If I were visiting America from another country, I would cry foul on all the newspaper headlines about America's current economic situation. The images I would conjure up are black-and-white pictures of long unemployment lines, parents stealing bread to stay alive - a la Les Miserables, people tightening their proverbial belt buckels and pulling their money out of banks.
But these images are nowhere to be found. I visited two malls this past weekend (Raleigh-Durham has a lot of shopping centers), only to find them bustling with people, their arms laden with shopping bags, taking advantage of all the Columbus Day weekend sales. I went to Charlotte to see David Sedaris this weekend, only to find the hotel - and concert - sold out, ticket-holders sipping their $8 glasses of wine in the lobby. The restaurants are packed - we had to go to four different restaurants before we found one that could seat us immediately.
Where is this economic meltdown we've heard so much about?
Maybe people are drowning their sorrows in restaurant-prepared meals and retail therapy. Maybe employers haven't felt the tremors of the crisis and have yet to cut their balance, and employee, sheets. Maybe this part of the country has somehow gained immunity. I'm just completely surprised by the reaction.
If I was visiting from another country and never read a newspaper, I would have no idea of the chaos that is going on. After all, even my currency would be weaker against the dollar than it was a month ago.
4 comments:
Don't know if you watch Fox or not, but Neil Cavuto ran a great feature a few weeks ago called "Fact versus Fear" and he addressed the same observations you made in this post.
His biggest "fact" is that during the great depression, people waited in line for 3 hours for a $0.25 loaf of bread. Nowadays, people wait in line 6 hours for a $300 iPod.
It's true. Maybe it's an SES thing, but most people I know haven't made any changes in their lives due to this economic crisis.
I don't watch Fox News (or any other news show, for that matter), but this is so true! But I wonder if it is a SES thing or if we have gotten our priorities mixed up over the decades.
It's also possible that the folks you saw with all those bags are still in denial and are just shopping until their credit card company reduces their limit. I don't think that people can stop on a dime and change their spending habits overnight. My wife and I were in a Raleigh mall this past weekend and saw lots of people without bags, just wandering. I will say that my family is upper middle class with no car loans and no credit debt but we have become much more conservative over the past few months. We always were cheap; now we're just cheaper.
I have noticed the same thing at Southpoint Mall in Durham in particular - I think it may some bargain shoppers getting deals on Christmas gifts - my wife got awesome deals on work shirts for me that were well over 50% off.
By the way, the Apple store has a line everyday, even when the mall is slow. People have a lot more trouble cutting back than we think. To that end, I agree with Bluedog that they may be in denial.
I am glad I was not the only one saying "what credit crisis" - I still get the credit card offers daily in the mail. THe media always tends to exaggerate a bit anyway.
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