Posted on 06/11/2022 7:44:50 AM PDT by FarCenter
Overstocking at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and other big retailers are the latest unexpected red flag for what’s happening in the economy.
It’s an about-face from the beginning of 2022, when things were economically pretty peachy. Too peachy, one could argue: People were buying so much stuff that our ports and terminals could barely handle the massive import volume. Companies were desperate for someone, anyone, to come work for them. And movie theaters, offices, planes and other locales many eschewed during the pandemic were poised to bounce back; ...
The vibes were good. Now, the vibes are completely terrible.
More and more spooky recession signs are cropping up seemingly every day, ranging from cooling housing starts to meek GDP growth, all amid the Fed tightening rates. Record-setting inflation – particularly for gas – is only adding to premonitions, as Vox’s Emily Stewart wrote Wednesday in a piece aptly titled “The bad vibes economy.” But even as things feel bad, many still cast doubt that we’re headed for a recession this year, pointing out persistently low unemployment and the fact that certain indicators, while not as strong as the beginning of this year, are still unusually healthy.
No one is shocked that what goes up must go down. What’s shocking us all is how quickly the situation changed.
...
Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot, Best Buy and most every other retailer are having their own mismatch of supply and demand. They stocked up too much this past year. Now they’re struggling with something called “inventory bloat.” It is even more painful than regular bloating, I imagine, if you are a shareholder in a large retail firm.
While we were buying more and more crap, seemingly without any regard for our dwindling savings, our favorite retailers were doing anything to get more product in.
(Excerpt) Read more at freightwaves.com ...
Thanks Brandon...
Amazon is now subletting space in some of their warehouses. If that’s not a giant red flag, I don’t know what is.
Lumber is collapsing.
Meanwhile, I have heard that Costco is not having the inventory bloat problem. So I’ll buy the stuff on sale at the places that do have that problem.
The truth is sitting in the back room of the retail store of your choice right now.
When times are bad, people tend to look for discount outlets.
This may be a good time to buy Dollar General stock.
I have a theory on this whole thing. I belive this whole thing is intentional and the idea was for some central planners to manage a decline.
But I think the world economy is so complex that it cannot be understood or predicted even by AI. I think some things have been done, and I don’t think they can be undone. I think an unimaginably complex system has been seriously distorted and now we’re seeing weird 3rd, 6th, 100th order effects. Tampon shortages... WTF? Oversupply? didn’t see that coming. I suspect these perturbations will build on each other, growing in amplitude until the system suddenly blows apart. Slowly at first, then fast.
Anyway, just a theory. If it’s right I suspect there is nothing we can do about it now.
I watched two contrasting youtube videos from different channels last week that were interesting. One was a trucker talking about the back room of Sam’s club. He said he’d never seen the place so stuffed to the gills. The other was regarding Costco. This guy said their inventory appeared lower than normal.
Make of it what you will.
We didn’t have to spend the thousands in stimulus checks we are currently paying for with this inflation, but when i read this article a few days ago, i have been watching certain goods like TV’s….most likely do nothing, but if they get in 50-75% discount, who knows…either way, the article is dealing hard facts
“Lumber is collapsing.”
Because it is priced at 4 times 2 years ago.
And because new home construction is dropping. (Interest rates rising)
And we are facing a recession that I believe cannot be avoided, not matter who wins in November.
If the #ComDems are defeated in November (over their election fraud), that is the path out of the recession.
The Traitors to the Nation must be identified and eliminated from anything to do with government.
The Handwriting is on the wall.
In the words of Genesis, “do you know what you have done, do you know what you’ve begun”....
We’ve got to move these refrigerators
We’ve got to move these color TVs
Yep. Completely agree. and we saw it coming. It’s why I stopped all lumber purchases, even though I’m trying to be on a building spree. The heavy work will come later, when OSB sheets are back to $7 - or even lower.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t refill my 250 gallon gas tank (for my cars and farm equipment) when I could have for $2.30 a gallon. I thought the price was a blip. At that time it would have cost $575. Now it will cost $1200. It’s still got about 50 gallons in it and I’m using it strictly to fill my zero turn mower, chain saw, log splitter and weed whacker.
They have done that forever. They also sublet their work force, fulfillment infrastructure, servers, etc. Those sublets are the profitable part of the business.
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