The Death Rattle of Retail Sales

Fairfax county is very rich , " The District" is booming from what I understand

There are pockets of wealth all over in this Country , even in Detroit Metro

But most are suffering terribly

This is amazing, I didn't know this about the whopper. What I have noticed is that people can not make a nutritious meal easily any longer because the expense of the ingredients is just too high. It's cheaper to have a meal at Olive Garden that the same meal made at home from scratch. It really is!

I was in Springfield VA , just south of DC, this year and the huge Springfield mall was a morgue. Big box stores gone, smaller shops obviously struggling. Smaller malls were doing well, but the mall that was billed as the largest in VA a few years ago is dead. This is in a working class area, rather than the more professional Fairfax area.

I know GT, I'm in Midland, MI now and I feel it every day.

True, it's always been that way. My parents bought their home for 50K in 1971 now worth over 500K. Hard to believe, just a brick ranch.

You from Texas by chance?

Maybe we are all just saturated with stuff. With only 24 hours in a day, there are only so many books you can read, places you can wear those new shoes, gizmos to play with. Don't we have it all already by now?

Online shopping is fun and easy, but it depends on shipping. Postage rates are going up and so are other shipping rates. When the stores close because people are all shopping online, then we are at the mercy of the shippers.

When the stores close because we shop online, then we won't need the roads and it's a good thing because the taxes that would have paid for them (supposedly, I mean for a while they were doing a good job on the roads, but in recent years they may be using the tax money for something less communal), we didn't pay because we were shopping online to avoid the sales tax.

As long as the electricity (oil, nuclear power, coal, whatever) holds out, we can turn on our computers and have everything delivered individually to our door. But if electric power becomes less extravagently available as it is here and how, we may wish we had kept the stores, roads, etc. going.

I don't know, I really don't. It's just that there are consequences to whatever you choose and I wanted to point those out.

Apple designed on America
Made in China

I sell a custom hand-made personalized item online. Usually in December I have to hustle to make and ship 12 orders.

This December? TWO.

Oh people are buying online and in store but they like to "borrow" it. They use it up and come back and exchange it for a new one. And of course we say "Yes we can" because we don't want to piss off the customer.

I can't say in my neck of the woods that things are bad. Then again, I live in a tourist town with lots of old rich retirees. No vacant box retailers. Mall space under construction, talk of more.

Then again, million-dollar homes are being torn down here to make way for multi-million dollar homes, so this is not indicative of Amurka.

Can't use cash online.

I live in a walking neighborhood and enjoy walking to the grocery and thrift stores. I buy very little, really. Basic essentials. Not much high-tech gadgetry and toys here, so there is little the neighborhood doesn't have to offer.

You sure? Amazon will deliver by airdrop & not UPS?

I provide a personal service. Most years between Xmas & NYE, I do 25-35 of these. This yr... 6.

Yeah. Bezos wants drones. That is so last month's news.

It really is sad to watch America dying....

It is , shelves were bare and what was for sale was half off

Stores and parking lots were also empty

Stores are stocked with non stylish, and cheap garbage. You can't find quality toys or fashionable clothing in theses stores any longer. I buy everything off EBay... It's sad, but people are tired of looking for nice leather jackets, only to find one style in XL, or pleather, for example.

Thread: A 'tsunami' of store closings expected to hit retail

So this is it? The end of Obama's utopia?

Never was one , it's all one giant lie " mean while , we fight each other "

Nope. It's just the beginning.

just make sure you own a battle rifle....

This is just the warmup before the main event.

The main event will be collapse followed by apocalypse.

Right On!