I keep hearing all about how bad things are, but I am not really ‘seeing it’ here. There is indeed a mini-boom happening.
Across for a major luxury mall lifestyle center there is another lower end luxury center being built across the street!
I have seen the video from places in California where whole strips are shuttered, but am starting to wonder if it is more to do with the demographic leaving blue states?
As a small business owner myself, I have more business than I can handle (not due to staff shortage) and going to be posting the best year in 13 years.
I saw the end of my job coming so I started up a phone where I was going to throw away the phone number after getting a new (part-time) job.
I signed up for ZipRecruiter which has done nothing but spam me endlessly, every day of the week, now along with two others with software bots pretending to be real people (recruiters, ostensibly).
Ran into a friend at the gas station a few hours ago. She’s working at a place very close - I may go part time there just to put some more money into tax withholding for the year and a small amount for me to take home. Dunno.
Not sure what I’ll be doing after the first of the year. I’ll try to ride out the snow with my SS - end of March is when it usually clears around here.
But I expected a FLOOD of offers - I have not been contacted by even ONE employer. I don’t post my full resume anymore - it was too technical and scared people off - plus I really couldn’t find work after 2008 (did do some small contract stuff in 2009). So it’s a weird situation.
I liked indoor malls; they’re efficient for the shopper. Online shopping is efficient, too, but shipping costs are creeping up.I can go either way.
Or maybe I just like the idea of malls because of nostalgia — memories of good times and a different place in my life.
I'm not totally surprised. I'm buying a lot these days - mainly consumables that are only going to go up in price since the dollar is being turned into trash. I'm buying basics like soap, toothpaste, first aid supplies, etc, but I can imagine others buying perfumes, etc.
I'm also having tons of work done on my home, because I know it's only going to cost twice as much one year from now. My house is old and can absorb a lot of work. I expect all of that, adjusted up for inflation, to come back to me when I sell the place in a couple of years.
I guess the biggest difference between today and times past is that, in the cities, you've got to be better at dodging bullets. Not here though. I've moved so far out into the country that we have to pipe in the sunshine.
What is happening is we are becoming a third world nation with a two tiered third world economy—with a deep split between the have and the have nots.
If the haves are your market you are in good shape.
If your market was the have nots you are in trouble.