“Crowds? I see nothing. I’m surprised,” retail worker Jeremy Pritchett told FOX 2. “Normally, it’s wrapped all the way around the building. Today: no one.”
That’s the typical ground report from areas all over the country. No one, literally almost no one, is doing any holiday shopping and the traditional Black Friday rush to get deals and discounts just didn’t happen. Financial media are scratching their puzzlers, perplexed with furrowed brows.
Interestingly, almost every financial media outlet is using the same Retail Federation talking point about anticipating an 8% increase in holiday sales this year. Apparently, pretenses must be maintained. Meanwhile, news crews and camera crews are having a desperate time finding any holiday shopping to use as background footage for the claims that sales are strong.
“Look, over there. There’s a person buying something. Oh, wait, no, that’s just an employee dusting the empty cash register.” At a certain point, one would have to believe reality would run head-first into the mass delusional pretending. Maybe this holiday season will be it, maybe not.
Reuters – […] About 166 million people were planning to shop from Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday through this coming “Cyber Monday,” according to the National Retail Federation, almost 8 million more than last year. But with sporadic rain in some parts of the country, stores were less busy than usual on Black Friday.
“Usually at this time of the year you struggle to find parking. This year, I haven’t had an issue getting a parking spot,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser of the NPD Group Inc.
“It’s a lot of social shopping, everybody is only looking to get what they need. There is no sense of urgency,” Cohen added, based on his store checks in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
At the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, there were no lines outside stores. A Toys ‘R’ Us employee was handing out flyers with a list of the Black Friday “door buster” promotions. (read more)
It’s almost Kafkaesque to see how the media are continuing to maintain economic pretenses, yet the reality of a completely collapsed consumer economy is physically staring them in the face.
(Bloomberg) – Activity Light at One San Francisco Mall (4:40 p.m.) – At the Stonestown mall in San Francisco, shoppers were few and far between. The Target and Zara stores were mostly empty, and there was no line for the mall’s Santa Claus. Uniqlo and Apple were the busiest locations, but they still weren’t crowded.
[…] Crowds were thin in the late morning at the Stamford Town Center mall. Kay Jeweler, empty. Safavieh, empty. Only a couple of people waited at the checkout line at Forever 21 and just a few were in line for a purchase at Barnes & Noble.
[…] At a Target store on Chicago’s North Side, the parking lot was barely half full at about 9 a.m. local time. Shoppers were greeted with $3 ornaments and discounted Christmas trees when entering, and the store seemed calm and relatively quiet.
[…] The Macy’s in Stamford, Connecticut, was neat and orderly — maybe a little too neat and orderly on a day associated with shopping chaos. The furniture section was nearly deserted, though there were more shoppers looking at shoes. (read more)
https://twitter.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1596330507390046208
.
CNBC said this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/26/black-friday-online-sales-top-9-billion-in-new-record.html
I’d say CNBC is the most popular site in this thread. Thanks!
Did some Black Friday shopping in Metrowest Boston area. More crowds at mall than I had expected, but I wasn’t circling endlessly to find a parking spot, which is more the normal BF experience. Some cranky pants drivers were beeping their horns a lot to get other drivers moving. But definitely no rush to get gifts.
A few places had lines, not many and not quite the norm. Maybe 75-80% of the norm. I was going to get my daughter a cute pair of slippers at Forever 21, but that line was the longest I’d seen all day, about 40 people! I wasn’t waiting that long for a $20 item.
Only one shop had a line to let people in and it was a snooty Louis Vuitton that had plenty of space in the store, just wanted to keep the illusion of desirability by making people wait to get in apparently.
I also did some online shopping and pre-BF shopping. I was more worried about shortages, so shopped early. And my kids always ask for stuff I can only get online.
I’ve always been a fan of practical gifts so this year is the same as most for us. Hubby and I give our aging parents, siblings and adult children home raised beef and pork for the year. My dad also gets small rifle primers (he reloads and they are hard to find). Our grand daughter is only 6 mo old so she will get some cute cloths. She already has gobs of toys. Nephews are getting 22 and 556 bullets (always a treat for them). Niece, sister and mom are getting a trip to the KC symphony with my daughter and I. We value experiences more than stuff.
I live large…. I went online and bought a bag of birdseed.
Also, I filled the gas tank. Does that count?
We buy birdseed too. Double digit inflation.
When does Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer come on? Heh. I was thinking of the Island of Misfit Toys. Yeah I think that counts. The birds will provide hours of priceless pleasure as thanks.
After reading through this post and everyone’s comments, I have a question. Just how sure is everyone that the $9.12 billion dollars spent online reported by Adobe is factually true?
These days with all the other financial chicanery going on, How would we know whether it is true or not? I gladly admit I question just about any information put out by government, corporations, political parties, or media outlets, but it serves me well to do so.
Even the daily Treasury report of “Debt To the Penny” has turned into a running joke of manipulation, especially when, like now, we are up against the “Debt Limit”. Watch what happens 2 weeks or so after Congress once again raises the Debt Limit and you’ll see the listed debt suddenly explode a few 100 billion dollars with quiet “corrections” made to previous amounts listed.
Supposedly, we are currently only $32-$40 billion under the Debt Limit. The Limit is $31.381 Trillion and on 11/22/22 we were supposedly at $31.348 Trillion– that’s only $32.60 billion away. The debt easily changes up and down that amount in a single day, especially at the middle or end of the month.
The supposed “extraordinary measures” that the Treasury Department says it takes to keep the debt below the limit usually just means they borrow from SS, medicare, and Federal pensions and doesn’t report the true numbers until after the limit is raised. Sometimes they even go back months and change the figures shown at that time.
So yeah, I don’t automatically trust any figure, including the “$9.12 billion spent online on Black Friday”. Again, how do you know it is actually factual and not adjusted?
Just a thought:
Not saying many people are spoiled and unappreciative, but who wants to spend time shopping for a gift, only to get “that face”, and the sulky “thanks”because it’s not expensive or the latest gotta have.
Easier to get a gift card.
Of course, you start to wonder when you can stop altogether giving a present….. but it’s probably just me and not millions of others.
Had to see it for myself as I braved some Amazon returns at 9am Saturday at Kohls. 4 shoppers besides me in the entire store.
Could it also be that people aren’t flocking to the malls because a certain group of people have destroyed them with their bad behavior? Fighting, robberies and shootings have destroyed malls that were once safe and enjoyable to visit.
We need to bring in more illegals to fill all the demand for open retail positions. It should be a priority of the Biden administration for 2023.
Two things: Black Friday began weeks ago, so we all spent our loads during that time.
The next thing is – they say we spent the most ever during that time: 9.2 billion. Inflation or not, the economy’s sky is not falling.
Is that you Jim Cramer?
I went to my main street last night to see the Christmas lights. At 7pm on “Small Business Saturday”, all the mom & pop stores were already closed since 6pm! The national retailers were EMPTY – Apple store had 3 people plus over a dozen workers. Similar for Le Cruset. I should have took a picture…
On any other weekend, the streets are packed and it’s hard to find parking. We contemplated not going as we expected massive crowds.
For past 25+ years, my wife, daughter and I would go shopping at midnight on Black Friday, then collapse by 8am at a diner for breakfast. This year, I stayed home and the girls went out at 1pm on Friday because there was no good ‘door buster’ deals.
This is not going to end well…
Obviously the plan is to cobble together a huge spending bill, let the new gop congress defeat it and then pull the plug on the life support. Voila, those mean Republicans caused the depression.
Bullwhip Effect…
We have a cat on a special prescription diet because of urinary problems. I order it off Amazon so I don’t have to make a 40 mile round trip to the nearest store that sells it. Over the last year the price has gone up every time I ordered it. Today I ordered more and it was $65. Kinda stunned me so I looked up what it cost one year ago. $54, a 20% increase. Pretty sure this reflects the increase in online sales. You’re paying more for everything you normally buy, it’s not that you’re buying more. Scary times ahead in 2023.
Poduct inflation is not the whole picture. Nothing ships for free at Amazon. It’s embedded in the price and shipping costs are much higher.
Definitely, Prime Free Shipping is a marketing gimmick. Whenever I’m in town I check sample prices at the store to compare. One area Amazon can compete is in the food arena, at least compared to far flung small markets like where I live. I wonder sometimes if they aren’t selling food at a loss.
Forex, just over the holiday they had a buy 20, get 10 off SNAP deal. Buy 20 bucks of SNAP food, subtract ten at checkout. Then I use the buy four, get 5% off deal and get two discounts. The savings help pay for the fuel to drive the 40 miles round trip to town, not insignificant these days.
It pays to keep ‘wish lists’ and add copious notes to each item. Really helps track inflation and catch price mistakes and deals, including when shopping in person at the local store.
Who in their right mind wants to drive everywhere just to save a few dollars? Dumb!
Yes, how do you compensate for the time lost driving?
Scary times and I think every middle and lower class person is going to have to make some uncomfortable adjustments. I hate that we have to do this for no good reason, it’s just because the Dems have no idea who to promote a healthy economy.
Promote a healthy economy…..Not their objective.
You can blame the Dems and their enablers in the media and gen Z leftists.
And…the RINOs!
I don’t think the RINOs are to blame for shutting down the oil & gas industry, which is the primary reason for inflation of the cost for everything else. I don’t like them either, but inflation belongs to Joe Biden and the ‘Climate Change’ industry.
RIGHT– ON!!
Try chewy.com
They have been really good to me over the years with my cat’s medications
I too have cat who is on a special urinary cat food. Hills Prescription Diet C/D. I have gone through Chewy.com for just about 3 years. The price of the food has gone up, no doubt. Especially noticeable this year. I’m not sure what you pay on Amazon, but I recommend checking out Chewy.
Thanks, I checked it out and there’s a ‘deal” on the food we buy and it’s $3.00 less than Amazon. I guess I’ll wait until the next order and see if the “deal” price is still in effect.
I’m very pleased with Chewy!!!
I believe Chewy.com is owned by Amazon. You can’t get away from Amazon. They intend to own the worldwide retailing industry.
No, Chewy.com is not associated with or owned by Amazon.com.
Chewy, PetSmart, Office Depot, and a host of other companies are owned by BC Partners, not Amazon.
I wouldn’t know how the stores look since I’ve always hated shopping, *especially* around the holidays. I used mail order catalogs before the internet even existed.
That said, I believe shopping habits have changed since the Covid lockdowns. The mall closest to me has closed up, probably to build more high-density “workforce housing” eyesores.
Amazon trucks zoom up and down our streets every day now. GIANT Amazon warehouses are being built to import goods. What happens when they run out of gasoline and our downtowns are all boarded up?
I will patronize those quaint little mom & pop shops dotting our downtown this holiday season.
Amazon is canceling the construction of many huge warehouses. And not starting permitted buildings. They know!!
I have always avoided stores as much as possible from Thanksgiving through Jan 1 because they are so horribly crowded. I guess not this year!
The mall in my neighborhood was torn down and replaced by an Amazon warehouse. The local dimwit govt and media are getting nervous about why it isn’t opening. Millions are being spent on highway upgrades. The mall begged for just normal maintenance and minor upgrades to no avail.
Just got back from big family Thanksgiving reunion in Bend, Oregon. My observations: BIL and I went to Sportsman’s Warehouse, lines reasonable, nothing out of control, but most buying the loss leaders only, in stock items were plentiful, the big thing was everyone in line for purchasing firearms before the new gun control laws come into play. Take a number and wait, and wait. People brought their lawn chairs to sit inside until they were called. The wait was measured in hours. The other observations were coming back through the Columbia River area with all the windmills…hundreds of them, and maybe only 10% actually spinning despite this is a windy area. Boondoggle, green BS. Nothing more. Also saw a fairly large solar array set up, several acres, but this is Oregon, it is very cloudy. Probably get more juice from a D battery than all that equipment. Saw lots of young morons with weird colored hair sporting metal nose furniture. When the SHTF reality comes it is going to crush these idiots.
“Metal nose furniture” — someone should get royalties for that!
I wonder if the morons live in their parents’ basements. I hope parents turn down the heat and cut off Netflix. lol
The sad thing is that “the useful idiots” probably still won’t learn from the situation and they will continue to hail Biden & the Democrat Socialists. They are so feeble-minded and brainwashed by their Marxist media outlets and social circles that they will continue to blame the crashing economy on “Putin” or “the greedy Capitalists.” It’s interesting that The Greater Idaho Movement is getting stronger. This is a growing number of counties who have voted to secede from OR and take up their lot with Idaho. Godspeed to these people!
Status of The Greater Idaho Movement: https://www.greateridaho.org/the-maps/
For other counties in Blue states that are fortunate enough to be adjacent to Red states, this may be the way to save yourself from the Looney Liberal Marxist governments and growing election fraud where you are. Do it before the Democrats have a supermajority in your state legislature, as the state legislature vote is required for the secession to go through. San Bernadino county CA is trying to secede from CA but it seems doubtful they will succeed at this because, as they are surrounded by Blue, their plan is to try to form a new state, which is a more difficult process dictated by the US Constitution. Plus the CA Democrat supermajority state legislature is not likely to let go of their prey.
Bend is part of the Triad now, ramrodded by Salem. God bless any patriots who are embedded there.
I hope folks don’t buy guns they don’t need out of any panic over the clearly unconstitutional gun proposition (114) that passed. It’ll be struck down, count on it.
I kinda chuckled when it passed that NFA owners would limit their Hitler Zipper to ten rounds in a belt. That would last one zillionth of a second 😀
It is possible to have a court rule the law stands until it is reversed on appeal. That could take time. Its all academic at this point anyway. The state still has to provide some construct that satisfies the law enforcement approval mechanism section of this heinous law, and the leftist government has little motivation to do so in a timely fashion. It takes time to create all that hoop jumping minutiae.
That “metal nose furniture” isn’t decorative, but functional. In the future when owners of Sun River vacation homes need crews to de-contaminate their retreats from the radiation that settled over them from the Portland fireball they can link them on chains nose to nose so they only need to whip the lead serf and all the others will follow.
Speaking of metal, I believe they are creating transhuman armies for which bullets may not prove effective. Maybe we should invest in “panic rooms” comprised of *magnetic* walls to trap any graphene oxide-riddled transhumans who chase us in.
It’s kind of like march of the wooden soldiers, except they’re metallic. Another weapon globalists have at their disposal is high-frequency 5G signal transmission towers.
We really need to keep up with modern warfare if we are to defeat the globalists.
Most notable here was the large police presence in stores and parking lots.
In some cases It seemed there were more police then shoppers……
The large TJX write off for inventory shrinkage may be on display.
It seems like they were bracing for the Leftist Looters? It sounds like you are not in a Blue county that allows looting of stores? Another factor for the lack of shoppers, besides the economy, is that it has become more dangerous to go to malls in the Blue cities where looting is legal, like LA. The looters are sometimes violent toward other shoppers, not just the employees. It’s no wonder retail stores are packing up and leaving these areas.
Quite surprised to have seen this as this community is affluent and generally not a high crime rate city. It is somewhat blue in a more red state. That is why it was a bit of a surprise.
The most disturbing part is watching the media ignore what is happening. I’m 60 years old and I’ve never seen such a bad black Friday. I’m in East Tennessee and the people aren’t buying…..at all.
I live in east Tennessee too. A lot of small businesses have closed down. Donations to food charities are down 40%. It’s really sad. A lot of local farmers are really hurting because of inflation.
Here’s a hint: Friday, goodwill and Salvation Army stores were busy, busy, busy.
Yes! There’s good stuff in those stores, you just have to visit regularly. Also, look for local consignment stores, flea markets, etc. I rarely buy anything new.
The Uniparty seems to get multiple benefits from each “crisis” they create. If retailers are a thing of the past, and they are, it just gives them more “justification” for people needing devices to do shopping when goods are only available online. This plays into their digital currency, social credit score, IRS tracking schemes.
Digital feudalism. The new Gilded Age.
Excellent remark. That had yet to occur to me.
I only shopped on Black Friday once. It was a mistake that I have never repeated.
They spent over 9 billion online tho
Oh yah, I see! Well that’s a good thing otherwise the markets would tank.
$6.00 eggs today.
The story of Russiagate is also the story of the inflation crisis. The misnamed Recovery Act was a corrupt disaster, but, more relevantly for Democrats, it didn’t deliver. Because like Russiagate, it was made up and had Clinton and their allies believe to this day that it is true. The misnamed Recovery Act was a corrupt disaster, but, more relevantly for Democrats. Democrats and their think tank and academic allies refused to admit that the Recovery Act was a mistake. Instead, like all leftists, they insisted that the experiment hadn’t been properly tried. That excuse became the big lie that most people forget, but that the media occasionally kept warm and that Obama administration veterans carried with them into the Biden White House.
Interestingly the current price in dollars of a dozen eggs in Russia is $2.22
https://www.expatistan.com/price/eggs/moscow/USD
At Winco, when groceries are much cheaper I always get brown eggs that are on sale with more competitive over time. These eggs were on sale 2 weeks ago for a lot higher price yet the cheapest available but none for 12 eggs just under $3.00. None for the last month, of 48 eggs when people could buy 24 eggs so no demand. No more brown eggs yesterday – all white and not cheaper. Come to the crunch white eggs will do so for personal consumption – 2 eggs every week though I did not buy any yesterday. I don’t see going in again to just check on egg sales any time soon because I’m only able to get to the store using Uber. Any X’mas gift baking I normally do at the end of Nov each year is being scrapped. I do go through about 200 + eggs every year. Replanning Xmas with with some time/experience shared for a few hours when daughter-in-law comes around. The gift giving will not feature with exchanges of bought stuff. Perhaps a Peking duck – good price at Winco, homemade Peking pastry wrappers, homemade duck sauce and scallion brushes for the pancakes, a cooked veg stuffing, a couple of home style crudite dips using parley, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice for green and tomato salsa for red enough for a few small blanched veg tray, lightly toasted finger baguettes. Maybe a raspberry cake with raspberry puree and homemade raspberry syrup cream cheese frosting. Time I have lots of.
There is no difference between white and brown eggs. They’re just from different breeds of chickens. The difference is between pastured and non-pastured. Pastured is the best, but we’re paying $6 a dozen for those here in the Kansas City area.
Our Aldi was a few cents below $3 for a dozen eggs in Central FL yesterday. A gallon of milk was cheaper than a dozen eggs there.
Today at an Aldi in the Chicago burbs was $4 for a dozen white eggs
In Mexico the price of a dozen eggs in USD is one dollar and 15 cents. Today.
The hard part about tracking food prices in other countries, or even state to state in the U.S. for that matter, is standard of living issues.
When I lived in Ukraine, food was dirt cheap, even good food like steak and caviar, and booze too…. why? Power of the dollar.
OTOH, my girlfriend at the time, she made 150 bucks a month equivalent in Hryvnia as a trauma room doctor at the local hospital. 150 bucks. However, that afforded her a comfortable enough life that she could afford braces for her daughter. Cost of living.
So, when I see eggs in Russia for a couple bucks a dozen I remember what a couple bucks is in rubles and what regular people earn. Things are tough all over for regular folks. I expect a world-wide event and to worsen before any recovery.
Mexico has a huge safety net! It’s called God and family ! Mexico will weather the storm better than USA. For those 2 reasons alone!
Mexico has remittances from ppl in the US sending back $
$4.90 here. wow
3.90
$5.99 Upstate NY; they were S1.99 back in April……can this be sustained?
The sanctions have been a total success. Waiting outside of McDonalds in Moscow to get their weak American morning coffee are five chauffer driven $400,00 Mercedes limos. The streets are awash with Porsches and Ferraris driven by their new rich owners with no fear of being carjacked like they would if they were in NY or LA. The ordinary people have heat in their homes and walk the streets at night with no fear of being caught in a drive by shooting. Where are the homeless? Ceratainly not camped over sidewalk registers trying to survive Winter!
And eggs cost 1/3 of US prices.
Eggs in Russia are not sold by the dozen. If purchased in a carton there are 10 eggs and extra charge for the packaging. Otherwise they are sold loose, bring your own container.
Inside of the Imperial Capital, where Bagpipes and Roberts and McConnell and Biden and Pelosi dwell, all looks perfectly fine. Just keep printing $$$. Let the dweebs in MAGA country eat cake.
Not in the SF Bay Area. The cars were lined up on the freeway for 2 miles to get to the street where there is a huge mall and high end shopping area.
I did the math for 10% inflation. If 9.12 billion is correct then the correct number is $8.29 billion was spent.
Ten percent of $8.29 billion plus $8.29 billion equals $9.12 billion. How much of that was spent on Christmas presents instead of regular purchases remains to be seen.
not true where I live –
1) went shopping on Friday in Oakbrook Illinois and the mall was packed;
parking was crowded; Nordstroms was very busy as well (store where I
spent most of my shopping time with my daughter)
2) outlet mall near Aurora Illinois entrance was shut down because of too
many shoppers; no parking and highway entrance to mall was backed up
for miles- didn’t go personally, heard it on the radio
3) on saturday I had an appointment with Geek squad for laptop repair
and best buy store was very busy in Aurora, Il
That Aurora outlet mall is INSANE! That place is busy all year long, and I’ve driven past there during Christmas shopping season and seen lines of cars on I-88 waiting to get off at the mall exit. 🙂
Interesting going forward as the operating expenses continue to accumulate. Gives new meaning to, “passing on”, as the powers that be, thought the consumer would continue spending.. This will, in due time also hit the budgets, of all governments and employees.
Imho, cities, counties, states, better put the huge Big Box Warehouses on speed dial! They were the ones to allow building of enormous taxpayer funded warehouses, driving Moms & Pops and small retailers out of business.
A record $9.12 billion was spent ONLINE on Black Friday. I haven’t been to a retail store in ages, who does that these days? Just order at home and it shows up at your door.
The only thing I dislike about online shopping is dealing with the boxes. 🙂 It is otherwise fantastic.
I remember I started shopping online in the late 1990’s, maybe 1998? There were few stores then. I used to buy vintage stuff on eBay and it was so much better then because it wasn’t yet flooded with Chinese crap. But it was more difficult to put in a last-minute bid on dial-up. 🙂
Everyone with investments, prepare for what is likely to be a major hit on the markets. The markets aren’t going to like slumping holiday sales.I see the other posts about record online sales. Whew!
Is the propaganda working? By the number of online sales number posts, I’d say it is. We’ll know better after *all* of the holiday shopping numbers are in after Christmas.
Must you begin your comment with an insult?
I’m sorry I wasn’t explicit. It was record online spending for Black Friday which is a good indicator that people are spending for Christmas. Did you read the prior comments? The one directly above mentions “Black Friday”.
You don’t need to trust the comments here, look at the news articles. It is good news.
The empty shopping centers have multiple causes, but not necessarily a reluctance to spend money.
Depending on location in the DFW area, prices for gifts are super high. Probably less stocking stuffers this year. Great selections of everything.
Gasoline was in the high 2$ range and that was a shock (expected it higher). But there were less cars on the road traveling to grandma’s house.
Friday: As far as shoppers, there were crowds. Grapevine Main street was as festive as ever. Stores packed, lines at check out.
Inflation is alleged to be 8+%.
So financial media outlets claim 8% increase in sales. Gross sales amount
or # of items sold?
They’re comparing dollars spent. Gross sales numbers. If gross sales dollars are up 8% year on year and inflation in the sector is also 8%, then it’s a wash, forex. IMO we’ll know better, if we’re interested, in another month or so.
In Aurora IL and I think some other city in the Chicago area they are revitalizing shopping centers buy creating apartments attached to the centers. I can’t remember if they are using some of the big box space or creating new structures, I think it’s a combo. So people who live in the apartments don’t even need to walk outside to get into the shopping center. I think it’s a good idea, it’s kind of like living downtown just steps from all of the shopping and restaurants. If I were still renting and lived in one of those suburbs I would totally rent there.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/hundreds-of-apartments-now-available-at-fox-valley-mall/ In this case, the Fox Valley Mall, the apartments were built where the old Sears store was positioned.
“You will own nothing and be happy.”
That’s the essence of these combo structures. Can pretty much guarantee there’s metro service a few yards away from each entrance of the building. Hence, no personal wheels required. If you do have wheels, parking in the buildings is ridiculously expensive. Street parking is three or four blocks away.
The metro service not only goes to a city’s downtown business section, but to universities/colleges as well.
If people are content to live in these communities, they’ll stop striving to own property.
That said, BlackRock appreciates your enthusiastic vote of confidence. The goal is to get everyone into these communities. So much easier to control future lockdowns.
I’m not sure which fictional script to follow now. I’m calling BS on the “burgeoning warehouses” of consumer goods to be sold at deep discounts. I followed two items for purchase and on the Friday morning, the prices of both went up. The junk on sale was no-name one-star reviewed junk.
Don’t forget, there’s also the cloud of a potential railroad strike.
Best Buy on Saturday was empty, no wait in line, good sale prices. I had been afraid of their usual pandemonium, but the parking lot had maybe 15 cars. The only parking lot I saw with a good number of cars (maybe 30-40) was the parking lot at Goodwill.
Who has any money left for christmas after joementias 40 year high on inflation has wiped out everybody’s bank accounts and savings just for food,gas and housing . The grinch has got nothing on Joe and his merry band of communists .
After reading news articles and comments about the economy and all the shopping endeavors, I began to reminisce.
My mother was born and grew up in the US depression. She passed along stories about how her parents could only give the children an orange, apple and piece of stick candy in their stockings on Christmas morn. That was all.
But her parents deeply loved God and the Lord Jesus. That is what brought them through their extreme difficulties and strengthened their faith. It wasn’t the latest, hottest gift from Amazon or the mall that did this.
Now, three and four generations have passed, and none of us from either generation know what it is like to live with such a profound lack.
Maybe many people will awaken to what others have stated they do: get back to the real meaning of Christmas. And to family, community and faith.
Don’t let a lack of funds deter us from enjoying the season, but draw closer together with family and friends, and especially to God.
$9.2 billion in sales online, a new record. People are just tired of the brick and mortar insanity.
Yes, it is a new record, only because of inflation. The sales figure is 2.3% over last year. Considering that inflation is about 8% year over year, that is a substantial DECREASE in online sales as well as a decrease in sales at brick and mortar stores.
We bought a 4 night all inclusive vacation package to Cancun. Huge savings. Viva Mexico
Jeff Bezos told people not to buy anything, hold off buying big ticket items since there are hard times ahead.
Possibly a few people listened.
The most traffic is gas stations right across the state line from the state with high gas prices to the state with lower gas prices, likely due to high gas taxes.
The gas stations are just about always busy, always courteous. People wait their turn, but it’s always real busy.
I don’t know what people with plug in cars do, if there are lower tax plugins or if they’re all the same.
I went by a Costco, and the parking lot still had quite a bit of room.
It could be there’s more shopping opportunities at the big warehouse outlets with lower prices, and you can’t even get into those places without a membership card, not just people coming in off the street.
Also, people are very touchy, so if going shopping, don’t get into arguments over parking, shopping carts, anything.
Target reports to Yahoo news they expect to lose 600 million to shrinkage or organized crime this year, including shoplifting, so their prices go up to cover it.
Rite Aide drug stores also has a shoplifting problem, resulting in closing stores in New York City.
Shoplifting causes the prices to go up, and outright closure of stores.
Crime will do more than just close down individual stores.One of the shopping malls nearby was one of the biggest in the country, but crime became a problem, as well as cruising through the parking lots a few shootings and then people avoided it, stores closed, then the whole thing closed down, was demolished, and there are some individual businesses there now in an attempt to reclaim it, but it was vacant for at least five, maybe ten years, and there’re are two other big malls closing down and they are trying to figure out how to replace them.
This breaks my heart. So many lives ruined and destroyed by the forces of Darkness who have taken control of our country and really most of the world.
Pray like Daniel, that we may be delivered from the lion’s mouth. Only the Lord can fix this.
Amazon is part of the gigantic ant farm system they want us all to live in. For heaven’s sake please don’t shop at Amazon unless there’s literally nowhere else you can get the item.
Because if you do, you are putting friends and neighbors out of work who need the retail jobs!
The media “‘are’ continuing to maintain”……………………..FINALLY!! a journalist who recognizes that the word ‘media’ is plural, and not single!!
Time to schedule some riots to boost inventory movement.