Will CBS be the one to snap up the Zagat restaurant guide? Tim and Nina Zagat delayed a trip to China to meet with Les Moonves in what CBS rep will only describe as "a very nice lunch." [NYMag]

IT'S PRONOUNCED "FOR SALE" Tim and Nina Zagat's 29-year-old restaurant survey guide company, which began as a two-page typed listing of NYC restaurants compiled by friend's reviews, is up for sale. "Experts" might price it around $200 million. [NYT]

New York shopped and Zagat's listened. The famed guide book's 2006 New York City Shopping guide hits stands today, with the incredible news that New Yorkers love to shop. Oh, and that sales people are almost always huge bitches.

In a city where eggs benedict are guaranteed to be served with a snarl, most shoppers are lucky if the folks at Deisel don't start chucking wedgie boots at our heads. Still, no matter how crowded the streets get, or how truly annoying the tourists clustering in front of stores are, New Yorkers love to throw money around.

More than 70 percent of city residents polled by Zagat's view the time they spend in virtually any kind of a store as a pleasure - not a chore. The biggest complaints are unhelpful salespeople and big crowds - but they're not enough to keep New Yorkers from pulling out their wallets.

They have so much fun, in fact, they don't want to be distracted. Some 63 percent prefer to shop alone.

A few other points of New York shoppers' interets:

• Zagat's proclaimed 2006 the Year of the Celebrity Shop Owner.

• "What's surprising for me was how many new stores there were," said CEO Tim Zagat. "Most of the stores [in the survey] I've never heard of."

• "The quality of merchandise was, on the average, over four points higher [out of a possible 30] than the service, and that service was going down," he said.

• The most popular chain store is Bed Bath & Beyond, followed by Banana Republic, H&M and Sephora.

• Bloomingdale's leads the department stores, followed by Saks, Macy's, Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys.

Bed Bath & Beyond, Sephora, and Bloomies? Yeah, New Yorkers are so cool, hip, unique, original and non-Middle America.

N.Y. LOVES TO SHOP [Braden Keil, New York Post]