Appliances: Fast Food for Singles

As divorce rates rise and young people wait longer to get married, more and more Americans are living and eating alone. Rather than sit down to a feast each night, they often choose to heat and eat a Lean Cuisine or Le Menu frozen dinner. Now comes a convenient appliance in which to cook such solitary repasts: the Half Pint microwave oven. Made by Japan's Sharp Electronics, this compact cooker is small enough (13 in. by 13 in.) to fit snugly into the tiniest studio apartment. It will bake a potato in six minutes, only a tad slower than the four minutes that a typical full-size microwave takes. /

Priced at $129, the Half Pint is selling well to all kinds of customers who are short on kitchen space, from college students living in dormitories to camping enthusiasts who like to have hot meals in their recreational vehicles. "We were completely sold out after Christmas," says Byron Wilson, a microwave-oven sales specialist for the Bamberger's department store in Paramus, N.J. "We've even had to take reservations for future shipments." Since the small oven was introduced in the U.S. seven months ago, Sharp has sold about 250,000 Half Pints, compared with only 50,000 of its most popular full-size microwave.