Posted on 06/11/2014 6:47:47 AM PDT by dennisw
Malls accessible by public transportation are the ones most in trouble.
Excellent points.
With the population aging, older folks don’t spend zip, as most have no money to spend anyway.
For some years now, we have spent as little as possible and fix nearly everything ourselves....We have made a fun hobby of spending as little as possible.
We are not alone.
Watching the future tax revenues plummet for the corrupt running government will also be enjoyable as they will eventually turn on each other, questioning why some government departments continue to get lottery style benefits and paychecks, while others are cast out like garbage.
A hard wind is gunna blow...
Bet the rent.
I fix stuff every day or at least a few times a week. Solved an automobile problem the other day. I like doing all that. Holy cow! Cheapskate?
Got me an almost new Ryobi circular saw for 12$ at garage sale last Saturday that is much safer for certain tasks than my 38 year old Black and Decker I am keeping for other uses. The Ryobi even has a laser guiding light which I did not know until I used it. The blade is new and cuts through wood like butter
Fun stuff. Good tools, even old tool are keepers and can save big bucks all the time. Learning how to fix stuff, using the right techniques, find ways to troubleshoot etc is great.
I am now fixing my own electronics, learned how to identify, test and replace bad components etc. The key on things like this is to learn, read/research and go for it. I even fixed a non-operational control panel of an equatorial mounted computerize telescope not long ago. Not to mention a HF (high frequency) solid state amplifier. I have no formal training here.
That is way ahead of what I do. You are getting smarter while our public schools are turning out dumber students.
The internet helps a lot with u_fix_it. YouTube can also be helpful
I have not moved on this yet. I have a computer power supply I am going to try and fix. It has some blown melted capacitors. So I figure rob same rating capacitors from some junk power supplies and replace them.
Caps when blown are cheap to replace and easily ID’d. I just bought one for .40 cents.
Just make sure if they are polarized and will have a tiny - or + on them and solder them in accordingly after removing the old ones. Great solder instruction is all over the net. Pencil tips irons are cheap.
Interesting post.
Are you a subscriber of his seminars / newsletter?
I don't think Amazon's prices are what they used to be. I bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner that was marked $489 from Amazon (on sale from $499). Best Buy had the same vacuum with the price hidden (one of those "place item in cart to see price" deals) for $449. I think they do this so that Amazon can't match them.
Anyways, like you I try to buy in-store when I can. I'm tired of seeing empty storefronts. It's depressing. So I went to my local BB, where I make most of my major electronic purchases, and the same vacuum was marked $489 but the salesman said he'd price-match BB's website. Turned out he didn't need to. The scanned price was $449.
Best Buy is really trying hard these days to stop being Amazon's showroom.
I'm still an Amazon Prime member (for the TV services) and spend a lot of money through Amazon, usually buying small, cheap stuff I don't need right away to take advantage of the free shipping.
I do not subscribe to his investing methods. I read his essays which investors and others comment on
People think on-line is easier because they don’t have to get off their butts. Some retail store should do an ad:
shows user shopping on line/add to cart
continue shopping or checkout/check out
fill out customer info/credit card info
choose shipping (free with $79 card/expensive express/or
free in 5 to 7 business days.
Then wait.
or
pick out item
check out/swipe card/leave with purchase.
I’ve been to malls from time to time but it’s been decades since I actually spent money in one.
Except for one time: I decided to go to the “black friday” thing with my wife and daughter and her friends at Southcenter Mall in Tukwilla WA about 10 years ago. WE got there at 4:00 a.m. and I believe they opened the doors at five.
My wife and I just watched and it was quite a thing to watch. People bustling over free CRAP and sales on low quality and very limited stuff. But the reason I bring this up is that it was a huge crowd and everyone got a ticket for the big door prize - a $100 gift card for the mall.
I won.
I spent it all at Victoria’s Secret and that was the end of my expenditures at the mall.
Free trade built America. Don’t you know anything about our history?
Thanks for the advice and inspiration. I don’t know much about electronics. But in a monkey see monkey do kind of way I know enough to try and replace (solder) a capacitor oozing out white stuff////////
Protectionism built America. Consult your history books. We were very protectionist until 1913 when the Federal Reserve was established and the Federal income tax was instituted. Connect the dots. You are libertarian with your free trade slant so you must at least be very suspect of The Fed Resreve and the Income tax coming in at the same time.
When tariffs got diminished we needed an Income Tax to provide revenues for the Federal Govt, Historically the Federal Government ran on income from tariffs and to a lesser extent alcohol and tobacco taxes
Yes.
See: Protectionism in the United States
You are the type of person that inspired my tagline.
How about the effects of British protectionism as a major cause of the Revolution? If mercantilism is so successful why did the British abandon it (Corn Laws, etc.) and become the most powerful nation on earth for the next century?
Keep in mind that a Wikipedia article isn’t the last word on American economic history. The tariffs made things harder on America and American industry, not easier. We had massive immigration and an incredible transfer of wealth and capital as Americans conquered the West. This alone offset the damage tariffs did.
Remember that America itself was created to be a giant free trade zone. In ignoring the effects of tariffs on the south, the north stunted the growth of the south and concentrated power in the hands of slave holders via its tariff policies. That power would have been disbursed among manufacturers and perhaps avoided the Civil War and allowed America to drive slavery out peacefully, just as the economically advanced British did.
Worse, tariffs essentially gave us the Income Tax. Taft traded the Dems the 16th Amendment (did it really pass Constitutional muster?) for the Payne-Aldrich tariff. Imagine the benefits of a tariff between you and your favorite grocer. Who gains and who loses?
Toss in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff plan and you’ve got a collapse in free trade that helped usher in the Nazis and Hitler. You have to take in the whole history, FRiend.
For your edification:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3166241/posts?page=76#76
Also for your edification, I am not a libertarian.
Yah but you missed some steps... :-) 1. Call stores that might have product you need.
2. Drive to store (find babysitter if needed, or get kids ready, or get gas in car, or get dressed!
3. Hope store has product you need.
4. Fight off sales clerks. Or try to find sales clerk to help you.
5. Find item...hope that when you called that what is actually on shelf showed up in computer.
6. Stand in line at checkout.
7. Put up with rude cashier.
8. Pay.
9. Drive home, pick up kids, et.c etc.
There are two sets of numbers reported.
The first appears to be seasonal for the first quarter. Declines are < 2%
The second figures are double digit, some very large double digit. Those are the problematic companies. If they can’t resume a normal level they are infact in bad shape.
Like Risk where you gain resources as enemies are vanquished, those with <2% decline will gain sales as the weaklings die.
It is positively Darwinian...... the most fit survive. Those unfit die off
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