We went to town yesterday in a rare back to back Tuesday excursion after me having been self isolated here on the farm for about two months. What I saw furthers what I have seen every day in the last two months, much less traffic on the road and then hardly anyone eating at the restaurants we usually find crowded even in the post lunch time frame. Many restaurants had exactly ZERO cars in the parking lot.
What I also saw:
Baring shelves in the grocery store, some items simply gone and the shelves blanked off, chicken and beef in particular.
Bread up about 35% in two months. Ditto for cereal stuff.
Fresh produce still in relative abundance. Interesting.
The section of consumer goods is piled high with stuff, it has always been useless junk to me but it once sold and now it looks like it doesn’t so much.
Truck traffic seems to be slowing but the freight statistics will show that if they are honest. I still see lots of FEDEX, Hobby Lobby and Walmart trucks thought.
People buying less. This is confirmed by the sales tax collection numbers posted by the state. Even with inflation collections and sales are down about 10%.
It looks like things are grinding down to me. I sat on the front porch yesterday evening and listened to the quiet punctuated from time-to-time by the sound of a distant car growing louder, passing and the sound fading into the distance. That has not happened in the 6 years since I retired and returned to the farm from Houston since there has usually been a drone of cars day and night in a steady parade.
Wal-Mart.
Monopoly
over 75 million people have been thrown into poverty..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4074825/posts
The true number of unemployed is the 99.3 million not in the labor force plus the 5.95 million recorded as unemployed or 105.25 million. This represents 40% of the civilian population of working age ..
ht to Soul of the South.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4074261/posts?page=3#3
You wouldn’t notice based on the vehicles and traffic in and around H-town. Lots of trucks on the road and businesses around here are booming for the most part
Grocery shopping the other day, had meat in the freezer so I didn’t buy any, and the cashier commented as she rang me up, “no meat…again.” I asked her about it, she said nobody’s buying. Apparently the high cost is really denting sales.
I've seen some of that in Florida recently - not as many cars as usual. Feels strange.