: I was out there a little bit.

DAN OLSON: What were you doing?

CURT CARLSON: I did always work. I was assistant to another boy that had a paper out. And one time, the old Minneapolis Journal had a contest on for us to go out and get new customers. And this boy never got any. And I attended the Saturday meetings that we'd have once a month with our supervisor from the paper.

And I asked him if I got him for customers, could I have the route. And he said, you get me four customers and you got it. And I went and got a couple relatives. And I got my four customers. And I got the route, a very good one.

And then when the second one opened, the supervisor-- I asked the supervisor of my brother if I could have it. And he gave me the second route. And then the Country Club was just starting to sprout with a lot of people out in Edina.

And I got a third route. And I had my two brothers carry those. And I paid them for it. And I got a little override. So I had three paper outs going. And then in the summer time, I started a caddy. And I'd get back in time to handle the paper routes.

DAN OLSON: Who had taught you the principles of business? Where did you get this understanding that you could build and hire and delegate?

CURT CARLSON: It's genes. I remember my folks when I wanted to get some money, we never heard of allowances. My mother said that if I wanted spending money like that, there was all kinds of it out there, just go out and earn it.

And I did find that in the depths of the depression-- I am talking now about the early '30s. And that was 25% unemployment in this country then, that there was all kinds of work. The people that I was peddling the papers to, they all wanted their gardens spaded up. They all wanted to have somebody cut their lawns and so forth.

You didn't get a lot of money for it. But labor at that time made $0.25 an hour. So you see, it wasn't a lot of money. But your money went a long ways. So there was a lot of work out there, just like there always is.

DAN OLSON: The depression did not touch a lot of families. Did it touch the Carlson family?

CURT CARLSON: Not that I knew of. We seem to have everything we needed. My mother made donuts. And we had a little route that she had where she sold those donuts to add a little income on her side of the family.

DAN OLSON: A lot of people who would have inherited that amount of money, $75,000, it breaks both ways. Some of them would have been good with it. Some of them would have frittered it away. What did you do with it?

CURT CARLSON: And we never got the $75,000 in cash. It was in real estate. And so over a period of time, we'd sell off a piece or something. And we'd each divide it five ways.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Minnesota businessman Curt Carlson talking with Dan Olson. You're listening to our voices of Minnesota interview on Midmorning. I'm Paula Schroeder. We'll continue with our conversation with Curt Carlson in just a moment. It's 15 minutes past 10 o'clock. Let me give you a quick weather update today.

There are going to be a few thunderstorms developing by midafternoon or early evening in the Twin Cities area and also across the rest of the state as well. High temperatures will be from 68 degrees in the Grand Marais area to 85 in Worthington and Sioux Falls.

In the Twin Cities today, look for a high around 80 degrees. Clearing skies tonight with a low around 60 in the Twin Cities and across the rest of the state. A few thunderstorms possible in Northeastern Minnesota before midnight, lows in the 50s to around 60 degrees. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day tomorrow with partly cloudy skies and highs ranging from 75 to 85 degrees. And in the Twin cities, look for a high tomorrow around 85.

Well, Curt Carlson is reportedly Minnesota's wealthiest individual. He has given $35 million to the University of Minnesota to expand the Carlson School of Management. He's a founding member of the Minnesota Keystone Club, businesses which give 5% of their profits to various causes. We return now to his conversation with Dan Olson.

DAN OLSON: What do you think is the best advice you ever got, the best business advice you ever got?

CURT CARLSON: The best business advice I ever got was that I picked up immediately. That's when I was a fairly young fellow. And one of my customers in the paper route made a statement to me. He had a drugstore.

And it was a very lively drugstore due to his skill in retailing. And he said to me, Curt, I work six days. And instead, I feel that five days is when I stay even. It's the sixth day when I get ahead. And I never forgotten that. And practically, all my life, Saturdays was my day to get ahead.

DAN OLSON: You are a hard driver. You are, I suppose, what they call these days a type A personality.

CURT CARLSON: Maybe part of me would be classified type A because I do drive my people fairly hard. On the other hand, I don't believe there's a company that's got so many people that have been with you 35, 40 years that I have here.

But just think, Dan, and this company that I started, Gold Bond Stamps, that in 40 years, I averaged 33% per year increase for 40 years. I hit my first billion in sales in 1978 and started the business in '38.

DAN OLSON: What is it about human nature-- and this was part of your business start, was the trading stamp business. What is it about human nature that gets caught up in that stamp business?

CURT CARLSON: They used to say that it's something for nothing. And in a way, it is something for nothing because you only do what you're already doing. In the case of those days, your grocery store was always most important. And you always buy groceries.

You always were buying gasoline in those days. There were a lot of cars. And so we had all these people giving stamps, gold bond. Then we added another one called top value. But it's not really something for nothing. Dan, it's something for something. You got to trade with our stores to get them. And if you trade with our stores, you periodically get things out of a catalog with 600 different items in.

DAN OLSON: Interesting thing to me is that some businesses are still giving out stamps. The idea has not gone away.

CURT CARLSON: No, but we're coming back with them, only it's called electronic. And they call it a loyalty program. And I'd say fully 50% of all the banks are having some kind of a loyalty program.

We're just going with Bank of America. And they're going to be giving all their customers if they use their credit card, $0.01 on every dollar they charge on their credit card. And they're going to get travel, travel in the United States and the North American continent, Europe, anyplace in the world. They can save those stamps and get free travel.

DAN OLSON: All right. By comparison, what's the piece of business advice in retrospect that was not good?

CURT CARLSON: I got it. I'm talking about when I first started, I had the order signed up for my Gold Bond Stamp plan. And it was going to take me $850 to print the signs for the stores and for the service stations to hang out that we give gold bond stamps.

So I went to the bank, bank where my dad did business. The man gave me a little lecture. He said, Curt, I've been friends with your family for a long time. And this harebrained scheme that you got and leaving Procter & Gamble, he said, I just don't understand your folks allowing you to do that.

You're with a wonderful company. Everybody's looking for a job today. And you're with Procter & Gamble. They're going ahead. And I'm just going to have to turn you down. I want $1,000 loan. And he said, even though you say you got those orders, it's a harebrained scheme. I think you should try to get back with Procter & Gamble. Now, how do you like that for advice?

DAN OLSON: Well, in a way, I suppose it fits the image, the stereotype of a banker. You've got something in the hand. Don't throw it away for this notion of yours.

CURT CARLSON: That's right. Exactly.

DAN OLSON: And of course, he thought of himself as a friend of the family. He didn't want to have to answer to your mother and father. Look, I think your kid should go ahead and do this, even though he might lose his shirt.

CURT CARLSON: That's right.

DAN OLSON: So you got turned down for a loan?

CURT CARLSON: I got turned down for a loan. But I learned something, that the last people to go to is a bank if you don't have any money. You got to have money to go to a bank. And I went to the guy.

This was all printing. I went to a printer, told him I could be a good customer. If he would do this, I'd have as many to him within 90 days or 120 days. And I'd continue to do business with him. He did the whole thing for me. And I was off and running.

DAN OLSON: You've stuck with business. And you haven't strayed from business. Have you ever wanted to run for public office, be an elected official?

CURT CARLSON: No. I can't imagine anything more thrilling for me than being in business and with integrity. But it's certainly out there that you can make a good living.

DAN OLSON: This, of course, gets at the point that apparently a lot of young people are feeling is that the opportunities that you had as a young man, even with the depression, even being turned down for your first loan, we're told that a lot of young people feel, well, there isn't that kind of opportunity anymore. What do you think?

CURT CARLSON: I don't think there's ever been more opportunity than there is today. The ability to get capital is far easier because not only the banks, but you've got other people that are in the business venture capital. And the economy is expanding compared to one that was more or less stationary. So I think the young people that want to work, that want to work, and my six-day rule, if they follow that, are going to get someplace.

DAN OLSON: Well, I'll take that on with you, the six-day rule. You, of course, had a tightly knit family. You were a unit. And now we're in an age where people are looking at the workweek. And they're saying, six days a week. I have a wife. I have children. That doesn't fit with how I want to live.

CURT CARLSON: You're exactly right. It's not a popular notion. And you can't do that to a whole organization because they do want to work their 40 hours and get out of here, in our case, at 4:30. We only have a half hour for lunch, and then they leave at 4:30. Most of them want that.

But I still have people in this company that are down here on Saturdays. And they work late. You see them go out of here 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock. So it depends. If you want to get ahead that way or live a nice life at home, it's your choice.

DAN OLSON: Was it more fun then or now? I mean, here you are, I'm told Carlson Companies is $11.3, $11.7 billion in revenues for 1995 or whatever. Is it more fun now, or was it more fun back in building gold bond stamps?

CURT CARLSON: I'm 82, as I said before. That up till just lately, I just look forward to coming to work. There's an old saying that if you can find the kind of work you love to do, you'll never work another day in your life.

And that's about the way that I've always felt. But now that I'm getting older, at this age, I'm starting to think about what I got left to do. I want to work for that University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management.

We set a goal for ourselves a few years ago of wanting to make our business school, School of Management, be in the top five public universities of the United States. We thought we could make the Midwest here, the University of Minnesota, comparable to going east to school or going out to Stanford and west to school. And that's our goal.

DAN OLSON: I'm wondering what you think of the students who are coming out. You were an average student at the University of Minnesota. But the product are the young people coming out, graduating with their MBAs of the same kind of entrepreneurial spirit, same kind of opportunity-seeking that you were when you were coming out.

CURT CARLSON: I think they're far smarter than I was when I graduated. They're more sophisticated. The school now is turning down a big share of the students that try to get in, while before, they were hustling students to come to the University. I'm hiring them out of there now.

DAN OLSON: Apparently, Carlson Companies and Curtis Carlson sees a lot of opportunity overseas. You're opening restaurants just about everywhere every week, more hotels, more travel. Is the rest of the world becoming a lot more affluent? And is that where the opportunity is now, is overseas?

CURT CARLSON: You're exactly right. We're opening a lot of hotels, one every four and a half days. We got Fridays that are opening all over and doing better than-- we have the highest average sales per store, TGI Fridays, of any restaurant chain in Russia and Germany and every one of these countries. And now we're opening them fast over in Asia. That's the coming place. And they do more sales than we do here.

DAN OLSON: Will Carlson Companies, as long as Curtis Carlson is around, stay in Minnesota? You're negotiating. You're completing mergers with Wagonlit and, for all I know, others. Will you stay in Minnesota?

CURT CARLSON: I hope so. I'm planning ahead for at least six generations. And I've got my daughter coming up, Marilyn. And she's got a grandson that's with me now, who graduated from Cornell, which is the best hotel school in the country. And he's just doing a phenomenal job for me. I'm so pleased. That gives me two more generations. And then I'd like to see us go on for three more after that at least. I don't think they'll ever leave Minnesota.

DAN OLSON: Is your daughter, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, the person who, along with senior managers, is the person who is running the company now, or are you running the company?

CURT CARLSON: No, I'm still running it. And I'm working harder than ever right now because everything I do now, I have to get it completed so that Marilyn won't have a lot of the odds and ends that I've started. I want to clean them up so that she has a clean company to manage.

DAN OLSON: Is the amassing of wealth pleasing? Does it give you satisfaction, or is it the process of amassing the wealth that is more fun?

CURT CARLSON: The profits are important because they are the scorekeeper, that whether we're doing good to the economy and if we're losing money, then we're not doing good for the economy. So it's just a way of keeping score for my people from what they're producing in the way of profits, and that they should be entitled to more money and advancing in their careers.

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PAULA SCHROEDER: Minnesota businessman Curt Carlson talking with Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson. Our Voices of Minnesota interview series is heard nearly every Monday at this time as part of Midmorning.

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It's 10:30. You're listening to Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Paula Schroeder. Today's programming is sponsored in part by membership contributions from listeners like you. If you've received a membership renewal letter or phone call, please renew your membership today. Thank you for your support of Minnesota Public Radio.

Well, this may be the height of the gardening season. That's why we had Deb Brown in during the first hour of the program. But of course, it's not known as the busiest shopping season of the year. That comes in November, that fabled time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But we all know that we spend money every month of the year to buy groceries and pay the bills. Now, as ever, getting the best deal possible on whatever you buy is a top priority for many people. So joining us today to give us some tips on saving money on everything from checking accounts to landscaping supplies is John Ewalt, who is editor and publisher of Consumer's Best, the consumer newsletter for the Twin Cities. John, it's great to have you back again.

JOHN EWALT: Thanks for having me, Paula.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Your last newsletter focused somewhat on lawn services. And I know that you consulted Deb Brown, who was with us here in the first hour of the program, and asked her, are these a good deal or aren't they? What did you find out?

JOHN EWALT: Well, I was using my own lawn as an example there, which is in pretty sad shape. So I wanted to ask her about lawn care companies. And those are the companies that come out maybe five, six times a year and will do your fertilizing and do the weed control.

And the advice that I got from Deb was that most of that is overkill, so to speak, that you don't want to be fertilizing as much as those companies are recommending, and that instead, you can probably get by with two or three times a year.

And she said that what you can do in that case is ask them if they will do just those fewer applications. And some of those companies, I found, would not, that they want to sell you the entire big package. And so if you just want to do a couple times a year, such as in the spring and in the fall, you may end up doing that yourself.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Did you find any that would come out just a couple times a year?

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, there were a couple. And usually when that happens, they're going to charge you a higher price because it's not a whole package. So whereas you might have gotten an application price of maybe $21 per visit when you buy six, it might go up to $30 if you have them come out just two or three times.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Oh, OK. But it pays to negotiate.

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, it definitely pays. And another thing that she said that was interesting about that was that when you're dealing with these companies, they, of course, will try to sell you their niche. And that niche may be that, well, we only apply the granular fertilizer versus the liquid, or we use all natural products versus the chemicals.

And Deb was interesting. And she said that basically your grass doesn't know the difference. And so if they're charging you a little more for some of those things, it's not automatically a better deal.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah OK. Very good. Well, I want to tell those of you who are listening to us today that John's newsletter, Consumer's Best, covers all kinds of topics. And what he does is usually focus on one or two services or products or stores every time that you put out a newsletter. And they come out every other month.

JOHN EWALT: That's right.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And he has looked at checking accounts, where can he get free checking? What are good deals on home equity loans? He has taken a look recently at grocery stores and at generic brands versus name brands. And gosh, we have the mattress controversy continuing.

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, I'm still not through with that one myself.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Oh, gosh. Well, I'll ask you about that in just a minute. But anyway, those of you who are listening, if you've got questions about any consumer product or maybe deal and how you go about shopping for a good deal, you can call Janelle here at 227-6000 in the Twin Cities, or you can reach us toll free at 1-800-242-2828, 227-6000 or 1-800-242-2828. OK, I brought up the mattress thing. You wanted to have the company make good on its warranty, right?

JOHN EWALT: Yes, exactly. And I found that can be very difficult to do. And many of my readers have been letting me know that that's true as well. And the warranties, one thing you have to be careful about is to get-- if you're buying new, get a nonprorated warranty, which means that if it's a seven-year warranty or a 10-year warranty and if you happen to find a problem after nine years, you're only going to get virtually one year out of 10 of coverage there.

And so by nonprorated, that means that it doesn't matter if it happens in the ninth year, ninth month, you're going to be fully covered for something like that. But what I discovered with my situation-- and I think it's probably true with any mattress company-- is that you may have a problem with the mattress. But they'll come out. And when they do an inspection, they may say, yeah, but I don't see any problem with the box spring.

So even though the mattress companies will say, don't ever just replace the mattress, always replace the whole set. At the same time, you may find yourself having to buy a new box spring because they won't claim it as part of the warranty.

So I'm in the process right now of writing the Simmons Company saying, now, wait a minute, that just is a little bit inconsistent with what you're saying when you're asking people to buy new products here. So we'll see what happens.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Right. Best not to tangle with John Ewalt, I think. I'm also curious about one of your newsletters this winter took a look at checking accounts. And I think that a lot of people are seeing some extra charges being assigned to their monthly statements, seeing higher fees on ATMs.

Maybe free checking isn't exactly free. I don't know how comfortable you are naming institutions. But you said that at your bank, they were going to make free checking not available to existing customers in June. Did that happen?

JOHN EWALT: Yes, it did. Exactly. That was at First Bank. And by the way, I don't mind naming names. That's the whole idea behind my newsletter, of course, is that I do name the names. And don't take any advertising and try not to play any favorites there.

So First Bank did in June raise a lot of their rates. And it was rather shocking. I think it shocked a lot of people who banked there because now you were suddenly being charged to use a teller. And you were having these monthly fees. And we've all seen the big advertisements, totally free checking.

And what's interesting about this market is that you really have three banks getting 75% of the market. And those banks are First Bank, of course, and then TCF, and Norwest. And you still have those other two offering free checking in a sense.

And so I'm really going-- it'll be interesting to see what happens with First Bank and how many customers they're losing-- and I am certainly one of them-- and going to other banks to find what they offer when you're looking for a checking account, of course, it depends on how many checks you write and what your balance is.

But really what I'm hoping for when I'm looking for the best deal is a checking account that has no minimum balance, no monthly fees, free overdraft protection, unlimited check writing and withdrawals, a free ATM card, and hopefully a local branch, which is near my house or near my work. And then if you throw in an initial set of checks free, I'm very happy.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, John, I'm sure a lot of bankers would say, gee, you want to have your cake and eat it, too.

JOHN EWALT: Well, it's not so hard to find that, believe it or not. The one bank that Consumer Reports recommended locally here was a very small bank called Interbank. And I have since opened an account there myself. And I'm very happy with them. What I gave up was having quite a few local branches around town.

And now I also gave up the telephone banking, which you could do through certainly First Bank. But at the same time, I have all of those things that I mentioned with the exception of the local branches. So I can use my ATM card at virtually any location around the Twin Cities and even out of the Twin Cities and not get charged $1 per usage or $3 per usage because it's not a network card.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Of course, I'm sure that the banks, everyone knows that one of the reasons that they're adding on these extra charges is because they're not making any money by offering free checking.

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, they've always made their money off of other things, so they got you in the door with their checking account. But then they made their money through CDs or something like that. It's interesting because if you look at the statistics, for the banks, it's about $0.04 per usage when somebody uses their ATM card versus maybe $0.20 per usage when they write a check.

And so I think people would be very surprised to think that, well, then why am I being charged $1 per usage on my ATM card? So they're still making money. And that was the whole idea behind the ATM cards, was to save the bank's money. And of course, now they're charging the fees higher and higher. So, yeah, there's a profit motive there.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, well, they aren't banking for--

JOHN EWALT: It's not a free service.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, not at All. Not out of the goodness of their heart. Right. Along those same lines, I wanted to ask you about-- I know that you haven't written about this in your newsletter recently. But I had an experience just last week, in fact, where I keep getting all these offers for credit cards with these low interest rates and their introductory rates. And I recognize that.

But I got an offer from my existing credit card company. They had just merged. And so I think that they thought that I was a potential new customer, although I already have that credit card company's credit card.

And I have gone off of the low interest rate. And now I'm up to the 16% or 17%, whatever it is. And they had offered me a 6.9% introductory interest rate. So I called and I said, listen, I've already got a credit card.

Can't I get that low interest rate that you're offering me for a new card? No, can't do that. And I said, so you would rather lose me as a customer than to give me that lower rate? Well, yeah, I'm afraid that's what we have to do. I thought that was very odd.

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, that definitely happens. Although what you're hitting on there is certainly a big point. Dave Beal, in his article yesterday in Sunday's Pioneer Press, talked about negotiating a better deal on your credit card. And just like we talked about with checking accounts, certainly it's a pretty hot market out there now for credit card interest rates.

And you should certainly look at those introductory deals. I think that they can often be a very good deal. And if you can get one for six months or even a year at 5.9, 6.9, I wouldn't think you'd want to pass that by if you're carrying a balance on some of your other cards. If you're not, then it's no big deal.

But at the same time, what you can do is call up your current credit cards. And if your interest rate is hovering around 18%, 21%, you're paying too much, unless you're a very bad credit risk. If you're a pretty good credit risk, you should be able to call them up and say, hey, I'm looking at a deal here right in front of me. And they're offering me 6.9% interest over the next nine months. Is that something that maybe you can match or that you can come close to? And you can certainly call your existing credit cards.

The reality is that most people don't want to go to the trouble of applying for new credit cards, even though you can call some of these other numbers to get the current best deals on credit card interest rates. And that's certainly an option for people.

But most people, I think, one of your best tips immediately would be just to call your current credit card and to say, I'm looking at a better deal here. And what's your best offer? And a lot of times, you can get an interest rate reduction of 6% or more in just a matter of seconds.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Sometimes you can. If you have questions about a product or service that you use or buy, give us a call here in the Twin Cities at 227-6000, or you can reach us toll free at 1-800-242-2828, or maybe you have some shopping tips as well that you can share with the rest of our listeners to Midmorning here today.

We had a caller who couldn't stay on the line. But he wants to know about furnishing his new house and the best way to do that and where to buy furniture. And especially when you've got a whole house to fill up, that can be a very expensive proposition. And I know that you write about furniture quite often in the newsletter, that it's a big purchase.

JOHN EWALT: A very big purchase and high profit margin for the retailers. And so you certainly want to shop around on something like that. But one thing that this caller should be aware of, if he is going to furnish his whole house, is if he wants to try to do it all under one roof, is that he should be talking to a salesperson and asking for some additional discounts, even if he's already getting a discounted price.

If he's spending quite a few thousand dollars, he should be saying, well, can you give me an additional 5% or 10% off just because I'm buying so many pieces? And so that would be one of the first things I would recommend.

Around in the Twin Cities area, I just happened to be going by the Medford Furniture Outlet, which is part of that big shopping outlet experience. And there, I think a good place to start in terms of having a lot of what I would say medium quality merchandise.

And you're going to have a lot of choices under one roof there. Otherwise, locally, I always like to shop some of the places that have outlet stores or outlet rooms. Gabberts certainly has what they call an odds and ends room. And you can save easily 75% over a lot of the items there.

Dayton's has their warehouse on Industrial Boulevard, which is a very good deal for a lot of people. I think some people go there thinking that they're going to see merchandise marked down to practically nothing. And that's not really the case. But you're definitely going to find merchandise, which is probably in very good condition, marked down another 20%, 30% what it was at a sale price at the store.

One of my favorites is the Room and Board Outlet, which is in Golden Valley. That is a great place if you're looking for that type of furniture. So people who like Room and Board, I would certainly check that out. It's only open on the weekends. But go early on Saturday morning. I think they open at 10. And you'll see a line there. That's a very good place.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Where is it?

JOHN EWALT: It's in Golden Valley right off of 55. So Room and Board Outlet.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. Well, what we have done over the years too is, of course, add things. Once every couple of years, you buy a new piece or something. And we've gotten so that we go to one place that we've established a relationship with this particular store and the people in that store. And I think that then you can cut yourself a little bit better deal, too, because you become a regular customer. And that's what we've found.

JOHN EWALT: I think that's a good idea. The people who are shopping the different clearance outlets like me, hopefully you have a pretty good idea of what you want. And a lot of people when they're shopping for furniture find it very difficult to shop piecemeal.

And so your suggestion is an excellent one because if you're just buying something at a clearance shop, hey, you may not have a return policy, so you may be stuck with whatever you buy, in which case, you might get at home and find that it doesn't really match. And you've just spent several hundred dollars that's now not a good purchase.

So I think it's a good idea if you are going to shop the different stores all across town, is to find an interior decorator, maybe somebody who just works independently, not with a specific store, who can go and help you. And they might be charging you an hourly rate. But they'll be more than happy to come along with you. So I think that's a good idea.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And sometimes they can get a deal, too, from the store. So there are a lot of different ways to go on the furniture. We've got callers on the line that we've got to get to. Joe is calling from St. Louis Park. Good morning.

JOE: Good morning. And thank you for taking my call. It's like a roundabout question about the auto repair industry. And I'm sure everybody is groaning now. I've had a lot of trouble with my car, unfortunately. I bought an Escort. Everybody has to make one mistake.

And I had unbelievable amounts of difficulty trying to get, A, the car fixed for a reasonable and honest price, and B, trying to get people who fix my car to honor a warranty. I often find, like, for instance, with the 76 station, I have a fuel pump that has already been replaced after they put the new one in. And now it's gone bad again. And it's still under warranty.

And Amoco Service Care are the absolute worst. There are another bunch of people. It took them almost $2,000 worth of, quote unquote, "repair time" to find something that I finally went to my neighborhood station to. And they fixed it for $50.

Now, whenever I tried to call, for instance, the 76 and the Amoco Service Care so-called customer service lines, I got, well, we don't handle the warranty. You have to call this number. And then this number, well, we don't handle that. You have to call warranty. And I mean, I had people explaining this. I have written letters.

I guess my question would be, is there any way that you can fight something like that? Because now when I need to get this fuel pump replaced again, and then I don't want the same garage to do the work. And they will not give me a refund. Either I have to have the work done there or take them to small claims court. This seems to me to be a travesty.

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, I agree. And you've certainly hit on a very good point, one that I want to reemphasize. And that is that I think when you're dealing with car repair, my advice would be to stay away from a lot of the chains.

I think in that situation you have to realize that it's a churn and burn kind of a thing. And they have to get so many people in the door and get them out of the door. And I've known of a lot of people who have complained about the chains in something like that.

And I think that you're often much better off going with a local or a neighborhood dealer to help you with something like that because they're the ones who are relying on word of mouth. And they're going to go out of business in a hurry if word starts getting around. But it's the chains that advertise that everybody has heard of and figuring, well, they must be good, not automatically so.

In reference to the warranty and getting some satisfaction there, you might want to check with the attorney general. I think persistence often pays off there. And you need to make sure that you're writing to the right people.

I think sometimes you have to make sure to maybe even go right to the top, go to the CEO and write with them. Send your letter by registered mail so that they know that you're serious about something like that. And other than that, I think you're probably doing many of the right things. But just keep it up. And be very persistent about it.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, I know. I have one friend who actually went and picketed a dealer because she was so frustrated with the runaround. And it can be incredibly time-consuming as well.

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, and I think another thing, a preventative maintenance thing to mention here-- she mentioned about her Escort-- is to check some of those resources like Consumer Reports April issue or Jack Gillis's Car Book. And those are excellent resources for knowing a car that's reliable in the first place.

And if you're trying to find a car which is more inexpensive, you still want to go with a car that's reliable. And they can certainly help, I think, save you thousands of dollars over the price of the car for a 10-year period or something like that just by buying something that's got a good reliability record in the first place.

PAULA SCHROEDER: OK. We'll go back to the phones and talk to Pat from Minneapolis. Good morning.

PAT: Hi there. I got a $100 check from AT&T to switch to their long distance. And I'm pretty happy where I'm at. And I'm wondering, is this something you can just-- I mean, they say on here it's for cash, that you can spend any way you like. Can I just switch? And then how much does it cost to switch back? And what do you use for long distance?

JOHN EWALT: Pat, that's a great question. And I'm glad you brought it up because I think that is one thing that people can do and should do. And I say, be as fickle as you can be. And as far as I'm concerned, you're just having these big corporations just at your feet asking you to go and put your business with them and then sending you checks to do that.

Now, I really applaud you because I've never gotten a $100 check before. So either you're just very lucky or else maybe you have quite a long distance bill that they're willing to spend that. But I've gotten a lot of $35 and $50 checks. And I just keep switching back and forth between AT&T and MCI. And it seems like it goes back and forth maybe three months at a time.

It's not a joke. It's not any kind of a gimmick. That's a real check that you can definitely spend. Sometimes what they do is they break it up in half. So they'll say they're going to give you $100. But they give you $50 first. Then they make you stay with them for like four months, and then they'll send you the other 50.

But oftentimes along with that, you can also sometimes make the deal a little sweeter when they telemarket you and say, well, no, I don't think I'm ready to switch. And they'll say, well, why is that? And I have said before, oh, I just don't think your deal is quite good enough yet.

And they'll say, well, how about if we offer you 50% off for the next six months then? I'll say, OK, sold. Just go ahead and send me the paperwork. And so I think those are definitely good deals. In fact, my goal now is to get sprint in there too and have a three-way.

[LAUGHTER]

PAULA SCHROEDER: Hey, I've got to make just a quick point here too that one of my colleagues sent me a message via computer saying Escorts are great. So--

JOHN EWALT: Those are the newer ones too. I think if she has an older one, problematic.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, right. We've only got a minute left here, John. And I wanted to ask you quickly to talk a little bit about generic brands, food products. And I know that you're a big fan of those for saving money, right?

JOHN EWALT: Yes, I think that what was interesting was a recent story that Kevin Berger did on WCCO, where she took a lot of those generic products or the store brands and did a taste test with kids and also with chefs when they actually made something that had all generic products.

I think they made a tuna noodle casserole. And the amazing thing was that they couldn't tell the difference. And I think that proves the point that you can really save a lot of money buying those kinds of generic products.

I think Consumer Reports mentioned that a family of four could save over $2,000 a year by going that way. And so you can certainly try them out. I know some people are a little bit reluctant to try one of the generic products, thinking it's not going to taste as good. But my recommendation there is, well, in that case, just take it back to the store if you don't like the taste of it. They should bring it--

PAULA SCHROEDER: What the heck? If a box of macaroni and cheese is $0.39, it's not going to--

JOHN EWALT: Yeah, exactly. No big deal either.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, quickly, the number two for Consumers Best newsletter for people who want to get that in their own mailbox.

JOHN EWALT: You can call me for a sample issue at 721-2346. And it explains on there that if you just send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope, I will be happy to mail you out a complimentary issue.

PAULA SCHROEDER: All right, 721-2346. John Ewalt, thanks a lot for coming in today.

JOHN EWALT: Thank you.

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PAULA SCHROEDER: Coming up on 6 minutes before 11 o'clock at noon today, call in your best thoughts about Kirby Puckett. It's the talk of Minnesota on midday today. And we're going to send an audio thank you to Kirby Puckett. Right now it's time for Garrison Keillor.

[PIANO MELODY]

GARRISON KEILLOR: And here is the Writer's Almanac for Monday. It's the 15th of July, 1996. It's St. Swithin's Day today. According to legend, if it rains today, it will rain for the next 40 days as well.

Hemingway Days festival begins in Key West, Florida, today with arm wrestling, fishing, Hemingway look-alike contests and a writer's conference. It was on this day in 1938, Howard Hughes and four crewmen completed an around the world flight in a twin-engine Lockheed in three days, 19 hours, and 17 minutes. They cut the former record time in half.

It's the birthday of biochemist Bruce Merrifield, Fort Worth, Texas, 1921, who synthesized chains of amino acids by anchoring the first amino acid to an insoluble solid, a process that made research on hormones and enzymes easier and contributed to manufacturing such drugs as insulin.

It's the birthday of Novelist Iris Murdoch in Dublin, 1919, who wrote many, many novels, including The Bell, A Severed Head, The Black Prince, and The Message to the Planet. It's the birthday of Scottish writer and naturalist Gavin Maxwell, 1914, in Elrig, Scotland, and Hammond Innes, Horsham, England, in 1913. He wrote The Wreck of the Mary Deare and other books.

Lyricist Dorothy Fields in Allenhurst, New Jersey, 1904, wrote many songs, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." It's the birthday of Microbiologist Thomas Francis Jr. in Gas City, Indiana, 1900, who isolated the viruses responsible for influenza A and influenza B and developed a vaccine that worked against both strains.

It's the birthday in Newton, Massachusetts, 1796, of Thomas Bulfinch, an unsuccessful businessman but a passionate student of mythology. He gave us Bulfinch's Mythology. Clement Clark Moore in New York City, 1779, who wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas." And it's the birthday of Rembrandt van Rijn, born in Leiden, Holland, 1606, became the leading portrait painter in Amsterdam when he was quite young.

Here's a poem for today by Erica Jong, "The Raspberries in my Driveway," with an inscription, a quote from Henry David Thoreau, "Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eyes level with her smallest leaf and take an insect view of its plain."

"The raspberries in my driveway have always been here for the whole 11 years I have owned but have not owned this house, yet I have never tasted them before. Always on a plane, always in the arms of man, not God, always too busy, too fretful, too worried to see that all along my driveway are red, red raspberries for me to taste.

Shiny and red without hairs, unlike the berries from the market. Little jewels. I share them with the birds. On one perches a tiny green insect. I blow her off. She flies. I burst the raspberry upon my tongue.

In my solitude, I commune with raspberries, with grasses, with the world. The world was always there before. But where was I? Ah raspberry, if you are so beautiful upon my ready tongue, imagine what wonders lie in store for me."

A poem, "The Raspberries in my Driveway," by Erica Jong from her collection Becoming Light, published by Harper Perennial and used by permission here on the Writer's Almanac for Monday, July 15, made possible by Coles History Group, publishers of Civil War Times Illustrated and other magazines. Be well. Do good work. And keep in touch.

PAULA SCHROEDER: That's Midmorning for today. I'm Paula Schroeder. Thanks a lot for joining us. And have a great day. It's going to be a beauty out there with temperatures in the 60s and 70s across most of Minnesota.

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KEVIN KLING: Hi, you guys. This is Kevin Kling, hoping that you'll listen to my stories on All Things Considered, All Things Considered weekdays at 3 on Minnesota Public Radio, KNOW 91.1.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. It's 72 degrees at KNOW FM 91.1, Minneapolis St. Paul. We could have a few thunderstorms developing in the Twin Cities area by midafternoon or early evening today, otherwise, it'll be partly cloudy with a high around 80 degrees tomorrow, partly cloudy with a high near 85.

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GARY EICHTEN: Good morning. It's 11 o'clock. And this is Midday on Minnesota Public Radio with monitor radio's David Brown in Boston. I'm Gary Eichten in St. Paul. In the news this morning, Russian officials deny that President Boris Yeltsin is ill. Yeltsin today abruptly postponed a meeting in Moscow with Vice President Al Gore, prompting renewed speculation about Yeltsin's health. But a Yeltsin aide says Yeltsin is simply tired.

Former US negotiator Richard Holbrooke has been called back to duty. Holbrooke is meeting today with Serbian President Milosevic, trying to salvage the Dayton Peace Agreement. Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole is coming to Minnesota this week. Dole is scheduled to appear in Minneapolis on Wednesday. A top Dole supporter, New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato said today, the Dole campaign has been marked by serious mistakes.

And a new study says those electronic bug zappers kill the wrong bugs and do little to control mosquitoes or gnats. Those are some of the stories in the news today. Coming up over the noon hour, we'll be composing a thank you letter to Kirby Puckett. And we'd like your help.