Barbara Ehrenreich: World’s Designated Shoppers Drop (Fall of the American Consumer)

[marmar]

World’s Designated Shoppers Drop


How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off, and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss – hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.

It could go a lot lower of course. This guy could start saving the little morsels he flosses out and boil them up to augment the children’s breakfast gruel. Already, as the recession or whatever it is closes in, people have stopped buying homes and cars and cut way back on restaurant meals. They don’t have the money; they don’t have the credit; and increasingly they’re finding that no one wants their money anyway. NPR reported on February 28 that more and more Manhattan stores are accepting Euros and at least one has gone Euros-only.

The Sharper Image has declared bankruptcy and is closing 96 U.S. stores. (To think I missed my chance to buy those headphones that treat you to forest sounds while massaging your temples!) Victoria’s Secret is so desperate that it’s adding fabric to its undergarments. Starbucks had no sooner taken time off to teach its baristas how to make coffee than it started laying them off.

While Americans search for interview outfits in consignment stores and switch from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart for sustenance, the world watches tremulously. The Australian Courier-Mail, for example, warns of an economic “pandemic” if Americans cut back any further, since we are responsible for $9 trillion a year in spending, compared to a puny $1 trillion for the one billion-strong Chinese. Yes, we have been the world’s designated shoppers, and, if we fall down on the job, we take the global economy with us.

“Shop till you drop,” was our motto, by which we didn’t mean to say we were more compassion-worthy than a woman fainting at her work station in some Honduran sweatshop. It was just our proper role in the scheme of things. Some people make stuff; other people have to buy it. And when we gave up making stuff, starting in the 1980s, we were left with the unique role of buying. Remember Bush telling us, shortly after 9/11, to get out there and shop? It may have seemed ludicrous at the time, but what he meant was get back to work. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbaras_blog/

[trotsky]

1. It's really astonishing.

I don't recall seeing anything like this in my lifetime. Discretionary spending down everywhere. This huge complex of shops & restaurants not far from where I live - used to be if you wanted to eat, you had better have a reservation because between 4:30 and 7:30pm you could FORGET about getting a table at anything fancier than Arby's. Now you can go into even the busiest eateries and get a table anytime in that range. And there will be plenty of empty tables still. Shopping is still pretty busy, but you don't see people carrying as much. They're shopping for bargains, and leaving if they don't find any.

[PA Democrat]

2. I had posted in another thread earlier this week about a trip to a local mall.

I went into Macy's and didn't see a single other shopper in the entire first floor of the store. I went upstairs and saw one other shopper. I got a parking space right in front of the store. It looked like a ghost town. I am wondering when we are going to see more and more vacancies in shopping malls because I don't see how some of these stores are going to keep their doors open.

[Donnachaidh]

3. we're seeing the vacancies here in NW Atlanta

Smaller businesses that had just fired up in strip malls are closing in just a few weeks. Housing developments (McMansions) are chopping 100K or more of their signs. I even had to do an emergency trip to Walmart at about 10pm and it was virtually empty. It used to be clammering with people at that time of night.

[PA Democrat]

4. Not seeing a jump in vacancies here yet, but WalMart just dropped its

plans to build a new Super WalMart only 5 miles from another fairly new Super WalMart. I'd rather see that happen than small businesses be forced out of business by yet another employee-exploiting WalMart.

[Donnachaidh]

9. the Walmart I went to was a new behemoth

They closed about 6 smaller stores in the surrounding area two years ago. However, they also put a strip mall on the same property, and they haven't been able to fill it entirely since it opened, had several smaller fastfood places go belly up in weeks, and even the stores that were more dug in are putting up closing sale signs.

This is in a ridiculously wealthy area. And people are NOT buying. Unless it's a Costco, or some other bulk supplier. And they are stocking up on essentials only. :shrug:

[distantearlywarning]

6. I had that experience earlier this year.

I went to the After-Christmas sale at Macy's expecting to have to fight crowds. Instead, there were 5 people in the store including me. Literally, there were more employees than customers on the floor during the entire time I was there. It was like a ghost town. I was actually a little freaked out and worried.

[Echo In Light]

5. There are two malls in our broader area: one has been Dawn of The Dead for many yrs now

[devilgrrl]

7. I personally haven't been buying anything because I already have too much stuff

I'm wondering if part of the "slow down" is due to over saturation. My family members also have too much stuff and don't want anymore. This past Christmas, I gave gifts of food made by a friend of mine who is a Chef. At least I know where my money went.

:shrug:

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

8. boy, the republicans policies of outsourcing good family wage jobs,

while having a labor department that brags about forcing wages down here in the USA and embracing national policies that cause the price of gas to skyrocket are sure coming home to roost.